Is your iPhone 14 not able to make or receive phone calls? Relax, as you are not the only one facing this persistent issue. Several iPhone 14 owners have complained about this error on iOS 16. While the problem is reportedly common on the iPhone 14 series, it affects older iPhone models running iOS 16 as well. As always, we have put together a guide to help you fix the problem of iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls. So, let’s get into troubleshooting mode and look at some viable solutions to resolve the issue!
Note: information in this article Apply to iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Getting a good hang of the problem is key to discovering the cause and finding a possible solution. Hence, we have first talked about what could be the possible reason why your iPhone 14 isn’t making or receiving calls before learning the different ways to resolve the issue.
Why is iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls?
There are many reasons your iPhone 14 can’t make or receive calls. Usually this comes down to the strength of cellular network coverage at your location, network outages or disruptions, issues with your account status, device settings on your phone, or a problem with the receiving end of the call.
If you’re hearing an error message when placing calls, this could be due to a number of reasons, depending on the message you’re hearing. You could be dialing incorrectly, so you might want to check the number and try again. If you’re a prepaid customer, you might need to add funds to your account. The person you’re trying to call could have their phone turned off, they may be outside of their carrier’s network coverage, or otherwise unreachable. Try calling a different number to see if you have the same problem, or ask around and see if anyone else you know has had a similar experience when calling the same number. There could be an ongoing network disruption. Try to see if anyone else around you is having similar problems making calls. If you try some basic troubleshooting, you may not have to contact Customer Service at all. However, if you still can’t get your call to go through, check out the troubleshooting tips below!
How To Fix iPhone 14 Not Making or receiving Calls Issue
Here are some tried and tested solutions you can try if your iPhone 14 is not making or receiving calls:
1. Check Your Mobile Plan
To make a call using your iPhone’s Phone app, you need an active mobile plan with sufficient credit or minutes. Check with your network to see if your mobile plan has expired or if there’s insufficient credit left. If this is the case, simply reload your account and you should be able to start making calls again.
2. Check Your Phone Signal
If you’re at a remote outdoor location, or if it’s raining or snowing in your area, you may experience poor cell reception. Check the cell signal icon in your iPhone’s status bar to find out. If there’s only one vertical bar filled in, you can try moving to another location to get a stronger signal in order to make or receive a call. For example, if you’re in your bedroom, simply going to other areas in your house such as the kitchen or garden may get you the signal you need.
If there are no bars at all, or If Your iPhone 14 Says No Service in the status bar, visit your network provider’s website and look for a coverage map to find out if you’re supposed to get any signal in your current location.
3. Check Your iPhone Settings
Sometimes you may have active mobile plan with sufficient credit and there are no network issues causing an impact on your service, but you still can’t get your calls to work. On these occasions, the issue may actually be caused by your phone settings.
- Check blocked contacts: Go to Settings > Phone > Blocked Contacts to check for if there are any blocked phone numbers on your iPhone.
- Disable do not disturb: Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and see whether Do Not Disturb is off.
- Make sure you’ve turned Call Forwarding off: Go to Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding.
- Turn off silent unknown callers: Go to Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Caller, and turn off the option.
4. Toggle Airplane Mode
Believe it or not, airplane mode is like my go-to troubleshooter for fixing any network-related issues on iPhone. If there is an occasional glitch related to the network, resetting the radios does the trick for me – more often than not. So, make sure to give this nifty hack a shot before moving to other fixes below.
- Swipe down from the top right of your screen to bring up the Control Center.
- Next, tap the Airplane icon located at the upper-left-hand side corner to turn it on.
- Finally, wait a few seconds, tap it again to turn it off.
5. Update Carrier Settings
Another solution that you should try to troubleshoot an iPhone 14 that’s not making or receiving calls is to update the carrier settings. There is a possibility that the problem might be related to a carrier network, which you can resolve by updating the carrier setting on your device. The good thing is carrier providers often release updates to boost the overall performance of the cellular network and get rid of random issues.
To check if your carrier provider has network-related updates, first connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi or enable cellular data. Then, go to the Settings app. Select General and tap About. If an update is available, you’ll see a Carrier Settings Update prompt. Tap Update to begin the installation.
6. Force Restart Your iPhone
Force restart (also known as hard reset) flushes out the cache and deletes useless temporary files, which often works in fixing many iOS issues, on your iPhone. Thus, you should give this nifty solution a try as well.
Press and quickly release the volume up button. Then, quickly press and release the volume down button. After that, press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo shows up on the screen.
7. Remove and Reinsert Your SIM
None of the solutions above have worked in resolving the issue for you? Well, remove the SIM card and reinsert it. Many a time, you can get rid of iPhone 14 call issues by using this age-old trick. Turn off your iPhone and then use a SIM-ejector tool to pull out the SIM tray. After removing the SIM card, gently wipe it with a soft, lint-free cloth. Then, place the SIM card back into the tray and slide it carefully into your iPhone.
After that, press and hold the power button to turn on your device. Now, check if your iPhone 14 can make or receive calls.
8. Update Your iPhone’s iOS
If you are still troubled by the the problem of iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls, a bug is likely to be behind this issue. Hence, updating the software could resolve the problem. Go to Settings > General > Software Update to look for new updates.
9. Reset Network Settings
Your iPhone 14 won’t make or receive calls if there are network-related problems. Whenever I face call issues on my iPhone, the one hack that I make sure to try is resetting the network settings to factory default. . As the the problem of iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls also seems to have a relation with the network, we suggest you try out this trick too.
Rest assured that this is not a factory reset. It simply deletes network data, such as Wi-Fi passwords and Bluetooth device connections—all of which can be easily set up again later on. All the content on your iPhone should be totally fine—like your apps, photos, and music.
To reset network settings on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Then, tap Reset Network Settings when the confirmation alert appears on the display. Your iPhone will reset and turn back on once it’s finished.
10. Reset All Settings
The last solution you can attempt if your iPhone 14 won’t make or receive calls is to reset all the settings on your phone. As long as you follow the guided steps correctly, you still won’t lose any data from resetting your iPhone. Just make sure you don’t choose the option to Erase All Content and Settings.
However, this process can take a long time if you have a lot of data on your device. Before trying this solution, remember to consider whether the problem could actually be with the person you’re trying to call. You may want to find another way to reach out to them to ensure their phone is working before spending more time resetting settings on your own device.
To reset all settings on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset all Settings. Then, tap Reset all Settings when the confirmation alert appears on the display. Your iPhone will reset and turn back on once it’s finished.
11. Contact Your Wireless Carrier
It’s time to get in touch with your wireless carrier if your iPhone 14 still won’t make or receive phone calls. Even if your signal looks good, there could be an issue with your cell phone plan.
We recommend contacting your wireless carrier before Apple. If you go to an Apple Store and tell them your iPhone 14 is not making or receiving calls, they’ll probably tell you to go talk your wireless carrier first!
12. Visit The Apple Store
If you’ve contacted your wireless carrier and they can’t help you, your next step would be to take your phone to a nearest Apple Store so the Genius Bar can conduct some troubleshooting. In rare cases, an iPhone 14 might stop making or receiving calls because of damage to one of its antennas.
Resolved iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls issue
So yeah, these are pretty much all the methods you can use to solve the problem of iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls. As we mentioned above, the problem is likely network related. So, tips like resetting the network settings or updating carrier settings are more likely to resolve the problem. Let me know which solution helped you fix the problem of iPhone 14 not making or receiving calls. Moreover, let us know about any other solutions that help troubleshoot this annoying issue in the comments below.