Can't use Apple Play, says "Phone Number Required", even though phone number is entered

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Can't use Apple Play, says "Phone Number Required", even though phone number is entered

Apple Pay doesn't work at all on my MacBook Pro. Whenever I try to use it, the Apple Pay box reports "Phone Number Required". But my phone number is stored with my card, along with my address.

But when I open Apple Pay, my contact details are correctly entered.

So the first displayed box is just wrong, but there is literally nothing to indicate what. And it's not possible to edit the phone number either. It only gives me the option to enter a new contact, which I have no intention of doing.

About the only thing that comes to mind is that Apple Pay expects phone numbers to be in E164 format, i.e, 00 64 for New Zealand, but if so, why is the system so stupidly unhelpful about it? If all the machine learning behind Siri can pick people out in photos, surely it can convert a phone number to E164 format if that's what it actually wants and needs.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 7, 2021 12:55 AM

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Answer 1

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an_piobaire Author

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23 points

Mar 9, 2021 9:50 PM in response to askbarnabas

No, but I have found another workaround, though I have no idea why this works.

On my iPhone, I set up Apple Pay using the same card. This done, I selected the option for "Allow Payments on Mac". Next, on my MacBook, I retried the purchase and Apple Pay worked without any problem. There was no prompt on my phone.

Somehow, the disparity between what was on my iPhone and my MacBook created some kind of problem. Did this mean that Apple Pay was in some kind of Quantum intermediate state, neither configured nor unconfigured?

I have no idea what people without iPhones do.

So for now, I will just live with it. I hate the opaqueness of these systems and the fact that I can't easily diagnose problems with it.

Thanks for your help!

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