Setting up new iPhone and transferred number from old phone. New phone appears stuck on "Cellular Setup Complete" with only the greyed out bar at the bottom of the screen and a spinning "thinking" icon. Next step??
[Re-Titled By Moderator]
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:
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.
I also had this same issue. Restarted the new phone but then it wouldn't prompt the set up again. Restarted the old phone also and it prompted. So basically just restart both phones.
I believe you could try holding volumn up and powerbutton until screen turns off and apple logo shows up.
You may also look up Hard Reset for iPhone 15 and it may be something like volumn up then volumn down and hold power button.
Powering off the new iPhone 16 did work for me to continue next step.
Take the phone back to the store you bought it from and get it replaced with a brand new one. This happened to me today 1/14/25. "Thats a know issue replace it" said the Verizion worker to the one who held my brand new broken iPhone to their coworker. Ten minutes later I had a new phone with dwindling hopes. I connected my old phone to the new one with a USB-C to Thunderbolt cable and had no issues.
Step one if you get soft locked getting into your new phone is to get a new one "you got a dud".
I had the same issue, the new 16pro had an update so I set it up->updated and then erased it->did the process over and it worked.
Same issue, rebooting the new iPhone and starting over fixed it.
Me too. The advice to shut down and start back up helped. To get it to retransfer from my older phone, I had to shut it down and start it back up as well. Transfer worked fine after that.
Similar problem, I hadn't noticed that VPN needs to be turned off on iPhone 16. Worked fine after I did that.
Since activation, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has been experiencing issues and sluggish performance. In the middle of the data transfer process, the device froze. I restarted it, and that's when the real trouble began.
The "Hello" screen wouldn’t go away no matter what I did. Every time I entered the passcode, it would just return to the "Hello" screen. I attempted to enter recovery mode, but it wouldn't work. I also tried to power it off, but the power-off slider would appear and disappear almost instantly, like the blink of an eye.
At times, pressing the volume up button and the power button together worked, but not always. Other times, the volume down button and power button combination worked, but again, not consistently. I even tried pressing all three buttons—volume up, volume down, and power—but with mixed results.
On a few occasions, I managed to enter recovery mode and connect it to my MacBook. However, every time I tried downloading iOS to restore the device, the download process indicated it would take about 10 to 12 hours. Meanwhile, the iPhone would exit recovery mode and return to the "Hello" screen. I must have attempted this process around 10 times.
Finally, I had an idea: I decided to manually download the iOS file (IPSW) and point to it during the restore process. I successfully downloaded the file, but unfortunately, the iPhone refused to enter recovery mode again. I contacted Apple's telephone support, and we ran through several tests over the course of about 40 minutes. The advisor eventually directed me to a physical store for further assistance.
While I was waiting to schedule the store visit, something miraculous happened. By pressing a sequence of buttons—most likely volume up, volume down, and the power button in some combination—I somehow managed to turn off the device.
This was the breakthrough:
Crisis averted, and problem solved: What unsettled me the most was that when I spoke with two Apple Support consultants in Brazil, I was apparently the first person to contact them regarding an iPhone 16. Both were somewhat unsure about what steps to take.
iPhone 16 Pro is stuck on "cellular setup complete" screen. had to reset and erase new iPhone again to make it work
This is the one that worked if your iPhone is stuck on "hello" screen. Same instructions said different:
Me too,right after the successfully transfer of verizon phone number. had to turn off new phone and restart. Also would not re-connect to old phone to re-initiated install until I rebooted old phone.
Same problem on iPhone 16 Pro. Was afraid to restart, but when I did everything was fine. Cellular portion was not redone and the setup continued with the next step. Maybe, I am in a really bad area for my cellular service and therefore some line of code timed out before the cell data could verify. 🤷
Same issue with iPhone 12 Pro -> iPhone 16 Pro. Rebooting the 16 Pro and starting over worked for me.
Had the same issue. Power and volume up. Thanks everyone
How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Stuck on Setup?
