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Today my friend got a new simcard with Verizon and was recently with Sprint.

Info

  1. Old Carrier Sprint
  2. New Carrier Verizon
  3. The IPhone was previously under a lease but was paid off.
  4. Signed up with Verizon and they gave him a new simcard.
  5. On the day of him changing simcards, he was using Sprint on the phone an hour before this switching over to Verizon.
  6. We Inserted the new simcard and went thru the setup process, but recieved an error

    "Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try connection your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a couple of minutes. If this probelm persists, contact Apple Support at apple.com/support."

  7. Tried using Itunes, and got the same error...
  8. I was not able to get any successful help from Apple or Verizon.
  9. Phone was unlocked and compatible
  10. Removed the sim card, and was able to get into the phone settings, I had "Reset All Network Settings", and the phone rebooted... Still the same issue.

Read articles acknowledging the issue but still no resolution in sight.

JayRizzo
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1 Answers1

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The long of the short

Anytime you change carriers with the new Iphone's

  1. Backup your phone in Itunes.
  2. Factory Reset Your Iphone.
  3. While the Reset starts, please change out your simcard to the new one.
  4. During Setup Select Your NEW carrier. (This is only seen during a Factory Reset)
  5. Connect to your Wi-Fi, as this is needed for 2FA and Apple Authorization.

Then you are all set.

TL; DR;

As for the detail.

This is a little different then the "Just Google it" for answers.

I thought maybe he needs to setup his online Verizon Account first, since he was only at the store. Maybe requiring him to setup the account first. But trying to "Register" failed because it was asking for a pin/password that was not being accepted from his paperwork.

So, we called Verizon and verified his information. Reset his pin. Tried to register with the new pin, but then was prompted for the texted code, which was not able to be retrieved since his phone wasn't activated yet.

My friend verbally authorized me to speak to the agent on his behalf. So, After 2 ½ on the phone. Found several items to note.

  1. Verizon MUST Authorize your IMEI number to your account / phone number.
    1. Directions how to get your IMIE here. (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
  2. We verified the new simcard id # with Verizon.

The Kicker

Even after explaining what the issue was and what I had done, I was about to be kicked over to apple. I wanted to try one last thing.

  1. I Factory Reset the Iphone.
    1. One of the first questions you get asked is "What Is Your Carrier".
    2. More importantly why didn't Verizon know to tell me THIS!?!
    3. and why didn't the error message be more clear, knowing it is a new simcard.

Anyway... After that setup was a bit odd.

Apple hasn't recognized his new number during setup I had to:

  1. Connect to Wi-Fi
  2. Sign into his Apple Account.
  3. Then after finalizing setup, his Ipad/Imac popped up with hey would you like to authorize Imessage with the new number.
  4. Then ONLY AFTER the phone was activated could we create his Verizon account.

All in all the Verizon Customer Support was nice, but I ended up finding the solution that they didn't seem to know. Provided the CS person with all the information, so they could document it but was painful.

4 Most Important Items

  1. Make sure the new provider has authorized your phone's IMIE Number to your account.
  2. Factory Reset your phone.
  3. Then swap simcards
  4. Connect to Wi-Fi for initial setup as the cell service will not work just yet.

Thanks for reading, I hope this helps someone... As that was ridiculous, and could have been solved by proper instructions.

JayRizzo
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