iPhone 4 Message:SIM Required (in phone that has no SIM card slot)

Actually just wanted to add to this post. There IS A SIM CARD in the Apple 4 and up. I had a technician in the store show me one time how to get to it. It is very hidden. I had the same problem phone saying no SIM card and took it into the store, and he took out the SIM card and reinserted it and did a soft reset on my phone and it worked fine.

In the attached pic, the red circle is where the SIM is located. You have to use a little pin or paperclip to open the little cover. There is a very small SIM card inside. You press on it and it will pop out. Take it out and reinsert it until it clips back in secure. Close the little cover and proceed. Be careful. You can damage the little cover it you attempt to open it to roughly. The cover DOES NOT come off completely, just kind of spins to the side.

In the attached pic, the blue circles is how you soft reset the phone. It's the closest you can get to factory reset without it erasing all of your info. Hold down both the Power On button and the Round button on bottom of phone together. Keep them held down until the screen goes black and then the Apple Icon will come on the screen. Takes about 10 seconds. After the Apple Icon appears release the two buttons and the phone will continue and reset itself.

Hope this helps.

Hey guys, I'm back! I found something! First, the Apple rep called back today but I was busy running errands. Now I'm home, I returned his call but he must be busy so I left a message and now I'm waiting for his reply. I'm really interested in what he has to say. Also, I found another person on another forum with the same issue so I gave him this link. NOW! for what I've found, literally like a minute ago (I'm searching, I'm not quitting). It's not much but I think it's pretty freaking valuable! So, without further ado, from our very own Apple support forums: My cdma phone needs a sim card to activate

😮 😮 😮 I don't always use emojis, but when I do, I'm really making that face. THIS GUY GOT THE SAME ERROR FROM AN AT&T CDMA IPHONE! So his seems to be an iPhone 5c but otherwise it's exactly the same!! He reset the phone, it now is asking for a SIM card although it is a CDMA phone. If I'm reading his post correctly, this almost undoubtedly points the finger squarely at Apple. I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way more and more. rosindabow, thanks for the credit and special, special thanks for getting this thread started! amandajo1026, I'm sorry you dislike Apple products, but honestly, how many problems like this have you encountered? Lawrence Finch, Verizon is starting to look like their off the hook, assuming I've read it right. Unless, VZ and AT&T both screwed up the same? Or AT&T registers on VZ's network? ..... of course not, I know.

I'm at a loss for words. It seems that Lawrence Finch was aware of this issue a whole day before posting to this thread. He posted on the same issue on Jan. 30th: Please disconnect and insert a SIM card in the iPhone message iPhone 4 . I hope this is just a misunderstanding, but why did you never bring up the fact that you knew of at least one other person with the same issue? In the other thread Lawrence Finch suggested just scrapping the 4 and upgrading. Are you an Apple rep? I hope I'm just mistaken.

OK, let's forget the past and work together. If you enter your serial number here: Apple - Support - Check Your Service and Support Coverage what does it say your model is?

EDIT: Just saw your followup post. Please disregard.

Someone else just posted a similar question. How do I activate an iPhone 4 which states "Please insert a SIM Card"? I provided them with a link to this thread and asked them to follow this and to come over and make a quick post so everyone was together.

rosindabow wrote:

Hey Ksdavis. There was never a mention of a $30 fee ... It confirms my suspicion that they now realize there's an issue and have decide to charge the newcomers a fee to fix. This is a problem that Apple caused and frankly, in my opinion, they should fix for free. I still am not convinced that going to the Apple Store will do anything. They do not have Senior level technicians there let alone Senior level engineers. I think you might be better served doing this via phone. Either way, you just have to be insistent and point the technician to the pre-existing case numbers that have had solutions (mine is in this thread a ways back) - there are at least 4 maybe 5 case numbers now.

In any case - I wish you luck! Post back either way ...

Totally incorrect. This is based upon a faulty carrier settings update, and that's from the carrier, not from Apple. What the Engineers are doing (and there's no such thing as a Senior Engineer; they're just Engineers) is coordinating with the carrier to direct them on how to resolve the issue. The Engineers themselves aren't usually actively doing anything, except in rare cases where the device has to be assigned a totally new IMEI/MEID, and when that is required, it's because the carrier settings update fouled something up for the original IMEI/MEID. In essence, the Apple Engineers are simply guiding and consulting the carrier techs; they're acting like Technical Advisors for them. Sort of like when you call into Apple Support and they walk you through how to do something to fix your issue; but in this case, it's at a higher level.

Secondly, the $29 support fee is applicable after the first 90 days of free support (unless you have AppleCare/AppleCare+), but is not applied in many situations. Essentially, it's supposed to simply be for issues that the user could resolve on their own, but instead of using the provided resources and support articles, they want someone to do it for them or give them a verbal walkthrough.

This situation doesn't apply. It's not something the user can resolve. Therefore, if a support fee was mentioned, then either there was a misunderstanding of the stated situation, or the Apple advisor was mistaken about when such a support fee should apply.

I've heard people say, on this forum, that they've been quoted $29 to resolve an Apple ID password issue. But you don't even need to own a physical Apple product to have an Apple ID. I can use my Apple ID/iTunes account with a Windows computer running iTunes.

And all you have to do is reference this article: If you see 'No SIM' alert on iPhone - Apple Support, confirm to the first Advisor that you've done all those steps, and request to speak to a Senior Advisor. You don't have to reference anyone else's case numbers. In fact, no one should be posting any Apple Support case numbers on this forum. It's a violation of the Terms of Use, as well as your personal, private information.

FYI, I just read this post, and it is the first one with an iPhone 4s. 4S (Verizon) won't work without SIM...

I posted a link to this thread. I did it in this one and there was another one regarding an iPhone 4 from Verizon, but they were not in the US.

EDIT: this is the other one. Iphone 4 CDMA Activation problem Requires SIM

I'm sorry, but I find your answer -- that this is a "natural death" of sorts for phones -- highly unlikely for a few reasons:

• All of us reporting this have the same phone,
• On the same carrier (Verizon),
• And I suspect, all of us recently made line changes. For me, I ported the phone's mobile number to an AT&T MVNO a few days before restoring the phone. Another user reported this happening around the time they were making a line change as well.

My guess is there is something going on at the intersection of Verizon and Apple. A change to a system on one side, perhaps, leading to an unexpected consequence on the other.

The phone in question for me was never abused or subjected to ill-treatment; never jailbroken; in fact, had very little use except for corporate email, SMS and phone. My wife abhors smartphones and used her as minimally as required for her job. Frankly, I would like to reclaim some of the value in the asset by reusing it or selling it, but I obviously cannot do so with it in a hung state like this.

It's borderline absurd to think that multiple users would have exactly the same non-sensical error -- a phone that cannot accept a SIM card, heck, a phone without any GSM capabilities at ALL -- under the same circumstances, on the same carrier, due to a random hardware error or "heat" happening to us all at the same time.

UPDATE to my previous post -- sorry, I spoke too soon and too optimistically. It turns out that even describing the problem and giving the case numbers isn't in itself enough to get the message across. I realize they tried to tell me to just do a restore, a DFU or whatever, the same useless things that they told everyone else to do. I had to call back and try to explain that it needs more than just the restore, the DFU... It took a long time. These seem to be the key words that made an impression:

• it needs to have the "unlock flag flipped"
• they need to "update the activation policy"
• it needs to have the "activate" message sent to the phone

I think the best summary that got it across to them is from Genius Alvin, quoted again:

" According to Alvin, the issue occurs when a CDMA iPhone 4 is set to be unlocked. Recall that Verizon reached an agreement during a spectrum auction a few years ago to leave their phones unlocked for world-band use as a condition of getting more LTE spectrum. According to Alvin, occasionally an iPhone 4 gets registered in "the system" (not sure if this is Apple or VZ system) as being in an unlocked state.

Of course, a CDMA iPhone can't be "unlocked" -- locked/unlocked only applies to GSM phones. As a result, when you try to go through phone setup, the phone's software awaits a SIM card, which it doesn't have. (That is to say, because the network database has a certain flag for unlock status, the phone believes it is GSM and the software's logic looks for a SIM card.)"

Basically, my interpretation: the phone's activation policy currently thinks it is unlocked which is impossible [because a CDMA iPhone 4 with no SIM tray and no SIM card can't be "unlocked." ]

So they need to "update the activation policy" so that the phone is not "unlocked.” They still needed to have me explain the situation repeatedly.

Now I am off the phone finally and they said to wait 24-48 hours for a call back once they fixed it. For what it's worth, my case number is 74*******83. Fingers crossed...

<Personal Information Edited By Host>

FIXED 🙂!!!! Thanks for the responses. I called earlier today 10:30am CST, was told I would get a call around 2:00 the next day. I just powered down my iphone 4s, took out the global sim card, did a restore and connected to itunes. The first message that popped up when I hooked to itunes was, your iphone is now activated as a CDMA phone! Yay!! So I called verizon, had my planned switched back over and now my phone works! Sounds like alot more people are becoming aware of the problem and how to fix it! Good luck to everyone else, its an easy call to apple, just mention those keywords that "BenjaminL" says to mention and it will be taken care of. This is what his keywords are incase you missed it on page 8

• it needs to have the "unlock flag flipped"
• they need to "update the activation policy"
• it needs to have the "activate" message sent to the phone

I am currently on hold with Apple support. So far, I'm at 50 minutes. Talked to a rep who escalated me to another rep. She checked with someone further up the line who said that she checked prior tickets related to this issue and that it is a Verizon issue. I pushed back and cited several quotes from this thread. Finally, she got me on the line with a Senior Advisor who was very familiar with this issue and has been working on it all week. He simply had to fill out some paperwork and said it should be resolved in the next 4 hours and gave me his contact info if it is not. I informed him about the other employee who had said that this was a Verizon issue, and he said it looked like she was confused and thought that I was talking about a GSM phone. I asked him what specifically should someone mention and he said:

• Immediately ask for a senior advisor.
• Be sure to tell them that it is a CDMA phone asking for a SIM card.
• The fix involves a senior advisor filling out paperwork. Didn't think to ask what kind of paperwork. Sorry!

Thanks so much to those who have taken the time to post their solution in this thread. It was extremely helpful. Hoping what I've added will be helpful as well. My one hour on hold is nothing compared to what it sounds like some of you have endured trying to get this problem resolved. Apparently, it also takes a village to fix an iPhone sometimes!!

Hi there..

I'm from indonesia too,

my phone is FIXED already, i'm really in happiness now

please try to activate your phone..

what i did are:

1. turning off my phone for couple of hours
2. make sure, u are in Wifi range
3. turning on your iphone
4. and do connected to WiFi
5. and just set it up.. follow instruction on the screen, if the screen performing "verification failed" on activation.. its ok, just push Home button and choose "Start Over" u will goes to starting activation from the first time again, and it would be successfully like i did with my 2 iphone 4 cdma

if this successful for u, and it would be fixed for all iphone 4/4s cdma users and think Apple & Verizon already fixed this issued,

thanks for all of you was posted in this thread to give an updates and thanks for KIRUNAPAIS

To be honest, I'm not sure what they might be able to do. If a restore before activation is not allowing Verizon to enter the MEID into their system and activate the phone, there has got to be something seriously wrong with that device. I'm guessing here, but your son's line is on Verizon as well?