Verizon is suffering a major outage across parts of the United States, impacting voice, data, and messaging services. For iPhone users in particular, this outage means that the “SOS” icon is being displayed in the status bar. Here’s what that means and how to fix it if you’re still stuck in SOS mode…
What iPhone “SOS” means and how to fix it
Because of these outages and connectivity issues, iPhone users are noticing an “SOS” icon in their device’s status bar. Even today, when the outages have supposedly been resolved, some iPhones are still showing this SOS icon instead of the normal cellular signal details.
It’s important to differentiate that this is different from the Emergency SOS feature for iPhone and Apple Watch that can automatically call emergency services on your behalf.
In a support document, Apple explains that SOS in your iPhone’s status bar means that your device isn’t connected to a cellular network, but you can still make emergency calls. Currently, this feature is available in Australia, Canada, and the United States.
This means that if you lose cellular connectivity on your iPhone, such as when your carrier experiences an outage, you’ll oftentimes see the “SOS” icon in the status bar.
If you think this is a mistake and you should have network connectivity, here are a few things to try.
- Turn cellular data off and then back on again: Go to Settings, then tap Cellular or Mobile Data. If you’re using an iPad, you might see Settings > Cellular Data.
- Turn your cellular line off and back on: Go to Settings > Cellular and check to see if your cellular line is turned on. If your cellular line is off, turn it back on. Then check to see if you have service.
- Check for a Carrier Settings update: Tap Settings > General > About. If an update is available, you’ll see an option to update your carrier settings.
If none of the above steps resolve the network problems you’re experiencing, you’ll likely need to reach out to your carrier directly.
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