iPhone 15 Pro Verizon activation issues - iPhone 15 Pro?

[smirking]

+1 for problems on Verizon. I wish I had seen this thread. I wouldn't have deactivated my old phone. I'm stuck without a phone for the time being. Ugh.

 

[DDustiNN]

Right, I remember the days of just dropping a SIM into a new phone. But in my experience these days all US carriers have some sort of KYC process around activating new device IDs to lines, physical SIM or not… that’s why I’d be surprised if there isn’t more to the story than Verizon just blindly issuing new eSIM to new devices.

At minimum they must rely on some sort of device-level attestation that the new phone is in physical proximity to the old phone, otherwise literally anyone could open a phone and get it registered on your line from anywhere.

Again— Verizon had no advance notice I was purchasing a new phone, I did not have to log into or call Verizon during the process, and input the new IMEI, etc.

So either the old device tells Verizon it’s in proximity to a new device and informs the network it’s going to be transferring to the new one, or the new device gets some token from the old one to register with or something of that nature…

Nope, there’s no connection whatsoever. The SIM is just a SIM, just connects to Verizon, it doesn’t care who is using the device. The only reason it let you transfer so easily is because you were using the old device. You wouldn’t have been able to do it if you weren’t securely logged in to the device. And it did ask you for the device PIN to begin the transfer.

If you were to activate it manually, without using the old device, I believe that’s when you would need to use Verizon verification, which I believe would be the account password if I remember correctly.

No one is going to steal your phone number without knowing all of your passwords, if that’s what you’re worried about.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Went from 13 Pro Max to 15 Pro Max on Verizon about an hour ago. Physical SIM to ESIM. No issues at all. “It just works…” 🤷‍♂️

 

[NotApplicable]

No one is going to steal your phone number without knowing all of your passwords

Well, this type of attack does occur all the time, hence why carriers have locked it down more and more over the years!

The only reason it let you transfer so easily is because you were using the old device

eSIM is not like a physical SIM — the ICCID on your newly-activated device does not match the ICCID on your old device, so it doesn’t actually “move” to the new phone; the carrier issues a new one to your new phone.

So obviously, the new device and the old device somehow collaborate to cause Verizon to issue a new eSIM to your new device, because just as you said, you’d presumably have to call in to Verizon and prove who you are if you didn’t have your old device on you.

What you're saying doesn’t contradict what I am — that the new and old devices do something that enables them to convince Verizon to activate the new phone, by way of the physical presence of the old phone, in a manner that is different than if one were trying to activate a new phone without possession of an old phone on that line.

What I’m interested in is the technical specifics of what that something is— it’s absolutely not as naive as your old phone simply telling your new phone what ICCID to use.

 

[travis64]

Still have no service on my 15pro any tips?

 

[Nhwhazup]

Having a heck of a time transferring our eSIMs to our new iPhone 15 Pros on AT&T. What a mess.

Edit: Just got off the phone with a customer support rep who was able to do my device swap in a matter of only a few minutes.

My husband both have ATT. He has a regular plan and I have the prepaid. We had to call 2 different numbers as they are separate businesses within ATT. However, both calls were quick and they transferred our accounts from SIM card to eSIM quite easily.

 

[smirking]

Still have no service on my 15pro any tips?

I logged into MyVerizon and opened up a chat with support. My previous attempt to get support timed out and nobody helped me.

I got in on my first try on my second attempt. Given that it was nearly 3am at the time, I presume the demand had gone down a lot.

After I got through, it took about 20 minutes to get my new device activated. You'll need your old phone though. If you wiped it already, you'll have to set it up again so you can use it because they'll send confirmations to it that you'll need to approve from the old phone.

 

[travis64]

I logged into MyVerizon and opened up a chat with support. My previous attempt to get support timed out and nobody helped me.

I got in on my first try on my second attempt. Given that it was nearly 3am at the time, I presume the demand had gone down a lot.

After I got through, it took about 20 minutes to get my new device activated. You'll need your old phone though. If you wiped it already, you'll have to set it up again so you can use it because they'll send confirmations to it that you'll need to approve from the old phone.

Thanks it worked i had to put my imei2 number in

 

[smirking]

Thanks it worked i had to put my imei2 number in

Were you able to serve yourself or did you have to go step by step with a support rep?

 

[dsampley]

Transferred from 14 pro max to 15 pro max. 2 eSims, one on AT&T (personal account) and one on Verizon (work account). AT&T account transferred via quick setup with no problems. The Verizon account required logging into the business account and transfer manually.

 

[MarkNewton2023]

I hope all with sim transfer issue have it resolved.
I expected a potential transfer sim transfer from iPhone 13 Pro Max SIM card to iPhone 14 Pro Max eSIM last year. Hence I bought Verizon version iPhone 14 Pro to avoid any sim conversion issue. My call was right. No issue on transferring my number from iPhone 13 Pro Max physical sim to iPhone 14 Pro Max eSIM. Activating eSIM ran smoothly. Then eSIM phone number transfer from iPhone 14 Pro Max to iPhone 15 Pro Max eSIM ran smoothly also.

 

[iammike1]

I'm also stuck in limbo. After a total of 5 hours between on the phone and in store support I currently have 2 phones, neither of them working. They have been unable to get an eSIM active again on either my 14 Pro or my 15 Pro. I can't even log in to my Verizon accounts anywhere because I can't receive verification requests so I'm completely at the whims of support. Hell, I can't even port if I wanted to because I can't log in to do that. lol

 

[wmadan]

My T-Mobile number didn't carry over to my new iPhone. I had to to to a T-Mobile store to have them provision it to my new iPhone.

 

[Sully]

Is this process smoother if you purchase a carrier phone rather than one that’s not linked to your carrier? I realize these phones are all the same and are unlocked from day one now, but I’m still reluctant to buy a carrier attached phone.

 

[iammike1]

Just to add a bit of info to the Verizon thing. Interestingly I was able to activate a Visible 15 day trial number through eSIM just fine. Visible uses the same Verizon backends as Verizon itself....so that's interesting.

 

[NotApplicable]

Is this process smoother if you purchase a carrier phone rather than one that’s not linked to your carrier? I realize these phones are all the same and are unlocked from day one now, but I’m still reluctant to buy a carrier attached phone.

I bought unlocked version from Apple, so no carrier connection at all, and activated smoothly on Verizon via the iPhone setup assistant that transfers your old phone to your new phone

That being said, I was already on eSIM on my old phone

 

[iammike1]

While at Verizon today, employee received a notice from Verizon informing them of issues with iPhone Quick Connect transfer and eSIMs. Said teams are aware of the issue and a solution is being worked on. No more details than that though.

 

[smirking]

Is this process smoother if you purchase a carrier phone rather than one that’s not linked to your carrier? I realize these phones are all the same and are unlocked from day one now, but I’m still reluctant to buy a carrier attached phone.

I have a carrier attached phone with Verizon and I had problems.

 

[Dfivee]

Still have no service on my 15pro any tips?

Same here smh

 

[Frankfurt]

Went from 12P to 15PM Verizon purchased from Apple (no carrier order) without issues. After activation receiving calls went to voicemail but that was fixed by rebooting the phone. Overall great experience!

 

[StaceyMJ86]

To be honest I'm actually a little concerned with how easy it was for me on Verizon, eSIM to eSIM...

I ordered my 15PM unlocked, with no linkage to my Verizon account. So before I started the setup assistant just now, Verizon had no idea I'd be switching phones today.

Setup assistant got the new phone activated and the old phone deactivated with no issue, no phone calls, no texts, etc.

If I were an attacker, would it have been this easy? I think I have all the security options turned on in my Verizon account. Confused how Verizon verified the new phone was me.

I ordered mine unlocked with “connect to a carrier later”. I didn’t have any issues transferring my eSIM from my 14PM to 15PM. It took less than a minute for my eSIM to transfer over. It’s a huge difference from last year, and I’m glad this year went smoothly.

 

[StaceyMJ86]

If you purchased your iPhone through Apple and activated it on Verizon did they lock the sim?

Nope.

 

[iammike1]

I ordered mine unlocked with “connect to a carrier later”. I didn’t have any issues transferring my eSIM from my 14PM to 15PM. It took less than a minute for my eSIM to transfer over. It’s a huge difference from last year, and I’m glad this year went smoothly.

Went smoothly for you. I did the exact same thing you did from the sounds of it and I'm going on 48 hours without a phone and somewhere in the ballpark of 6 hours dealing with Verizon continuously getting different reasons and timeframe promises for fixes that never actually fix.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I'll be trying to swap physical sim to esim (iPhone X - 15ProMax) later today on Verizon, hope I don't have any problems

 

[grubman1234]

Switched from OnePlus 10T using the ‘Android to iOS’ app. Transfer data in 1 hour then trans from physical sim to eSIM took less than 5 minutes. Just scan QR code on Android device and phone number was transferred instantly. Loving the iPhone so far