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Cannot add cards back to apple pay after restoring.

I had all my cards on apple pay until yesterday. But yesterday I thought to restore my phone as new and since after doing that I can't add any cards back to the apple pay. When I enter all the information, It says verifying and then displays a message that says "Card could not be added. Please try again later or contact the card issuer for more information."

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Dec 13, 2014 10:40 AM

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Posted on Jan 14, 2017 3:13 PM

Sadly my Scotiabank Amex (Canada) is not working with that particular fix. I would give my provider the benefit of the doubt however in this case the rejection process seems to be happening at the very last moment when it *should* take. (After the terms and conditions are agreed to). All other compatible banking products work just fine. I just tried your method a third time and it just will not work. Fortunately I don't take these things too much to heart and am patient with new technologies :) thank you just the same. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

201 replies

Oct 3, 2015 5:13 AM in response to Roshanalex

Just to add yet another voice to this complaint: having removed my main Lloyds Visa card I now cannot add it back to either my iPhone 6S or my watch. I already spent a while on the phone to Lloyds who were checking on their system where everything looked cleared down (all cards correctly removed), so they could not help further.


Having read this thread it seems I have three options:

- Wait an indefinite time for it to be fixed (since this issue was widely experienced on iPhone 6 nearly a year ago, I won't hold my breath),

- Get the phone replaced (which means making an appointment and traveling to an Apple store), or

- Get the card replaced.


The third option is a doddle: log into internet banking, click the link to replace a card, select the card in question and confirm. This will solve it for me and my current card will continue to be active for 30 days, after which I'll have to update my stored card number on a few systems… no big deal. I recommend this solution for the least amount of hassle.

Oct 5, 2015 4:11 PM in response to unsaltedrhino

I was having the same problem adding a newly issued debit card to my Apple Watch.


What finally worked for me was to unpair the Apple Watch from my iPhone


I then re-paired it from the back up.


I then entered in the new card and now Apple Pay works again.


I'm running iOS 9.0.2/iPhone 5 | Apple Watch 2.0


Hope this helps for someone.

Oct 8, 2015 6:07 AM in response to ryan270286

I was having similar problems to others after upgrading from a 5S to 6S using an iCloud Backup, with two bank cards working on my Apple Watch before the upgrade.


Managed to get a HSBC card to work but not a Halifax card, I contacted Halifax and there was no problem with my account, i then contacted Apple who took me through various steps to get it working but it didn't.


I decided to order a new card from Halifax and i have set it up with Apple Pay with no issues.

Oct 16, 2015 6:10 AM in response to jg0321

I just solved this issue for myself this morning. Yesterday at Whole Foods I noticed my Apple Watch had "unavailable" for all cards, so I ended up having to use my new 6S.


What solved this issue after many attempts to add cards to Apple Watch was to uncheck Wallet from iCloud, unpair the watch, remove the cards from Apple Pay, and then restore the watch. I added everything like new, and even removed the one card that was tied to the Apple Store account. This way everything was fresh. I then went back into iCloud and checked Wallet again. Hope this works for some. I didn't have this issue until I had to get rid of my 5 and upgrade to the 6S.


As a tech, the last thing I wanted was to talk to folks for hours on the phone.

Oct 22, 2015 2:57 PM in response to Roshanalex

I have to post this, just because this has been driving me nuts. I have been on for HOURS with Apple, and they suggested numerous fixes, none of which worked. (Restart, Recovery, Restore, etc.) FINALLY someone had the suggestion to unpair and re-pair the watch. THIS WORKED. It's a pain becuase the watch backs itself up and takes forever, but this actually fixed my problem. (And I didn't lose past data, workouts, etc.) Success. Hope this helps someone.

Jan 16, 2016 4:11 PM in response to Roshanalex

I struggled with this issue for quite sometime and none of the solution provided worked for me. However I didn't not end up getting my card replaced for a new number which has its own set of hassles. So traded my phone backup and reset my phone to set it up as a new one. When setup as a new iPhone it allowed me to add all my cards into Wallet without any problem.


Better way to avoid all this hassle is to simply remove the cards from wallet before going for a reset. Atleast that allows us to restore from Backup and add the cards back into wallet. I bet no one would read this post until they actually face the issue!

Jan 18, 2016 5:51 AM in response to Roshanalex

I've also been having this problem recently.



I recently purchased an apple watch and tried to move my cards from my phone to the watch, and it told me "Could not add card, Try again later or contact your card issuer." so I figured I might try removing the cards from my phone and re-adding them. Since then, I can't even get to the point where it will let me take a picture of my cards to even TRY to send them to my bank and add them. The minute I click on "Add credit or debit card" the phone just outright tells me that it couldn't add the card right now.


I had my phone swapped at the apple store, and have a call into the "engineers" at apple, but this is honestly frustrating. I've tried resetting passcode. I've tried fixing my card details and billing info in iCloud. Nothing seems to work.

Feb 5, 2016 5:25 PM in response to cqualls

I had the same issue with not being able to ad my cards after I did a reset. I had tried this exact step 3 previous times and it didn't work. 1 week later I tried it again after finding this exact post and it all worked just fine ...

Here is what I did:


1. Go to settings

2. Select iCloud

3. Select your Apple ID (at the top)

4. Select payment

5. Tap on the card you have stored there (most likely for iTunes purchases)

6. Enter your expiration date and security code and click save.

7. Then go back to the main settings menu and select Passbook and Apple Pay

8. Select Add credit or debit card

9. You should then be prompted to enter your security code. Enter that and it should work this time. You can then go through the process of confirming that card and adding other cards.

Cannot add cards back to apple pay after restoring.

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