At some point while riding the subway or traveling outside of populated areas, you’ve probably seen your iPhone display “SOS” in the corner. You shouldn’t be too concerned: All it means is you don’t have your regular cellular service and you can only make emergency calls.
Emergency SOS in action.
Kevin Heinz/CNET
What to do if you’re stuck in Emergency SOS mode
According to Apple, if you see “SOS” or “SOS only” in the status bar, you can do the following to help your device find a cellular network:
Make sure that you’re in an area with cellular network coverage. You can check in with people around you who have service, while you don’t.
Turn your cellular data off and on. Go to Settings > Cellular and turn Cellular Data off and back on.
Restart your iPhone. On the iPhone X and later, hold either of the volume buttons and the side button until the power off slider appears, and then drag the slider. Wait 30 seconds and then press and hold down on the side button to turn your iPhone back on. If you have an older iPhone model, here’s how to restart it.
Check for a carrier settings update. Your carrier may send out a carrier settings update to improve your cellular network connectivity and performance. As long as you’re connected to the internet, go to Settings > General > About and check to see if there is an update available.
Turn your cellular line off and on. Go to Settings > Cellular > your phone number and turn your cellular line off and on. If you’re not using an eSIM, remove the SIM card from your phone and put it back in.
Update your iPhone. If the software has a bug, it may be causing issues with your cellular service. To check for a software update, go to Settings > General > Software Update. You’ll need internet for this to work, so Wi-Fi would be your only option if you can’t connect to cellular.
Reset your network settings. WARNING: this will reset all your Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings and VPN settings, so only do this if you’ve tried all of the above first. If you’re fine with that, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset NetworkSettings.
