Hi guys, David and David here from payetteforward.com, and in this video we're going to explain what
to do when your iPhone says searching.
Now, when a lot of people notice that their iPhone says searching, they either head right
to the Apple Store or their cell phone carrier and ask to get it fixed.
But before you do that, a lot of the time this problem can be resolved with just a few
simple software troubleshooting steps.
So that's what we're going to show you how to do first.
And the first one of those steps is just to restart your iPhone.
Right.
Let's turn it off and back on.
So, I'm the one who's supposed to show them how to do that.
Yeah, sure.
To turn your iPhone off and back on... it's different on an iPhone X. You have to hold
down the side button and the volume down button together until slide to power off appears
on the screen.
On the other model iPhones, power button.
Press and hold the power button, slide to power off appears, and slide it across.
So you turned your iPhone off and back on and it still says searching. The next step
is to check for a Carrier Settings Update.
So let's just go ahead and do that.
So we're just going to open the Settings app, tap General, tap About, and wait here for
about 10 to 15 seconds.
If a Carrier Settings Update is available, you'll see a pop-up appear that will say,
"Carrier Settings update available".
Tap update.
Definitely.
If you're waiting here for 10 to 15 seconds and no pop-up appears, that means that your
Carrier Settings are up-to-date — nothing you can do.
Yep.
So it's saying searching because it can't connect to the cell phone network.
Appropriately, the Carrier Settings Update is designed to fix those types of problems.
Yeah.
So no Carrier Settings update is available, we're going to eject and then reinsert your
SIM card.
What's a SIM card?
Use one of these fancy SIM card ejector tools or a paperclip.
Paperclip, yep!
Just take a paperclip and oh, you're the expert, you got it.
So in the side of your iPhone, there's a little hole here.
Stick in the SIM card tool and apply pressure, until it... And your iPhone will say, if you
pop it out, it will say "No SIM card installed".
Don't be worried about that.
So this is your SIM card.
Beautiful.
People think like, "Hey, are my contacts on my SIM card?"
No, it's just your phone number.
All right.
And then you can just put it back in.
A lot of the times if this thing just gets unseated — unseated, OK, then this will
fix the problem.
The warning will go away. Hopefully, your iPhone will just not say searching anymore.
Yeah, hopefully that will fix the problem.
If it doesn't, we still have one more step and that is to Reset Network Settings on your
iPhone.
Right.
So this is going to clear out all your Wi-Fi passwords, your VPN data if you have that
set up, yeah, cellular data and Bluetooth.
Right.
Devices.
So, make sure you have your Wi-Fi password written down before you do this, but it does
solve a lot of these types of problems.
Yep.
So once again, we'll open the Settings app, tap General, scroll all the way down, and
tap reset tap Reset Network Settings.
If you have an iPhone passcode, you'll have to enter that here and then tap Reset Network
Settings when the confirmation alert appears.
Your iPhone will turn off, the reset will be performed, it'll turn back on, and hopefully
that will fix the problem.
So at this point, we really do have to call your wireless carrier because your iPhone
can't connect for whatever reason.
It could be a hardware problem in that maybe you dropped your iPhone, or smashed it, or
did something like dropped it in the pool, and the actual antenna could be damaged.
If your iPhone is damaged, go to the Apple Store, because if you go to your cell phone
carrier, they'll just say, "You gotta go to the Apple Store".
So go to the Apple Store first, and in terms of repair options, well, you have the Apple
Store as you just mentioned.
Also, Puls, a third-party repair company, will send a tech to you fix your iPhone on
the spot.
Right.
And that's a good option for a lot of people too.
So if you go to the Apple Store, they'll fix your phone.
But also, there are other reasons. You should call your carrier though, because if you haven't
paid your bill or there's some sort of an issue there, or maybe something else has happened.
Maybe their cell tower got hit by lightning.
Hit by lightning... happens all the time.
So that is what to do when your iPhone says searching.
Thank you guys for watching this video.
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