Thousands of Apple iPhone owners are reporting problems with the newest iOS updates, released just before the end of the year.
Among them, Regina Horton, who says she can no longer make calls.
"You can see it just says 'searching' up at the top," she said. "That means I have no cellular service, and that my phone couldn't make calls."
It all happened when she upgraded her older iPhone 5S, which last year had a new battery recently installed, to Apple's newest operating system, iOS 12.1.1, released to the public December 5, 2018 (after several months in Beta).
This former high school technology teacher, who has worked with smartphones since they were first released, tried to manually download the update on WiFi.
"Everything was fine," she said. "It looked like everything was going through, and in the process it aborted."
Now it only works on WiFi, which means all calls over her AT&T network fail. "When I try to call, it just goes back to the caller listing," Horton said.
But its not just owners of older iPhones having problems. Some people with newer phones like 7s and 8s are reporting data issues, as well, according to Forbes Magazine and tech blogs.
Horton called AT&T, where she said an agent was very sympathetic, but was unable to find any issues with her cellular service connection.
So she then went to a "UBreakIFix" franchised phone repair shop, where she says their techs tried everything but, "they were unable to fix it, saying it was a software problem and I would have to contact Apple."
Multiple issues with various iPhones
The tech site Gotta be Mobile.com says it is hearing about many update issues with 12.1.1 (and the even newer 12.1.2) including:
Abnormal battery or data drain. Problems with Touch ID.Cellular network connectivity issues.
Forbes calls Horton's problem a "nasty surprise" for a growing number of iPhone owners. Worse, it says Apple has not yet released any fix for people who are having issues connecting to their network.
In addition, Forbes Magazine says the late December fix for 12.1.1, which is 12.1.2, may be causing even more cellular data problems, and Forbes recommends that you do not update to 12.1.2.
So what can you do?
If you have connectivity or other problems, connect your phone to a computer with iTunes, and look for the "restore" feature in iTunes to roll back to an older version. CLICK HERE to learn more.
You cannot simply roll back to an older iOS through your phone itself.
Meantime, Forbes magazine suggests holding off on the upgrade if you have older phone, until Apple gets all the bugs out.
That way you don't waste your money.
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