Chosen Solution
Hi all! I just got a phone in today and it kept saying “searching” and not being able to get any cellular signal. It does see that I put in a sim card, I can unlock the sim card with the sim pin and then it just says Searching. I’ve tried all the normal fixes including resetting the phone entirely “as a new phone” I openend up the phone, replaced the antenna, turned it on while the screen was open. Was able to get signal and perform a test call. Closed the phone and then it just says searching again. I then opened the phone up again to test and then it doesn’t work again. Do you have any ideas what might cause this? I can’t see any water damage in the phone, even though the water damage markers has turned red. Several weeks ago I replaced the screen with a iFixit screen and everything worked up untill yesterday. Best Regards Kristian
After you have eliminated antennae or network locks as the possible culprit, searching issues on the iPhone 6 are usually related to the baseband IC. The baseband IC is very sensitive, just like the Touch IC’s on the 6 Plus; it also suffers from poor quality traces and pads. Go to your phone’s dialing keypad and dial *#06#. You should see the IMEI displayed. If the IMEI is not displayed, the Baseband IC has to be reballed and two small copper traces (U1/V1) have to be rebuilt and solidified. This is commonly referred to as the “long jumper” solution. You can check out this answer (Service is “Searching” indefinitely) (by @teetopp) as it summarizes the issue really well.
