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.
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.
Same thing happened on my iPhone 16 (not Pro); it was stuck on "Cellular Setup Complete". I rebooted it and it resumed the setup past that point.
The old iPhone then didn't prompt me to begin the setup process. I rebooted it, and that solved it. From other posts here, looks like I could have just turned Bluetooth off/on and locked/unlocked the old iPhone instead.
When the swirly dot pattern appeared on the screen, holding it within view of my old iPhone's camera didn't proceed with the setup; it kept waiting for the old iPhone to see the pattern. I tapped the manual button, it displayed a number on the new iPhone and asked me to type it in on the old iPhone. That worked (and was much easier than the pattern thing!).
Transferring data now!
Just experienced this issue. Waited about 30 minutes, stuck, and fully turned off the new phone by holding the power and volume up buttons. Also restarted the old phone and when turning on the new phone it looked for a nearby phone, found it, and started transferring data after face id setup, etc. Good fix!!!
Just experienced the issue with iPhone 13 to iPhone 16. Chatted with Apple online.
Need to update old iPhone's iOS to latest version. So press X to stop the process on old iPhone. Go to Settings - General - Software Update.
On iPhone 16... I had to let it go to sleep, wake it, then hold power & volume up to force it off.
After old iPhone iOS is updated then...
Check the old iPhone still has some battery charge left. If not then I would charge it some.
Turn on new iPhone 16.
Follow instructions at support.apple.com/en-us/117383
Using a wired connection is better than wireless (and maybe faster), so go into your old iPhone box and find that USB-C to lightning cable to connect old iPhone to iPhone 16.
The whole process was done within 5 minutes or so.
The new iPhone 16 even connected to my home Wi-Fi automatically. All my apps stared downloading afterwards. Pretty cool when it does work.
Very frustrating to have waited over an hour when it was stuck. I still think Apple has a USER EXPERIENCE ERROR.
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 had this same problem today and I got it fixed by calling Apple support. I posted this elsewhere
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 came back here after managing a fix for it and hoping this would help those who have been through the frustration with this issue like me. Here's what you need to do:
Having a MacBook and a cable to connect your iPhone to it, plug your iphone into Macbook.
Please be patient when trying to put your iPhone in DFU mode (it could take more than 10 times like I did, see the image attached about DFU mode screen).
2. a) Press the Volume Up button (quickly no need to hold), then release it.
2. b) Press the Volume Down (quickly no need to hold), then release it.
2. c) Press and hold the Power button until you see the Apple logo on a black screen (if at this step your phone only restarts and then you see the f Hello screen again, please go back to step 2a and re-tried, and you need to be patient).
2.d) Right when you see the Apple logo on step 2. c) press the Volume Down Button (while still pressing the power button) and DO NOT RELEASE THESE 2 BUTTONS UNTIL YOU SEE THE CAPLE CONNECT TO COMPUTER ICON on a black screen (this is the sign that you've successfully entered the DFU mode)
3. Now open Finder on Mac, select your iPhone (left menu Locations) and choose to "Restore iPhone" (if there is a pop-up that appears on your Mac asking to connect your iPhone -> select Allow -> select Restore option) - do not choose "Update"
4. Stay connected after the phone has been restored. Make sure you pass the Hello screen before you can unplug it.
* DFU mode:
* Restore iPhone from Finder on Mac:
* Successfully restored:
I came back here after managing a fix for it and hoping this would help those who have been through the frustration with this issue like me. Here's what you need to do:
2. a) Press the Volume Up button (quickly no need to hold), then release it.
2. b) Press the Volume Down (quickly no need to hold), then release it.
2. c) Press and hold the Power button until you see the Apple logo on a black screen (if at this step your phone only restarts and then you see the f Hello screen again, please go back to step 2a and re-tried, and you need to be patient).
2.d) Right when you see the Apple logo on step 2. c) press the Volume Down Button (while still pressing the power button) and DO NOT RELEASE THESE 2 BUTTONS UNTIL YOU SEE THE CAPLE CONNECT TO COMPUTER ICON on a black screen (this is the sign that you've successfully entered the DFU mode)
3. Now open Finder on Mac, select your iPhone (left menu Locations) and choose to "Restore iPhone" (if there is a pop-up that appears on your Mac asking to connect your iPhone -> select Allow -> select Restore option) - do not choose "Update".
4. Stay connected after the phone has been restored. Make sure you pass the Hello screen before you can unplug it.
* DFU mode:
* Restore iPhone from Finder on Mac:
* Successfully restored:
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!
In case someone can’t get their new iPhone 16 pro to restart (this same issue happened with my dad’s but holding the power and up volume wouldn’t restart it) Apple support informed us that the new phone requires pressing the volume up quickly, then volume down quickly (no holding on those two) then holding down the power/wake button. That worked!!
So if you can’t get yours to restart try that. We then updated his previous phone’s software (not to iOS 18, just newest 17 version) and it worked and is transferring now.
Looks like this is a pervasive and persistent issue! For me it manifest when trying to transfer my data directly from my iphone14pro to a new iphone16pro. The process got hung up in the 'transferring data' screen. After waiting 90min with no resolution I did the following:
I have solved it in the following way: After passing the information from the 15 pro max to the 16 pro max, the phone stayed on the "Hello" screen and did not let you enter the password or advance from that screen. The phone got hot and ran out of battery.
I put the phone in DFU mode (quickly pressing volume up, volume down and the power button. When the screen remains with the apple, continue pressing power and volume down until the apple and the cable appear).
once a DFU, I connected it to my laptop (windows) to the iTunes application until it recognized the phone (VERY IMPORTANT, the cable has to be of quality, otherwise the laptop does not recognize it or the process goes wrong (I I had to use 3 cables until one worked for me)) When it recognizes it, it gives the option to restore it. Restore it with the IOS default version that iTunes provides.
When you see that it turns on and works normally, configure it as a new phone, download the most current version of IOS that you want (betas included) and now click restore the new iPhone. When you reboot, you can copy the old one to the new one and it won't stay dead again. Luck.
It sounds like your new iPhone is stuck on the "Cellular Setup Complete" screen with no way to move forward.
Could you check these two things first?
If everything looks fine, try restarting the phone by holding Volume Up + Side Button and sliding to power off. If it’s still stuck, a force restart might help:
For detailed setup instructions, refer to
Here are the steps that fixed the above issue for my iPhone 16 Pro.
I had same problem on my 16 Pro and finally let it drain to zero. Upon charging a little and trying everything, including Apple telephone support, I brought it to Apple store to return. BUT, they needed to charge it a little to read serial number ( about the only thing the phone would do) and asked if they could plug it into their laptop. Soon after it was plugged into computer, they were able to start the normal wifi install. I asked what they did, special program or what?, and it seems that he did nothing special, as if my phone just didn’t accept plugging
into my iMac at home for help. Best of luck.
[Edited by Moderator]
How to fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Stuck on Setup?
