How to get your iPhone out of SOS mode after the T-Mobile and Verizon service outages

A couple of days back, Verizon suffered a massive nationwide service outage. Shortly after that, T-Mobile went down as well, though the un-carrier’s service disruption was at a much smaller scale.

While both Verizon and T-Mobile are now saying that service has been completely restored, some of you may still be experiencing issues with cellular coverage on your iPhone. When an iPhone loses service, it switches over to “SOS only” mode, where you can make emergency calls using other networks, but can’t do much else.

Usually, your iPhone will automatically reconnect to your network once service has been restored, and SOS mode gets disabled. However, sometimes a phone is unable to do this for a myriad of reasons, and may require the user to get a bit more involved to help things get back to normal.

If your iPhone 16 — or iPhone 15 and prior — is currently stuck in SOS mode, you can take a few steps to try to restore service. Let’s go over them.

Turn Airplane Mode on and off

One of the easiest ways to restore service on an iPhone stuck in SOS only mode is to turn on Airplane Mode for around 15 seconds, and then turn it back off again.Airplane Mode can be enabled from your phone’s control panel, which you can access by swiping down from the top of the screen. Here you also find the buttons to enable or disable Wi-Fi, turn on Bluetooth, or silence notifications.

Airplane Mode will disable your Wi-Fi — don’t panic, that’s supposed to happen — until you turn it off again 15 seconds later. This should, hopefully, help your iPhone reconnect to your network again.

Restarting your iPhone

So you played around with Airplane Mode, but your iPhone is still stuck in SOS only mode, what do you do? If Airplane Mode doesn’t work, then the next method you can use is to restart your iPhone.

The simplest way to do so — yes, there are multiple ways to restart an iPhone — is to hold down the power button and one of the volume keys. A slider will appear, prompting you to swipe it to the right to shut off the device. Once your iPhone has completely powered down, simply hold the power button until the Apple logo appears on the screen, your phone is now turning back on.

After your iPhone has booted up, your cellular service should be working again. Normally, if Airplane Mode doesn’t work, then restarting your iPhone does. But if even this hasn’t solved your problem, you can do one other thing.

Check your SIM card

On the iPhone 13 and any models that came before it, you could use a physical SIM card instead of the eSIMs of today. If your iPhone is from a generation that supported physical SIM cards, you might want to check your SIM for any problems. While not strictly necessary, you can power off your iPhone before ejecting your SIM card for an additional layer of security.First, you’ll need to locate the hole in the SIM tray, where you’ll insert the SIM ejector tool. If you don’t have it handy, a paper clip or something durable of similar thickness will suffice. Insert the ejector tool into the hole in the SIM tray, and then push — not too hard, but not too lightly either — until the SIM tray pops out.

Remove the tray, take out the SIM card, and look for any physical damage. If it’s damaged, you’ll have to contact your carrier for a new SIM. In case there is no damage present on the SIM card, lightly wipe it clean with a microfiber cloth, and then insert it back into the tray. Push the tray back inside the iPhone until it clicks into place, and then power on the phone if it was shut down prior.

If even this doesn’t work, then you’ll likely need to contact your carrier’s customer support.

It’s a waiting game

Unfortunately, if the aforementioned steps haven’t gotten your iPhone out of SOS only mode, you’ll need to contact your carrier. In most cases, there will be a problem with cellular service in your area, and customer support will tell you to sit tight and wait.

Sometimes, however, it might be your iPhone that’s messing up. If your carrier insists that service is fine, you should then contact Apple’s customer service representatives. Usually, it is the carrier that’s at fault, and simply waiting for a while longer means that your service is restored eventually.

Differentiating between SOS only mode, and no service

One thing worth keeping in mind is that there are two different modes where your iPhone can lack cellular service. One is SOS only mode, which we’ve been talking about, but the other is a “No Service” mode.If, instead of saying SOS, your phone instead says “No Service” or “Searching”, then that means that there are no cellular services available in your area. In this case, all you can really do is move to some place that does have coverage. This problem only really presents itself in areas far away from any population centers.

If you have a newer iPhone that is capable of satellite connectivity, you’ll be able to send messages to contacts and emergency services, and even share your location. Though, if you are in such an area, you should probably be getting out as soon as possible anyway. Unless you’re cozily nestled in a warm log cabin or are out camping with friends.

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