New iPhone SE is asking for 6 digit passcode right off the bat

I did it! I used the charging cord and I had to set up an itunes account obviously. I had to unplug wait 15 mins and plug back in to do the restore but it did it and I was able to set the phone up as it should be set up. Thank you and everyone else in this thread for your advice and help. I really did not want to go to the Apple Genius Bar as I had other things I wanted to do on Saturday. Everything is now set up on the phone and I already had the number from the SIM card which it accepted no problems. Phew. Have a happy New Year! PS: regarding the SIM card, thanks for the info. I had done that on Monday before trying to set up the phone. About setting up AppleID and password - not sure about that - it wanted me to set it up before I restored the device. Maybe I just thought it did, in any event, everything worked out. :)

Hello. I have already searched this topic before I added my question and had seen your replies to other similar questions.

I found one question from 2018 where the person had the same problem I do now. The reply that was given back then was to restore the phone to factory settings. Since that question was from 2018 and I could not reply to it I created the new question here, in order see if maybe there there may be more information on how to resolve this issue.

No, the phone *did not* ask me to create a new passcode. This is what happened:

1. inserted new SIM card. this came with the phone.
2. Turned on phone
3. Got the hello screen. At the bottom of the hello screen it says to press the home button.
4. press the home button. It *immediately* then has a screen that asks us to enter in a 6-digit passcode. Not create one. We don’t know why. It’s supposedly a brand new phone. At no time did we create any 6-digit code. At no time was there ever a screen that came up to walk us through creating a passcode. Just hello page > Press home button > put in 6 digit code.
5. I do not have a passcode for this phone. I tried 000000 - did not work. I tried 123456 - did not work. I tried 666666 and 111111 - both did not work
6. Nothing that came with the phone has a passcode.

I was able to check the warranty using the serial number. It says the limited warranty expires on December 24, 2023. So that makes sense since we bought it Dec. 16, 2022.

just can’t figure out why it’s not letting us create a passcode but says it wants a passcode. I’m not sure if I should reset the phone, I guess I could but I don’t want to void the warranty by doing something I should not do.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response. But why do you think the phone has iOS 15.2? I can’t do anything with it because I don’t know the passcode so I can’t see what iOS it has.

I spoke with an Apple customer service agent on the phone. I was on hold when I made my post. He suggested I can also follow the video too. I will try in the morning. If it doesn’t work I’ll go to an apple Genius Bar on Saturday.

I don’t think Walmart will want to refund me since I have popped out the SIM card out of the card holder it came in which came with the phone. I need to keep it since I actually already paid for one month worth of data and have a phone number just not able to use the phone.

Thank you - I was curious as to how you'd deduce it was iOS 15.2 - what you say makes sense. I am going to try to reset the phone on my computer now. Fingers crossed it works. I always try to research answers before posting to forums because many times you can usually find an answer to the question you have!

Thanks. I try to figure things out before resorting to forums, I know those that read the questions appreciate that, LOL. So I have a second question. I did as what Lawrence Finch advised, and I used the PC and the iphone charging cable to try to restore the phone. I did not mention (I didn't think of it) but the person receiving this iphone is my teenaged son. He has never had an iphone before but knows how to use mine. So when I went to reset the phone it wanted an Apple ID and password. I wasn't giving it mine since I don't want my phone erased so I had to set up a new ID and password for him. Which I had expected to have to do anyway when I htought I could set up the phone normally. So now I he has an apple ID and password and I'm not seeing anyplace to restore or reset the phone. And the phone says iPhone Unavailable please try again in 15 minutes. Meanwhile all I did was plug the cord in and turn it on. I never put in anything else. This is definitely weird, I have no idea whatsoever why it is asking me for a passcode if it's never been used before. I don't think it has iOS 15.2 because according to the video anything with iOS 15.2 can be reset wirelessly by pressing "erase iPhone" but there's no option on the phone to do that. Hence connecting with the charging cord. I'm just going to have to go to Apple Genius bar on Saturday and have them figure it out. (Oh and by the way my husband tried to return the phone to Walmart today, and was told "nope, you set this up because it's asking for a passcode and you already put the SIM card in it so we will not take it back and give you a refund". He tried to explain no we didn't set it up it's just asking for the passcode. They won't believe us. He called me to have me explain it and they wouldn't believe me either. So I told him not to argue with them and just leave. I have DM'd Walmart on Twitter and explained it all and waiting to hear what they say. My next call is to their customer service team. I've never had this hard a time with an apple product and I wish I had just added a line to my own phone service and gotten the phone that way but there's a specific reason we did it this way...nothing is every easy is it! LOL.

FYI thank you for your advice - I followed the video and it worked. The phone is now all set up. Thanks and happy new year.

It's running iOS16.2 - good idea to research iOS16 in the forums.