Sim card not recognizing

codyalan

Senior Member
May 2, 2015
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Milwaukee WI
Got a tough one. Ever since last Wednesday my SIM card hasn't been recognizing like it should be. It will randomly stop working and not work again untill I flash a new rom/backup/stock. I've tried clearing the cache... Nothing. When I go into *#*#4636#*#*, if I turn of radio power, it will recognize my phone number after about 10 seconds. Also, It says that APN settings are not available for this user under APN settings... Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 

mn1968

Senior Member
Nov 7, 2011
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I have seen many posts about the sim card error, and have now experienced it myself. I have a USC XT1768 (on AT&T), running RR for about the last 4 months. Everything has worked perfectly until 3 nights ago when, suddenly, for no reason I had no service & saw there was "no sim" recognized. A Google search led me to switch to 3G and turn on airplane mode and reboot. After rebooting, I turned off airplane mode and service was restored. However, I am forced to use only 3G. After multiple "tests" switching back to 4G LTE, I always lose service. Yesterday, I "tested" again and LTE worked for about 8 hours before I got the sim card error. I re-did the airplane mode/3G process and I was back in business...just with 3G.
Last night when I got the "No Sim" error, I noticed that the preferred network in *#*#4636#*#* was "Unknown". It had been set to LTE/UMTS/Auto. It doesn't seem to make a difference if I switch it to Global, or anything else. The problem remains. Oddly, when I just entered *#*#4636#*#*, the preferred network setting was on WCDMA. Weird...I didn't select that setting.

Anyway, maybe this can kind of help someone else.
 
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TomJ2

Senior Member
May 30, 2014
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Colorado, USA
www.trjudd.com
Tried the airplane mode/3g thing, still nothing for me. Just "lost" all recognition of a SIM. Nothing. No matter what I do, won't recognize. Lots online about it, loaded the latest F/W, etc., still nothing. The phone is like a new phone. Something feels hinkey about it though. Seems it's happening to unlocked Moto phones after about two-months.
 

codyalan

Senior Member
May 2, 2015
120
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Milwaukee WI
Tried the airplane mode/3g thing, still nothing for me. Just "lost" all recognition of a SIM. Nothing. No matter what I do, won't recognize. Lots online about it, loaded the latest F/W, etc., still nothing. The phone is like a new phone. Something feels hinkey about it though. Seems it's happening to unlocked Moto phones after about two-months.
I've had it for about a year when it happened, but what I did was send it to Moto and just told them it stopped working out of the blue. Flashed stock and sent it in. Within about 4 days they sent a new one. I would recommend that if you have a backup phone.
 

TomJ2

Senior Member
May 30, 2014
137
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48
Colorado, USA
www.trjudd.com
Did you have an unlocked bootloader (using the Moto code they send along with the warning that it'll void warranty)? If they still warrantied it, I'll do what you did, then sell the replacement ASAP. What an unreliable POS...
 

DB126

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2013
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What an unreliable POS...
Not really. Clearly a small percentage of E4s have a SIM problem; Moto should own up to it. However, that's unlikely as they never acknowledged the HW GPS issue on the G4P line that impacts a much larger proportion of devices.
 

codyalan

Senior Member
May 2, 2015
120
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Milwaukee WI
Did you have an unlocked bootloader (using the Moto code they send along with the warning that it'll void warranty)? If they still warrantied it, I'll do what you did, then sell the replacement ASAP. What an unreliable POS...
Yeah, it was unlocked but I don't know why they had still look it though..
 

zahna

Member
May 23, 2017
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If you erase modemst1 and 2, the SIM will be recognized again. At least, it was on my XT1768. I wrote a small TWRP flashable version, for when it happens when I'm out and about. Just boot to recovery and "install" it. It's attached to my reply.

Additionally, the following firmware build is supposed to have the fix for this issue: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569967659

Addendum: AFAIK, all Moto E4's running a build less than NPQ26.69-64 have the SIM issue. From what I've seen, it happens when one doesn't have any signal for a few hours, then comes back into an area that has a signal.
 

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satyavidu123

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Jul 26, 2018
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If you erase modemst1 and 2, the SIM will be recognized again. At least, it was on my XT1768. I wrote a small TWRP flashable version, for when it happens when I'm out and about. Just boot to recovery and "install" it. It's attached to my reply.

Additionally, the following firmware build is supposed to have the fix for this issue

Addendum: AFAIK, all Moto E4's running a build less than NPQ26.69-64 have the SIM issue. From what I've seen, it happens when one doesn't have any signal for a few hours, then comes back into an area that has a signal.
can you please explain this step by step for a naive person. My Moto E4 amazon version has same problem. Hoping to fix it on my own
 

DB126

Senior Member
Oct 15, 2013
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can you please explain this step by step for a naive person. My Moto E4 amazon version has same problem. Hoping to fix it on my own
Can you boot TWRP or another custom recovery? Need that to apply the 'fix' in the form presented. Not even sure it will work on a bootloader locked device.

---------- Post added at 10:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 PM ----------

Addendum: AFAIK, all Moto E4's running a build less than NPQ26.69-64 have the SIM issue. From what I've seen, it happens when one doesn't have any signal for a few hours, then comes back into an area that has a signal.
Must be other variables involved. Have a much older build and frequently travel to/through areas with no coverage. Have yet to experience a SIM issue.
 

zahna

Member
May 23, 2017
25
6
0
can you please explain this step by step for a naive person. My Moto E4 amazon version has same problem. Hoping to fix it on my own
Your bootloader is locked, so you can't apply my fix from TWRP. You will need to hook up your phone to a computer, boot your phone to your bootloader (power + down), on your computer cd to your Android Sdk tools directory, then run "fastboot erase modemst1" and "fastboot erase modemst2", then reboot your phone.

However, you should be getting OTA updates. The most recent firmware should prevent the issue.