Modem died on iPhone 14 Pro Max after updating to 18.6.2

hi all, being a little upset (to put it mildly) just wanted to share my vexing story. I've been using apple products since 2010 starting with iPhone 4. Since then I only had one breakdown - my iPhone 6 max partially lost wifi reception back in 2016, it was disappointing but I just swapped it to an iPhone 7 max and considered it a bad luck. Since then I had lots of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks etc.. Of course as everybody else I felt increasingly annoyed by iOS getting more and more odd bugs starting with iOS 17. This led to running my main iPhone 14 Pro Max on 16.7.2 as I was waiting for getting a more stable iOS 17 and watching reviews. Then iOS 18 came out and I started to wait for a stable iOS 18. For those 3 past years since 2022 my phone was running brilliantly and never let me down until this morning when I saw a review that 18.6.2 is finally almost perfect, so I decided to finally update my phone and get some new experience. and I surely got it. My phone got updated just fine but lost connection to the cellular network. I rebooted but still got "no service". my other esim plan did not activate either and was unclickable. So I rebooted, kept swapping SIM cards but to no avail. Finally I did the final "nuclear" thing - full restore from a recovery mode using my MacBook. I got a new clean phone but the cellular module is still not working. Plus the button "add new esim" disappeared either. I tried using other SIM cards of different providers, tried swapping region and nothing helped. Looks like upgrading from iOS 16 straight to iOS 18.6.2 just killed the modem. I don't believe in such coincidences... Should I look at this as an impetus for getting a new iPhone?.. I don't know. I brought it to the repair shop and now waiting for the verdict... Why is everything like that????

iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 14, 2025 10:56 AM

Reply
3 replies

Sep 14, 2025 12:05 PM in response to tremor_real

tremor_real wrote:

hi all, being a little upset (to put it mildly) just wanted to share my vexing story. I've been using apple products since 2010 starting with iPhone 4. Since then I only had one breakdown - my iPhone 6 max partially lost wifi reception back in 2016, it was disappointing but I just swapped it to an iPhone 7 max and considered it a bad luck. Since then I had lots of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks etc.. Of course as everybody else I felt increasingly annoyed by iOS getting more and more odd bugs starting with iOS 17. This led to running my main iPhone 14 Pro Max on 16.7.2 as I was waiting for getting a more stable iOS 17 and watching reviews. Then iOS 18 came out and I started to wait for a stable iOS 18. For those 3 past years since 2022 my phone was running brilliantly and never let me down until this morning when I saw a review that 18.6.2 is finally almost perfect, so I decided to finally update my phone and get some new experience. and I surely got it. My phone got updated just fine but lost connection to the cellular network. I rebooted but still got "no service". my other esim plan did not activate either and was unclickable. So I rebooted, kept swapping SIM cards but to no avail. Finally I did the final "nuclear" thing - full restore from a recovery mode using my MacBook. I got a new clean phone but the cellular module is still not working. Plus the button "add new esim" disappeared either. I tried using other SIM cards of different providers, tried swapping region and nothing helped. Looks like upgrading from iOS 16 straight to iOS 18.6.2 just killed the modem. I don't believe in such coincidences... Should I look at this as an impetus for getting a new iPhone?.. I don't know. I brought it to the repair shop and now waiting for the verdict... Why is everything like that????

Apple doesn't supply cellular service.

You pay your phone carrier a monthly fee to use cellular data.

What did your phone carrier say when you reported the issue to them?

Sep 14, 2025 02:37 PM in response to razmee209

Looks like you did not get the point. It has nothing to do with the service provider as the physical sim works fine in my old phone. The LTE modem of my iPhone 14 Pro Max just stopped working completely after the SW update. I cannot add any plan, the button "add eSim" has disappeared. And if I insert any other physical sim into the slot it says "no service", followed by "no sim". Needless to say that all these SIM cards that I tried are working fine in other phones which I thanks god got plenty... But it's still does not help my issue.

Modem died on iPhone 14 Pro Max after updating to 18.6.2

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.