How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Stuck on Setup?

This is what saved me, i just wanted to return here and thank you for your comment i was stressing pretty hard thinking i was going to be driving over an hour to my closest apple store to fix this thing.

One thing I will add to your instructions for what I had to do is once the phone is in recovery mode and connected to the macbook, I used the Apple Configurator app which showed my iphone, I selected it then clicked update at the top which then said that the iphone is not booted so it gave me the option to erase and reinstall IOS which I proceeded with. It took a while to download IOS but when it was finished it said my macbook needed to be updated to latest IOS first which I did. After that i had to reconnect phone in recovery mode since macbook rebooted for update, luckily i got back into the phone and was able to proceed with the erase and reinstall of IOS.

After doing some reading from other peoples posts it seems the issue is when you setup the new iphone if you select direct transfer if your old iphone and new iphone are on different IOS's it seems to hose up the new one.

So my second time around doing the setup i selected icloud backup which worked flawlessly, i hope this can help some others out there, i was extremely disappointed never had this much trouble setting up a new iphone and was so worried i received a dud.

I don't know the answer to any of these problems because mine was unfixable, according to Apple Support. I returned both of my purchased phones - did not reorder the 512 gb, but waited for a replacement for the 1 tb. It just arrived today, and I am anxious about even taking it out of the box lest another insurmountable malfunction should appear and further erode my trust in Apple products "just working." I haven't read anything from Apple addressing any of these issues to date.

I feel badly for each of you experiencing problems. Does anyone remember when it used to be such a treat to receive a new Apple device? Disappointing now, isn't it?

What a shame!

Yes, I managed to fix this! If your phone is stuck on the passcode showing very briefly and then locking on you, this is how I fixed it: download Apple configurator on your computer and update your phone through that specific app. You will have to put your iPhone in recovery mode, which is done by pressing volume up volume down and holding the power button while you have a USB connected to your computer. Once it’s in recovery mode and you have the Apple configurator app, you will be able to restore your phone from there. It worked for me.

Mine was bricked out in the same way, and I thought all was lost. But I'm happy to report I was able to get it up and running. You will need an apple computer - I used a Mac Studio, but I'm sure the process is the same for any laptop or desktop:

I plugged into my Mac Studio via USB-C, and then tried the hard reset ( up volume, down volume, hold the lock button), and just keep holding the lock button until even after the apple re-appears, then the screen should display the outline of a MacBook, and indicate a line/connection to the MacBook - and then my Mac automatically prompted me that it would be entering restore/recovery mode. The Mac then downloaded the necessary files, and conducted the reset itself on the phone.

Now, I had to do this a couple of times, but was able to get it working after two or three attempts. Hope this helps!

you just described my day today. I got it resolved by Apple support by calling them. I’ve copied and pasted how they fixed it for me.

Apple support fixed it for me! They first had me tap the volume up then down then hold power button for 15 seconds to force the iPhone to power down. It did but automatically restarted and the problem was the same.

The solution:

1. hook up the iPhone 16 pro to the computer (I used my MacBook)
2. tap the volume up then volume down then hold the power button for around 25 seconds until you get a plug in screen on the iPhone
3. follow the prompts on MacBook to restore the phone. It’ll have you download the update. Process took about 15 minutes but now I have a working phone!

now I’m trying to transfer my old data to my new phone which is another mountain to climb.

the problem was Apple is sending out these phones without the new update and it’s causing all these problems

good luck everyone! Calling Apple support was such a pleasant experience, hope you get the same.

Same here. It’s been 20 minutes for me, not sure what to do.

This worked for me as well.

iPhone 16 Pro is stuck on "cellular setup complete" screen. had to reset and erase new iPhone again to make it work

Mine gets stuck on initial setup screens and won’t progess parental lock code and then after reboot started over and on the add a child. It lost progress prion to shutdown

same problem did you find any solution !

Like someone else said, after I restarted the new 16 Pro, my old 14 Pro didn't prompt the setup again until I restarted that as well.

Then for the thing where you use the camera to authenticate, it wouldn't recognize the animation on the new phone, so I had to do the manual authentication with the code.

Our carrier is apparently wanting to charge $60 for activation. Furious. Previous phones were transferred and activated at the Apple Store. It wasn’t offered. We picked up the phone and were sent on our way. At least the phone still works on my iPhone X

i coul not set up to start a new iphone 16 promax. It has been over an hour never happen before with any other phone. Can not transfer the data and require to delete and start over and over. Even now it not even set up yet.

I received my new 16 Pro Tuesday afternoon. I followed directions for transfer from my 14. Things seemed to be OK. By the time I went to bed at about 10PM it still had the little windmills happily turning. I figured it had to be finished when I got up at 6:00. Nope, windmills still spinning. So I started looking to see if anyone else had the same problem.

ThankYou to the folks that posted here about shut it down. restart and it will get going with the copying of ALL DATA to my new 16Pro in less than a half hour. 👍👍👍👍😌

Are none of you guys actually taking a few minutes of your time to read through the comments on this? All asking the same question but the solution is in here multiple times. Get the phone into recovery mode plug into your Mac or pc and erase/re install iOS.

apple stores are going to be flooded because of this lol they better release another update or something haha