Nexus 5 : SIM card not recognized

drhere

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Aug 25, 2010
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My N5 running 5.1 (stock rooted) no longer recognizes my SIM card, I get a "No SIM card" message. I tried reseating it, same issue, I had a spare T-Mo SIM and called T-Mo and we swapped the SIM, same thing. What happens is I will reboot, I get a LTE signal for about 1 minute, this was both with the old and new SIM, then the N5 will freeze for a moment, back to No SIM.
Even though I did not buy it from the Play Store, bought it new from a carrier store back in Nov., 2013, Google talked to me which was nice of them, and stated I can call back but if it comes to device replacement, I obviously cannot go through them.
Anyway, he asked if I tried APN resetting (I had), we went through a few things, he then asked if I am rooted as I seemed more tech savvy then his normal callers, I did not lie and told him rooted stock. He said they can still talk to me, but at this point he stated they can't go any further as they do not know if they steps they take will work as root could have effected things--true. I did install GSam Root, and I think this may have been the issue as this is when my N5 started acting weird. I did remove it from root,via it's own app and Titanium Backup, same thing.
Before I flash it over the weekend and go back to square one and unroot it (I might leave it unrooted for now if this works) and Google suggested this too, any other ideas on what can be causing my N5 to not detect a SIM. I have a backup Lumia 635 I was testing for work and I am using this, because if someone tried to call me, I needed a phone, the SIM is having no issues in this Win Phone so it is not the SIM.

Thanks all, if it is hardware, it is over a year old, I may buy a Moto E (2015), I can't spend this kind of money for phone I have a 3000 mile relocation coming up soon.

Thanks again for any ideas before I flash it which is last resort.
 

DLK1

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Looks like you already plan on what I would suggest, that is a re-flash of ROM and then follow that with a factory reset. If this does not restore the SIMs then you could try flashing KitKat back on and see what that does for you.
 

drhere

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Looks like you already plan on what I would suggest, that is a re-flash of ROM and then follow that with a factory reset. If this does not restore the SIMs then you could try flashing KitKat back on and see what that does for you.

Thanks, I thought so, I thought maybe there was a way around this, I flashed and reset today, now it is working. I did reroot and had Titanium Backup restore "some" apps (once you get root in your blood you can't get it out :) ). It is faster, it needed a a cleanup anyway, I only installed what I use and left off a lot of apps off I no longer need.
I have rooted for awhile, I just need to stay away from certain apps.
 

drhere

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How is battery life treating you on 5.1, I am still on 5.0.1. I live in an RV and need to find some place where I can be in one spot long enough to get good wi-fi. Maybe next month.

Prior to me factory resetting and reflashing 5.1 it was bad as Google even stated the memory leaks are still an issue; also it was bad as I had a lot of junk I used and installed since Nov,. 2013 so the cleanup was needed.
So far it has been good not great, but good. I went from 100% at 11pm to 67% at 7am today, but I had three backup processes running overnight, so not bad so far considering. Remember 5.1 IMO was better 5.0.1 as I had to reboot constantly during the day with 5.0.1, but 5.1 is great yet.
 

Shimul Rashid

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By the way.....
I facing the same problem...... I switched so many sim.... and it's only recognized the 1st type of SIM. Which i used for the 1st time.
it didn't recognize any other SIM... R u flash Kitkat?? what should I Do? I m running CM 12. Should I flash kitkat and try??
Please help me.
 

drhere

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Aug 25, 2010
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By the way.....
I facing the same problem...... I switched so many sim.... and it's only recognized the 1st type of SIM. Which i used for the 1st time.
it didn't recognize any other SIM... R u flash Kitkat?? what should I Do? I m running CM 12. Should I flash kitkat and try??
Please help me.

I flashed stock Lollipop 5.1, I haven't used CM since the Gingerbread days, so I can't tell you if that is the issue. Flashing stock on my Nexus 5 fixed it, in my case I had a badly written root app that caused the issue, you can go back to stock or flash CM from scratch, but again I am not familiar with CM anymore.
 

sidnet03

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Nexus 5 - 5.0.1 rooted: ota update wouldnt install since i had custom recovery (cwm) installed. So formatted the phone and installed 5.1 stock image from google (incl stock recovery), cleared cached partition and even did a factory reset. But it wouldnt detect sim if i installed 5.1. So installed 5.0.1 stock image(sim detected after this), and updated to 5.1 through ota. Again it wouldnt rexognize sim.

Finally loaded 5.0.1 again. Wont update to 5.1 x-(
 

Andre Bruno-Gaston

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The fix is to just turn on airplane mode and then turn it back off. It instantly recognizes the sim and works, no need to reflash etc etc. To avoid this annoying bug happening in the first place make sure your phone doesn't turn off or run out of battery.
 

Virenicus

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My Nexus 5 started doing this a couple months ago. It only happens when the N5 is plugged into its mobile charger, or more rarely plugged into its charger at home. I have found no solution, which is why I'm here. I can live with it though, therefore I just turn the N5 off while it recharges and everything is fine until the next recharge. :-!
 

hkustvampire

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I suffered the same too. I have tried factory reset, changed sim card, uninstalled all apps except the stock ones. No solution.

Finally. I solved it. Try select the APN (which is unselected in my case) and specify the cellular network (don't leave the system automatically search for you),

By doing so, my battery performance boosts by at least 40% too.
 

usafa

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Jun 16, 2015
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Google support told me to change APN. However, APN is not selectable for me. Everything on that page is grayed out. 5.1
 

Rankot

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By the way.....
I facing the same problem...... I switched so many sim.... and it's only recognized the 1st type of SIM. Which i used for the 1st time.
it didn't recognize any other SIM... R u flash Kitkat?? what should I Do? I m running CM 12. Should I flash kitkat and try??
Please help me.

Try this ,it worked with me , go to settings and select your networkoperator rather than the select automatically option . Also select GSM rathere than GSM/CDMA
 

laribekleymukwele

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Sep 28, 2015
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Please I don't know I did factory reset on my Nexus 5 and inserted a new sim but it just keep showing insert simcard and the old sim is missing . what can I do to make it recognise the new sim
 

laribekleymukwele

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Sep 28, 2015
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Please I don't know I did factory reset on my Nexus 5 and inserted a new sim but it just keep showing insert simcard and the old sim is missing . what can I do to make it recognise the new sim
 

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