Ever since the MMS update... (iPhone 3G now slightly retarded?)

[Sonny O.]

Hi guys. First time posting, just looking for a bit of info and I haven't seen anyone else ask about the symptoms I'm experiencing with my phone, so here goes.

I have a 16GB iPhone 3G which is not jailbroken or modified in any way. It worked absolutely fine, but after the MMS update a few weeks ago, I've noticed it's acting funny.

It's lagging, but not the actual software. It's more of an Internet issue. Web apps time out every time, usually just on the first time, and then after trying to refresh them a second time, they load (or sometimes crash). Safari often refuses to load sites, but about half the time, I can refresh and it will load, and the other half of the time, I just have to restart Safari.

With my email, it seems like when an email appears on my home screen, and I tap my inbox, it takes forever to load (usually requiring a second try). Sending emails is touchy at best. If I try and email photos to my Flickr account, for example, I'll either get a prompt saying I have no Internet connection, or lately, the outgoing email will go in the 'sent' folder as normal, but the actual emails won't show up for hours and hours (sometimes showing up a day later).

Sending and receiving text messages is totally normal. No delays there. Also (while this used to not be necessary) I've been restarting my phone way more, hoping it would help. At first it seemed to, but now, restarts don't really do anything.

I tried resetting network settings, but it didn't help. Eventually, I restored the phone, but that didn't help either. I thought it did at first, but it didn't.

What's even more frustrating is that I have full bars at all times. I've had Cingular/AT&T for about eight years and I've never had any complaints or issues. I get a 3G signal almost everywhere. I did try turning off 3G and running EDGE for a while, but the only difference I noticed is that after the first failure, it's just slower to load when it finally chooses to do so. And I can grab a WiFi signal at my apartment, but I haven't experimented with WiFi enough to see if it's an improvement.

Does anyone have any ideas? I live on the MS Gulf Coast so popping over to the Apple store isn't an option, and I'll probably place a couple calls to Apple/AT&T next week. I figure they'll probably spend half the time telling me to do things I've already tried, and the other half blaming each other.

I'd like to have a phone that does what I ask, when I ask. This one used to, but lately, it's kind of a vegetable.

Thanks in advance!

[BrownGem]

When you performed the restore..did you restore from backup or restore as new device?

[Eragon]

Welcome to EIC. Great description of your situation. Sounds like you've addressed the actions you can handle yourself. I don't think the issue is on your end. Have you tested your device on WiFi?

The signal bars are not a good guarantee of service. Five signal bars usually refer to a signal strength of around -85 dbm. Zero signal bars should correspond to a strength of around -110 dbm. I've seen my device have 5 signal bars and show a signal strength of -110 dbm.

If WiFi works, your hardware is probably OK. Try moving around your local area, trying to get closer to towers or cell sites. See if you have the same response. If so, confirm with AT&T that there isn't an outage in your area. Don't let AT&T CSRs goad you into talking to the Apple Rep. AT&T CSRs have a tendency to pass the buck.

To see what your signal strength is, type the following in your phone dialer:

*3001#12345#*

Here is a link with some more info:

http://www.macworld.com/article/141405/2009/06/iphone3gs_signalstrength.html

[Sonny O.]

When you performed the restore..did you restore from backup or restore as new device?

It was one of those things where I woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, and decided to try and restore it, so if I remember correctly, it asked me if I wanted to save a back-up before the restore. I don't remember ever saving a back-up prior to that, unless it's something that's done automatically.

Also (and this really pushed me over the edge), when I tried to restore the back-up, it was quite a lot different than it probably should have been... only half of my apps were replaced, and they were completely out of order.

Maybe an error on my part? I don't think I did anything wrong though.

[Sonny O.]

Welcome to EIC. Great description of your situation. Sounds like you've addressed the actions you can handle yourself. I don't think the issue is on your end. Have you tested your device on WiFi?

The signal bars are not a good guarantee of service. Five signal bars usually refer to a signal strength of around -85 dbm. Zero signal bars should correspond to a strength of around -110 dbm. I've seen my device have 5 signal bars and show a signal strength of -110 dbm.

If WiFi works, your hardware is probably OK. Try moving around your local area, trying to get closer to towers or cell sites. See if you have the same response. If so, confirm with AT&T that there isn't an outage in your area. Don't let AT&T CSRs goad you into talking to the Apple Rep. AT&T CSRs have a tendency to pass the buck.

To see what your signal strength is, type the following in your phone dialer:

*3001#12345#*

Here is a link with some more info:

http://www.macworld.com/article/141405/2009/06/iphone3gs_signalstrength.html

Hey, thanks so much for the info.

Yeah, I actually just hung up with a friend who lives nearby, and his iPhone 3GS is giving him the same problems, which leads me to believe that it's an issue with AT&T.

I did what you suggested and my signal strength seems to teeter between -89/-95. Hmm.

[BrownGem]

You did nothing wrong. Backups are saved as part of the sync process. If you decide to do the restore again I would restore as new device. It is a pain to set everything up again. You will lose app content such as calendar appointments, game totals, sms messages. Make sure your contacts are backed up to another program such as windows address book, yahoo, outlook or such or you will lose them. Do check with ATT first to be sure it is not on their end. I would wait a bit to see if someone else comes up with a solution before doing the restore.

[Sonny O.]

You did nothing wrong. Backups are saved as part of the sync process. If you decide to do the restore again I would restore as new device. It is a pain to set everything up again. You will lose app content such as calendar appointments, game totals, sms messages. Make sure your contacts are backed up to another program such as windows address book, yahoo, outlook or such or you will lose them. Do check with ATT first to be sure it is not on their end. I would wait a bit to see if someone else comes up with a solution before doing the restore.

That's good to know then. I'll give AT&T a visit on Tuesday and see what they say, and then decide where to go from there. It's definitely looking like it's got more to do with them than with Apple.

[Krunk83]

Don't go to the AT&T store until you restore to a new phone. When restoring it will ask you if you want to restore from back up. When that happens uncheck back up and check new phone and then sync everything back onto your phone, contacts, music, apps, photos, etc. Then determine if you need to take it in based off of that.

If it doesn't work then you can always restore to your back up at anytime. The AT&T and Apple guys will just tell you to do the exact same thing so don't waste your time unless you do it and your phone is still not working properly.