Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

gmoney18

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 8, 2020
76
53
Hello, I’ve had my iPhone X (bought refurbished from Apple’s website) for about 6 months. I still have the iPhone 12 mini and it’s been completely wiped clean that I stopped using when I bought the X. For the past 6 months, while on 3G network, my phone won’t make calls, texts, and no internet. Every time I try to make a call, it’ll say “Verizon is unable to authenticate this device, please try again later”. As soon as I switch back to LTE, everything works fine. I’ve gotten a new SIM card and still no luck. Ive hard reset, reset network settings twice, and even reset all settings (which is something apple support told me to try). Still no luck. Has anyone else had this issue? Luckily service is good where I’m at to where I usually never end up on 3G but I’d still like to make calls for emergency purposes if my service does degrade to that point. I’m probably going to take it to an apple store in the near future and make sure it’s not hardware related.
 

teeshot44

macrumors 65816
Aug 8, 2015
1,093
857
US
Call Verizon CS from another phone. Let them know the problem and they'll reset things in their system.
 

gmoney18

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 8, 2020
76
53
I tried DFU last night and I didn’t work on getting calls through on 3G. Device still can’t be “authenticated” on by Verizon. I’m supposed to have their IT department call me today and I’m planning on going to Verizon store after work and see if another SIM card would help. Don’t understand how it could be hardware related if I'm able to receive calls/texts/data on LTE. ???
 

gmoney18

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 8, 2020
76
53
My father’s iPhone 8 Plus is doing the same thing when connected to 3G “cannot be authenticated by Verizon”. He has an iPhone 12 Pro Max that is being repaired so that’s why he’s using the older phone. However, i know both of these phones were released at the same time. We both have phones still under contact with Verizon, his 12 Pro Max this being repaired and my 12 mini that I plan on selling. Both phones are “sim locked”. Not sure if that’s makes a difference. However our overall new family is the 5G unlimited and we’ve had it since last year but we’ve gotten (my new X and his 8Plus) recently and activated them. I’m wondering now if you can even activate a phone that’ll work with 3G now. My work phone (iPhone SE 2) on a company plan can use 3G but they haven’t upgraded their plan yet I’m sure since all of our phones aren’t capable of it and it’s a business account.
 

gmoney18

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 8, 2020
76
53
Figured it out. You have to call Verizon and basically tell them you want 3G on a particular line still. It’s called “CDMA-Less”. Have them disable that and your phone will start working again. Just FYI.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jr866gooner

TiggrToo

macrumors 601
Aug 24, 2017
4,205
8,838
Hello, I’ve had my iPhone X (bought refurbished from Apple’s website) for about 6 months. I still have the iPhone 12 mini and it’s been completely wiped clean that I stopped using when I bought the X. For the past 6 months, while on 3G network, my phone won’t make calls, texts, and no internet. Every time I try to make a call, it’ll say “Verizon is unable to authenticate this device, please try again later”. As soon as I switch back to LTE, everything works fine. I’ve gotten a new SIM card and still no luck. Ive hard reset, reset network settings twice, and even reset all settings (which is something apple support told me to try). Still no luck. Has anyone else had this issue? Luckily service is good where I’m at to where I usually never end up on 3G but I’d still like to make calls for emergency purposes if my service does degrade to that point. I’m probably going to take it to an apple store in the near future and make sure it’s not hardware related.
Just as a heads up, Verizon will be decommissioning their 3G network on December 31st, 2022.

Obviously there’s no immediate hurry, that said, better to know now than later!
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
5,818
4,427
You have to call Verizon and basically tell them you want 3G on a particular line still.

Just as a heads up, Verizon will be decommissioning their 3G network on December 31st, 2022.
Interesting that they allowed 3G to turn on, as I was under the impression that Verizon was not allowing new device activations, transfers, lines of service, etc. to have 3G since January 2020 (if I recall correctly).

But, yeah, the end if approaching.
 

gmoney18

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 8, 2020
76
53
Interesting that they allowed 3G to turn on, as I was under the impression that Verizon was not allowing new device activations, transfers, lines of service, etc. to have 3G since January 2020 (if I recall correctly).

But, yeah, the end if approaching.
Yea I agree. Fortunately they were able to. Got a year and a half to buy a new phone now at least.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.