Transfer cellular plan to new iphone verizon

Yesterday, Apple announced the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. While they added a lot, like satellite connectivity for emergencies, a much improved camera sensor on the 14 Pro, and crash detection.

However, they also took away. From the iPhone 14 Pro specs page:

iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are not compatible with physical SIM cards.

Hm.

My iPhone 13 Pro currently has a physical SIM in it, and though I’d assume Apple would have a plan for upgrades like this, you never really know. This is also complicated because I buy phones unlocked; I wonder if the upgrade path is a little squishier when you’re not replacing an existing device with one locked to your same carrier.

So, in order to hopefully get ahead of the game for next week, I decided to try to convert my physical SIM to an eSIM. As it turns out, this process wasn’t particularly difficult, but I figured it’d be worth documenting for others.

The instructions below will only be useful for my carrier, Verizon Wireless.

First, make sure you’re on both the cellular and Wi-Fi networks, as there is a chance you’ll need to fall back to Wi-Fi at some point during the process.

Next, log into your account. I did all of this on my Mac; I can’t speak for how it’d work on either mobile web or the app.

Once you’re logged in, find your phone, and click Manage device.

On your device page, scroll down and find this section:

Click Activate a SIM.

At this point, Verizon knew that I had a 13 Pro, and offered for me to use one of the onboard eSIMs:

Naturally, I clicked Use my IPHONE 13 PRO's eSIM [sic].

At this point, I was punted to an instructions page, which I didn’t really need to bother with. The rest of the process happened on the phone. I didn’t think to take screenshots of this, unfortunately.

On my phone:

1. Open Settings
2. Right at the top, I noticed a line that said something like Finish Setting up Cellular, which I tapped.
3. At that point I basically followed a wizard that completed the setup

A couple things worth noting:

It took a few minutes for the activation to complete, on a random Thursday morning, before everyone in the world is trying to upgrade their iPhones. I’d estimate maybe 3 minutes?

🚨 BE CAREFUL 🚨

After I did my transfer, I noticed that iMessages were suddenly being sent and received as text messages. This may have been user error on my part, but it seems that my iMessage settings were altered such that my phone number was no longer a valid iMessage address for me.

If you do the above, it’s probably worth verifying your settings. To do so:

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down and tap Messages.
3. Tap Send & Receive.
4. Verify your phone number is checked. In my case, my email address was checked, but my phone number was not.
5. If it isn’t checked, tap your phone number to check it.

It’ll take a minute or so, and then iMessages should start coming back in.

After posting, Leon Cowle reached out via Twitter to provide instructions that seem to have worked for him on AT&T.

Current phone:

• iPhone XS Max with eSIM

• Get More Unlimited (NON-5G)

New phone:

• iPhone 13 Pro unlocked purchased direct from Apple (not Verizon version)

Question:

1. Once I got the iPhone 13 Pro and set this up (e.g. iCloud transfer, etc.), how do I transfer the eSim in this phone without calling Verizon CS?

Was hoping I don’t have to call since I am sure Verizon CS will bombarded when people receive their iPhone 13. IIRC, Verizon does not support Quick Transfer.

2. I noticed in my Verizon app that it recommend that I upgrade to Get Unlimited 5G (same price). Aside from 5G, what changes are there with this plan?

UPDATE as of 09/24: For others to see:

Verizon does not support Quick Setup transfer. When I go to Settings --> Cellular Plan, it said:

"This cellular plan can't be transferred because this feature is not supported by your carrier"

The only option is to scan a QR code or enter code, both which I must contact Verizon. Unfortunately, the wait time (as expected) is really long and I am still waiting for Verizon agent to connect to me.

Question:

Question: My iPhone 12 didn't transfer my cellular plan to my new phone during activation?

My iPhone 12 didn't transfer my cellular plan to my new phone during activation. How can I troubleshoot this issue?

iPhone 11 Pro

Posted on Dec 22, 2020 2:05 PM

Answer:

Answer:

Yes, it sounds like your best hope is a good customer service representative from Verizon.

You mention 5G. Obtaining 5G service will require both an appropriate SIM and a cellular plan that includes 5G service. I am an AT&T customer with an iPhone 12 Pro. I got the new SIM with my iPhone but did not see “5G” on my Home Screen or the 5G options in Settings > Cellular until I updated my cellular plan to include 5G (which naturally costs extra).

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 2:06 PM

User profile for user: Weinerdogbone

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