If your phone is showing an SOS message, you’re not alone. Recent reports show what appear to be sporadic outages on T-Mobile and its subsequent networks, with the majority centered in Utah.
More than 19,000 users reported outages at its peak on DownDetector.com, which tracks network outages via user-submitted reports. There have been major reports in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Illinois, New York and Florida over the past 24 hours.
More recent reports appear to be centralized around Utah with Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, Lehi, South Jordan, Orem, West Valley City, West Jordan and Sandy seeing the most reports.
Reports began rolling in around 12:47 p.m. Most users are reporting that they have no phone signal, but there have been some reports of issues with mobile internet.
T-Mobile has not acknowledged any interruption to its network.
Anyone experiencing network issues should enable Wi-Fi calling to continue receiving calls and messages in the meantime.
If you’re wondering whether your phone is affected by the outage or if it’s just you, here are some steps to check.
My iPhone is showing SOS or SOS only
When iPhones aren’t connected to a cellular network, they will typically alert the user by giving an indication in the phone’s status bar. Those notifications usually say “No Service” or “Searching,” but your phone may also say “SOS” or “SOS only.”
When your phone goes into SOS mode, it can still make emergency calls. When you make an emergency call with your iPhone, it automatically calls the local emergency number and shares your location information with emergency services.
Additionally, you can add emergency contacts under your phone’s medical ID options in the settings. Adding an emergency contact will alert them to your location with a text message after an emergency call ends.
How to get your phone out of SOS mode
In many cases, if your phone is in SOS mode, external circumstances outside your control could be responsible. However, there are some troubleshooting steps you can take on your end:
- Make sure you’re in an area with cellular network coverage
- Turn your cellular data off and then on:
- Go to settings
- Toggle cellular or mobile data off and then back on
- If you’re traveling internationally, make sure your phone is set up for data roaming:
- Go to settings
- Tap cellular
- Cellular data options
- Toggle data roaming
- Try restarting your device
- Check your carrier settings for an update
- Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network
- Open settings and navigate to General > About. If an update is available, you’ll see it here
- Turn your cellular line off and back on
- Open settings
- Tap Cellular and see if your cellular line is turned on
- Don’t see a cellular line in settings? Setup an eSim or reinsert your physical SIM card
- Reset your network settings
- Open settings
- Tap General > Transfer or Reset [Device] > Reset > Reset network settings
- Note: This will reset your Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, VPN and APN settings you used before
- Update your iPhone to the latest version of iOS
- Plug your device into power and connect to Wi-Fi
- Go to settings > General and then tap “Software Update”
- Choose the update you want to install
- Contact your wireless carrier
- If all else fails, reach out to your carrier to see if there are any outages in the area, ensure your account is in active and good standing and make sure your device isn’t being blocked from receiving cellular service
How SOS works on iPhones
Making an SOS call on an iPhone 8 or newer is an easy, two-step process:
- Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons (either work) until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
- Drag the Emergency Call slider to call emergency services.
If you continue to hold down the side and volume buttons but don’t make an SOS call, a countdown will begin, and an alert will sound. Releasing the buttons after the countdown will automatically call emergency services.
Making SOS calls on iPhone 7 or earlier is just as simple:
- Rapidly pressing the side or top button five times will bring up the Emergency Call slider.
- Drag the SOS slider to call emergency services.
How to end an SOS call you made by accident
You can easily cancel an SOS call you started by accident, even after the countdown begins. To do so on an iPhone 8 or later, release the side button and the volume button before the countdown ends. To stop an SOS call on an iPhone 7 or earlier, press the stop button and then tap “Stop Calling.”
If the call begins, don’t hang up. Simply wait until a responder answers and explain that you made the call by mistake. Otherwise, the dispatcher may send responders to your phone’s location.
How to add emergency contacts
Here’s how you can add emergency contacts to your iPhone:
- Open the Health app and tap on your profile picture
- Open Medical ID
- Tap edit, then scroll to emergency contacts
- Tap the add button
- Tap a contact and add their relationship
- Tap done to save your settings
How to remove emergency contacts
Here’s how to remove emergency contacts:
- Open the Health app and tap on your profile picture
- Open Medical ID
- Tap edit, then scroll to emergency contacts
- Tap the delete button next to a contact
- Tap done to save your settings
How to turn on Wi-Fi calling
Here’s how you can turn on Wi-Fi calling on your iPhone:
- Navigate to settings
- Tap Phone
- Then tap Wi-Fi calling
You may need to enter or confirm your address for emergency services, according to Apple.
Once Wi-Fi calling is available, you will see “Wi-Fi” in the status bar while viewing the Control Center.
When cellular service is available, your iPhone uses it for emergency calls. If you turn on Wi-Fi Calling and cellular service isn’t available, emergency calls might use Wi-Fi calling.
