iPhone XS activation issue

If you can't activate your iPhone - Apple Support - https://support.apple.com/HT201407 - "If your iPhone can't be activated or an alert says the activation server is unavailable [or cannot be reached] or the SIM card is unsupported, learn what to do."

If you get an alert about the SIM card in your iPhone - Apple Support - https://support.apple.com/HT201420 - If you get an alert that says Invalid SIM or No SIM Card installed, follow these steps.

I had many problems activating my iPhone XS today. I had to go to Verizon for help. It took about one hour to get it activated. Verizon replaced the SIM card that came with the phone for a brand new SIM card. It took awhile...but it worked. I would advise going to your carrier and have them help you with activation. I have never had this happen before. I have always been able to set my iPhone up and activate from my home.

Same problem, but with ATT.

I spent hours last night attempting to activate my Xs. Everything else about the migration from my 7 went fine, but it is just an iPad right now. Without WiFi it is worthless.

I have an appointment to go to the ATT store today. Never had this much trouble with a new iPhone, and I have had a lot of them.

I used Quick Start and an iTunes backup on my Mac to transfer data from my old iPhone 7 to my new iPhone Xs.

All the data transferred over, but my Xs was not activated on ATT. My old 7 was still active.

So..I erased the old 7 and reset it to factory defaults. But it still showed a cellular connection.

I read the activation instructions on Apple's site, but the instructions did not help.

Then I went to the ATT site, www.att.com/activate to manually activate the Xs.

I entered the EID number from the Xs box (thinking it was the same as the ICCID) and the IMEI2 number on the box (not noticing the "2". These were the wrong numbers. In Settings on the Xs, I could see the true ICCID and the IMEI (without the 2). (The IMEI without the "2" is on the box, as the last number listed. Why is the "2" number first??)

I entered the correct ICCID and IMEI numbers, but the ATT site continued to say I entered the wrong IMEI.

After a 1.5 hour chat session with ATT, during which I was transferred to a higher level of support, the tech supervisor was able to force activate the Xs. He had to manually enter the ICCID and IMEI on his end. I also had to remove the SIM card on the old 7.

Never, in the 4 or 5 iPhones that I've owned, have I had to go through such an experience.

I'm wondering with the problem lies with Quick Start. I've never used it before.

I have a similar problem with my iPhone Xs max. I try to activate it with Metro Pcs and the claimed IMEI number is not going through it. It is really annoying.

Hey Franco just curious if metro figured it out for you. Had the same issue and returned the phone back to Apple.

Ok, here's the fix: I got through by simply leaving the PIN field blank during the activation setup. Really secure! Thanks Apple 🙂

Yeah this is really disappointing. My wife wants to switch back to her iPhone8 she’s so frustrated because she uses her phone for work constantly.