iPhone shows full bars but wont load anything. This has been happening for years… PLEASE HELP!

Link doesn't work. Which model of iPhone do you have and which iOS are you running? You said you reset your phone. Was that just a hard reset or did your Reset Network Settings?

This is a customer to customer forum only. It is not AT&T Support so no one here has any access to any customer data. If ATTHelp reads your post they may send you a DM and you can discuss it with them.

I currently have the IPhone 13 Pro. IOS 16.3.1. When this first started happening I had the iPhone x. So I have basically ruled out the phone being the issue since it has happened on both the iPhone x and iPhone 13 Pro. That is, unless it has something to do with apple products on the att network…. But I doubt it because my whole family has iPhones and on the exact same plan as myself, and they have not experienced this issue.

I have done all the resets; hard reset, network reset, etc. Generally, when this problem occurs, I try a hard reset. I have done the hard reset tons of times. The network reset I do less frequently, but have also done it many times.

Thanks for the info. I didnt know it was only customer to customer. In the past, ATTHelp has responded, so I just kind of assumed they would get notified. I’ll keep a watch out for them to respond. I hope they do, as they have in the past with this same issue. I am so fed up with it and I am ready to get this figured out. Thanks for your response!

I just realized the thread has been marked as “private”. I remember now that ATTHelp changed it to private for some reason. That is probably why the link does not work for anyone else. If necessary, I can copy/paste the convo to this thread.

There are other reports coming in with similar issues. It may in fact be a network issue is different service areas that AT&T just not aware of yet. Or there aren't enough complaints yet to hit the tipping point where AT&T's IT/Networking departments get involved.

FWIW, we have quite a few iPhone of various models in our family and no one has the issues you are describing. My iPhone 12 is running iOS 16.3.1 with no issues.

As I mentioned to someone else, if Apple has determined that there are no hardware/software issues with your iPhone, you've Reset Network Settings and the problem still persists, I'd file a complaint with the BBB. That will go to Corporate and someone from the Office of the President will contact you. They MAY be able to help or have an idea.

When it comes to a device's inability to load apps you open, JonnyCakes, that's something we want to look into especially if this trend has been going on for as long as it has.

Let's meet in a Direct Message (DM) to see if we can't provide a solution to your current experience with our network. Please check your Direct Message Inbox for a message being sent to you. Look for the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right corner of the Forums page.

You've certainly taken all the right steps to try to get this resolved. We'll just need to take a closer look to see what could be going on with your line so that we can reach a definite resolution for you.

Lar, AT&T Community Specialist

I have this same issue. Has this been resolved?

Not for me. I am still having issues with it. However, it is kind of hard to pinpoint what could be causing it. It almost seems like during peak times (example, around 5:00 PM while everyone is commuting back home after work, which is one of the times I notice the issue) rather than ATT “slowing” the service, it seems that my phone is completely cut off from service. Although it still will show I have full bars, or close to. As I have mentioned before, after setting the phone up as a “new device”, and installing all the apps manually, it seems to function better for a few weeks. But slowly will start having issues again. 

Yesterday it was happening around 5:10 PM on my way home from work. I noticed it shortly after leaving work. So I turned off WiFi, thinking maybe it was having a  hard time switching from WiFi to cellular. Closed all apps. Power cycled phone. Did a hard reset. Nothing seemed to work. This lasted about 30 minutes where I was unable to get any page on safari to load, GPS would not load, any apps that use cellular data would not load, etc. Very frustrating. And yes, I was doing this while driving, but mostly while stopped at stop lights. I am stuck… I dont know what else to do. I have even considered getting a secondary phone from a different carrier in order to test and see if another carrier has the same issue. 

I was having this same issue. Tried all the above and nothing worked. Eventually I figured out that it was a VPN running in the background causing the issue. Delete any VPNs from your phone and see if that works 

Thanks for the advice. Turning off and deleting all VPN’s has not made a difference.

i am still having this issue nearly every day. I am totally lost on what to do next.

@JonnyCakes 

Since this issue seems to be happening around commuting time at 5:00 in the afternoon, that indicates to me that it is congestion.   

Congestion will affect every phone connected to the same tower. It will affect phones on lower priority plans, or phones that have used up all of their priority data first.

Even if you are on the premium plan, congestion still happens.  

Think of congestion as traffic on the highway. At 5:00 p.m. everyone gets on the highway and it doesn't matter whether you're driving an old Ford or a brand new Lamborghini, the highway is just as congested for both