Auto-recovery from RF signal acquisition failure may be provided in a portable computing device. A field-calculated frequency-temperature (“FT”) curve is used to apply temperature compensation to a crystal oscillator associated with RF transceiver circuity of the device. In response to acquisition failure, it may be determined whether a deviation between the field-calculated FT curve and a factory-set FT curve exceeds threshold criteria. In response to acquisition success, the field-calculated FT curve may be refined based on frequency error information. However, in response to acquisition failure and a determination that the deviation exceeds the threshold criteria, information defining the field-calculated FT curve may be replaced with information defining the factory-set FT curve.