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* iPhone 5 Activation and SIM Aging *

As I and everyone else can see, customers are having issues activating their iPhone 5 because of alternate upgrades. If the SIM card is currently paired to the number the upgrade came from, the SIM needs to be placed in a Aging Status (AG). If the SIM is NOT paired with a number, you should be able to activate the SIM on any other number (business as usual). What causes a SIM to be paired? If you called the 1-877-807-4646 (IVR), this will pair the SIM with the number the upgrade came from. Powering the phone on may have paired the SIM card as well, as it is a 4g phone.

Removing SIM cards will NOT place the SIM card into Aging Status (AG). Do NOT do a factory reset, this will NOT unpair the SIM card from the number. If you have multiple iPhone 5 devices and they are mixed up, swapping SIM cards will NOT resolve the issue (if they are already paired). What do I do?
- You have to reactivate the previous phone to place the SIM card into Aging Status (AG)
- If you started a new line of service and there is no previous device, a VZ rep will have to place a Dummy ESN on the line to place the SIM card into Aging Status (AG)
- As soon as it's in Aging Status (AG), the SIM can only be paired and activated on the original number
- After 24 hours, the SIM card will switch from Aging Status (AG) and go into a Available, Deactivated (AD) status
- Once in AD status, you can now activate the SIM card on any new or existing number
- If you absolutely want it fixed immediately, you would have to get a new SIM card

What caused this problem in the first place? It's simple, the "transfer upgrade" was not done properly. The upgrade was simply ordered under the line that was eligible to upgrade. That being said, once you turn the phone on, it's ready to be activated under the number the upgrade came from. If the "transfer upgrade" was done properly, the SIM card would have been ready to be paired on the correct number.

I'm creating this topic because I have posted this in many other threads and it seems to be a major issue with a lot of people. Feel free to ask any questions.

Comments

Ann154

Did you know it would be more helpful if you put this in the iPhone 5 space!

yr2615

Adam, where have you been all my life? (Or at least since Friday). I plan to attempt to activate once again in a few hours...do I need to have the phones on or off or does it even matter? I have an active iPhone 4 and I want to move my iPhone 5 that is in AG status to that line.

Thanks in advance!

jackydcr

Thank you Adam!

gerio

Hi, Ann. Had no iPhone 5 activation issues here...:)) Adam may have known it, but...?..:)) it's great of Adam to take the time to post info like this. I've not heard of this, but with all the online purchases, I don't doubt that there's a plethora of issues that CSRs will be dealing with once those online orders arrive.

Here's how to avoid this problem:

1: gather a cooler, some drinks, chips, and sandwiches.

2: park in front of your local iPhone store at midnight (or based on your locale and anticipated crowd waiting for the store to open)

3: bring yer iPad to help pass the time between the short periods of that quality sleep that's only available sitting behind the wheel of your vehicle (yes, it's PARKED! Someone's gonna ask...:)

4: when everyone starts peeling out of their cars, you can have a seat in your previously-placed lawn chair by the door of the store (in this case, about 5:45am.

5: be the second one in line so you'll be the second one to get an iPhone in the store.

Yes, I actually did this...this is officially called "the hard way.."...:))

No, I won't do it again...

Take care,

Geri O

wgriffiths2

Hey Adam thanks for all the advice and all of your insightful information. Your information has helped me more than any of the Verizon Customer Service Reps have. Let me tell you of my experience:

I just like a lot of people did the usual activation that it says to do in the box and that the Verizon reps told me to do on the phone that was upgradeable on. Did this and then went to switch to the line I actually wanted it on and obviously as you know this is a no go from the start. So at this point I am not to happy. Call Verizon up and they say wait 24 hours and the sim will age out. Ok no problem. I can handle 24 hours of wait time. 24 hours rolls around and I head to my nearest Verizon store. Rep there starts to do the swap and an error kicks in. He asks me if I have let it sit DEACTIVATED for 24 hours and I tell him I was never told it had to be Deactivated and that I was told it just needed to be on for 24 hours. So now I am not a happy camper because of this and to top it all off the guy who was standing next to me got the last nano sim card for the day. So again this didnt help me at all. Rep told me to come back in the morning today and that they would have new nano sim cards and they will do it this way. While this is going on, the rep tells me that he is reading an email that says the nano sims will be aged at 7am local time every morning. Hmmm very interesting. He doesnt say much more than this. So I go about my day thinking I am going to have to come in in the morning. Well me thinking that it is Sunday the next day and how will they receive a shipment of nano sims on a Sunday, I call the store again and ask someone different if they will get any in and the rep said they would expect them later in the day and that they probably would not have them first thing in the morning. Again another rep telling me something different.

So fast forward about three hours and I decide I am going to see if the 7am local time theory will work, as well as the 24 hour theory as well. Its 5oclock central time in the evening and call Verizon up and have them deactivate my Sim card instead of taking the chance in the morning of going across town and waiting for a nano sim card they may never show up. Rep tells me to do the process again at 5 pm local time once the sim has aged for 24 hours. I have read all over these boards that the 24 hour method does work so I am excited. All last night I tried to see maybe if I put the info in it would show up. I would get all the way past selecting my unlimited plan again and then it would say it can not be completed and this is most likely due to the aging process going on with the sim.

I go to bed last night and wake up this morning around 7:30 local time and I get on MyVerizon and start the swap process to see if the rep at the store was correct in the 7am theory. I get all the way to where I did the night before and now it finally says your phone is now ACTIVATED!!!! So for me and hopefully this will help others, you need to deactivate your sim card and replace with a dummy phone on that line. Then wait until 7am the next morning and try to do the switch in My Verizon. It should work for you and if not just wait the 24 hours then, but I have seen people saying it didnt take 24 hours so Im thinking the 7am theory is the way to go. Sorry If this was a novel to read but I wanted to share my experience and let every one know that it is 7 hours earlier than 24 hours and I am using my Iphone 5 with unlimited on the right line. Hope this works!!! O and thanks again for everything Adam. Verizon needs you to train their staff lol

FireAndBlood

Is it 24 hours from when the iPhone 5 was deactivated or a full midnight to midnight period after the iPhone 5 was deactivated?

yr2615

For me it was approx 21 hours from when I deactivated the phone.

gerio

It took nearly an hour for the first 8 of us at the Verizon store counter to see our new iPhones activate. God Bless our store people for their tenacity, too! There were various issues and conflicts...I was exchanging an Android 4G phone, another was moving lines around, and activations were running REALLY slow. I guess it's the angst of several hundred thousand iPhones attempting activation at once.

FireAndBlood

@yr2614 All you did was deactivate your iPhone 5, and then reactivate the original phone? Does the iPhone 5 restore to the activation sequence or did you activate on Myverizon with MEID?

wgriffiths2

Your phone has to be deactivated for 24 hours, not midnight to midnight. So if you called verizon and deactivated it at 2pm then you have to wait til 2pm the next day. Now as I said above in my earlier post, I was told 7 am the next day and it worked for me. So try that as well, but it for sure will work after 24 hours and even earlier if you do it at 7 am. Good luck every one and make sure that it is DEACTIVATED

FireAndBlood

"Your phone" as in the iPhone 5? On the Verizonwireless website it shows that my non iPhone 5 has been reactivated. How did you reactivate your iPhone 5 on the desired number?

yr2615

This is what I did step by step:

On Friday around 6pm I activated my iPhone 5 on the line that was eligible for the upgrade. I then tried to transfer it over to my line that has unlimited data. It wouldn't allow me to. So I called Verizon and they told me it had to be activated for 24 hours. After reading through these forums I decided to deactivate the iPhone 5, so the next morning, I deactivated it by activating an old dumb phone on that same line. That went through easily online. At 6pm (24 hours from when i activated the iPhone 5) I tried activating the iPhone 5 again on my unlimited data line. It still didn't go through even though it had been 24 hours. I called Verizon again and they couldn't activate it either. After reading all the helpful posts on here, I found out that the phone has to be DEACTIVATED for 24 hours, not activated as Verizon had told me. So that would mean at 7 a.m. this morning I would be able to activate it. Since I had read about others having it activated before 24 hours, I kept trying periodically online until finally around 4 a.m. the activation went through. It had been about 21 hours since I had deactivated it. As many others have posted, there is no need to replace the SIM (if you don't mind waiting the approx 24 hours). If you don't want to wait, you can go to a Verizon store and they can swap it out for you, provided they actually have some in stock. That was going to be my next step if I couldn't activate it myself this morning.

yr2615

I wonder if its 7 a.m. Eastern time? Because I was able to activate mine at around 4:11 a.m. Pacific time, and my phone had only been deactivated for 21 hours.

yr2615

ak1230,sorry I noticed I didn't answer your question. Yes, I activated through My Verizon, by providing the MEID number and the SIM card number which was printed on my receipt from Verizon. If you don't have that, you can pop out the SIM card from the side of the phone using a paper clip; the SIM number is printed on there. On My Verizon, I selected the line that I wanted the iPhone 5 on, my unlimited data line. It then advised me to back up my contacts. Then it asked me to enter the MEID number, then it advised me that this type of phone requires a SIM so it gave me the option to order a SIM card or enter the number if I already had one. Then it asked me to select a Data Plan. I left it on my unlimited plan. Then it summarized my info - the phone, the line, the plan. I hit submit and it was activated. I did this MANY times but it finally worked after 21 hours of the iPhone 5 being deactivated.

FireAndBlood

For any novices that were a bit confused on the process like I was, I'll go through a step by step process on what I did to activate my iPhone 5.

My situation: On my plan I have 1 iPhone 4 with unlimited data and 1 dumb phone.

1. Upgraded the dumb phone to the iPhone 5.

2. Went into the Verizon store had them activate the dumb phone to the iPhone 5 and reactivate the dumb phone (I think this step can be done online, but I just wanted to be sure so I went to the store)

3. Waited 24 hours (as stated by some people above this time period may be shorter)

4. Activated the iPhone 5 on verizonwireless.com by using the MEID.

5. Verizon will prompt you that you need to get simcard. Use the ICCID.

(MEID and ICCID can be found on the back of the box your iPhone 5 came in)

Hope this helps anyone else that was unsure of what the exact process was.

Pariyah

Adam,

Want to make sure of this process with you.

My i5 should be here Oct. 5th if the site is accurate??? Ordered Sept. 19th. Ordered it on a basic line so I could keep unlimited on my line and still get the phone at the discount rate.

So when it arrives, DONT activate or turn on the phone at all to the basic line? Then call in and have it activated to the unlimted data line? Will this avoid having to wait the 24 hours? Trying not to have to do that if at all possible.

From what i've read. i can call in with the MEID and ICCID and have them activate the phone straight to my unlimited data line without ever activating on the basic phone line, thus avoiding the 24 hour wait.

Sound accurate? Also, we have a samsung s3 coming too today. That's for my wife. Also upgraded using our 4th line (basic line). Plan to switch it over to her unlimited data line.

Thanks.

mcjake333

Adam,

Thanks for all the help you have provided here and in several other threads. It helped me wrap my head around this process and enabled me to have the correct conversation with the CSR's to get this resolved.

All,

I had much better luck with the level 2 support (I think it is "Tech" support). They knew about this and understood the process that Adam described above.

I recommend that you be persistent, but polite with the reps. There is a lot to learn and little time to learn it in. If you get someone that says that this isn't possible, I would let them go and call again and try to talk to 2nd level support. Oddly, I have found that most reps in the stores do not understand this process so the phone is your best bet.

Mike

FireAndBlood

@PariyahI can't really comment on the process you're asking about since its not the route I took. It is the first time I've heard of that so I don't know if it works or not.

mcjake333

I forgot to add that in my case it did not take 24 hours. The rep I talked to told me that she was seeing it happen in several hours. We spoke at 4pm on Saturday and she called me back on Sunday morning at 8am to finish the sim transfer so it might be faster for some of you guys as well.

Remember as Adam has mentioned, the fastest way to get this done is to get your hands on a new sim card. I have read that the Apple store is the best bet as most Verizon stores in my are did not have them.

Pariyah

info on SIM Aging.

This worked on the upgrade we did for my wife but she got the S3. Hopefully i'll have the same luck when my iPhone arrives.

Her S3 showed up last night. We did not turn it on or anything. Called straight into CS. The rep went through her process and then had me insert the sim, battery, and power on the phone. Went through all the initial setup steps and walla.....Done. Instantly connected.

Added info, the original rep we had talked to said it was ok to transfer her upgrade to the basic line, upgrade on the basic line, then transfer the phone to her line. DON'T DO THIS. Apparently when you do, when the phone is activated it still renews the line that originally was eligible for upgrade, thus changing your plan and causing you to lose unlimited.Luckily the rep we had last night was able to fix the issue and keep my wife's line on unlimited. Just goes to show, if they say they can't do it, they really can!!

Pete329

Adam, thanks for writing this out in a clear and concise way. I've been going back and forth with our Wireless team and Verizon. We purchased 20 iPhone 5's with existing numbers, so I found out the same information from a Verizon rep, that the iPhone has to go into an Aging status and wait 24 hours (Or until 9:00am the next day), before I can move existing iPhone 4S cell numbers to the new iPhone 5's.

So, Here are my questions.

1. Can you bulk move a bunch of iPhone 5's at once to AG?

2. When you move an iPhone 5 to AG, does it need to know the iPhone 4S cell number that you want to move to it?

3. Once the iPhone 5 is released from AG, can you put any cell number on it?

2 and 3 are kind of the same question, but I need to clear this up with our Wireless team, and the Verizon team for our company. They all seem to think that when you put an i5 into AG, that it needs the new cell number.

I believe from what you have said, this is not true.

Thanks,

Pete

yr2615

Hi Pete,

Just my two cents about my own experience until Adam responds...my phone went into AG status when I activated a dumb phone on that line. But from what Ive read, a rep can put it in AG status for you without having to put a dumb phone or any other phone for that matter on that line. not sure about the bulk move. As for the phone numbers, I did not need to identify/assign a phone number for the iPhone 5 when it went into AG status. It was simply a deactivated phone and I could have put it on any one of my other four lines once the 24 hour AG status was over.

Good luck!

graham_martin

Thought I would share the following information.

A friend of mine has a UDP on his line and had a friend with an upgrade on an non-UDP who was willing to let him have the iPhone off his account.

Phone came in on 9/21 and we checked to see the best ways to activate it.

One customer service Rep said the best way to do this without losing Unlimited Data after the next billing cycle, was to activate on the original line the phone came on, deactivate and activate on the UDP line. She said the key was to activate and deactivate prior to midnight EST. She said the system would then update and by 7 am EST the next day, the SIM would be reset and it could be activated on the UDP line without problem.

My friend was finally able to try this yesterday, and we can confirm it does indeed work.

He activated on his friend's line by 8pm an deactivated it. He removed the SIM card from the iPhone, put it back in and kept the phone off (don't know if that helps or makes any difference but thought it might be worth mentioning).

As a test he did keep trying hourly on the Verizon site to see if the phone could be added to the account. It would go through the process, asking him to change his Data Plan (Unlimited was still an option to select) and he got to the confirm button. Once there it would tell him that it couldn't be done at that time.

He tried it again at 705 AM and this time it Activated without problem.

Therefore, I think this particular Rep gave solid information (which seems to match the information posted here). It isn't necessarily 24 Hours that you have to wait for the SIM to refresh, it just needs to be activated/deactivated on the line prior to midnight and you have to wait for their system to refresh by 7am EST.

Pariyah

UPDATE FOR EVERYONE: Just so you know, if you call in before turning on the i5 you definitely don't have to deal with the Sim Aging. Did it tonight when I received my phone. Now if I can just get my headphone port issue fixed I'll be all good.

vzw_customer_support

Hi Pete329,

I can see how switching devices may be confusing when this AG status must be taken into consideration. Please see answers to your questions below:

1- You can change multiple phones at once but this may cause confusion and I recommend doing changes individually. We can also swap phones for you if you call us at 800-922-0204 and have all phones involved available when your call.

2- Once iPhone 5 is AG you can activate/switch to any line regardless.

3- I think answer 2 covers this question as well.

I trust that you will not encounter any issues activating your devices on the line you need them. Keep us posted.

AntonioC_VZWSupport

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VZWSupport

luke6026

so here is the issue that i am having. I've been trying to activate the iPhone 5 for 5 days now. I initially paid the $30 and transferred the upgrade from my line to another on the account that was not available yet. ordered online. when the phone arrived i did the activation on the line that i transferred the upgrade to,which worked fine. after the terms had been accepted and a little time had passed i deactivated the iphone 5 from that line and reactivated the original dumb phone. powered down the iphone an let it sit so the sim card would go into aging status and unpair. then the plan was to activate the iphone on my line not affecting my unlimited data plan. every time i try to switch a phone on either line it dose not give me the option to enter in the ESN numbers. rather the iphone info is pre loaded like it were never received and activated and wants to alter the plan on either line. and when i do try to activate the phone on the basic line it wont complete now. i had to go to the store and have a rep activate it to the transferred line yesterday. as soon as i deactivated it again, boom the same thing it wants to start all over. any ideas????

djdanny

Did you ever solve this issue?

luke6026

Eventually I did get the 5 activated without affecting the unlimited data. I called customer service one last time and presented the issue I was having. Luckily the gentlemen on the phone was able to succeed where everyone else had failed. He entered everything in manually from his end and it did take an unusual amount of time. Took around 30 minutes over the phone and we had to turn the device on and off several times and retry to activate before he got it.

Finally he did get it tho. However oddly when I look at my Verizon the phone still shows like it needs to be activated when I attempt to switch any phones on the account. So I'm just gonna leave it alone and not move anything around. The phone is activated on the line I wanted and the plans weren't affected. I'm good with that.

Sent from my iPhone 5

bsearle

This is a bunch of ***** *****!!!! I went to the store and ordered the phone telling the sales rep what I wanted to do. When I got the phone it obviously wasn't done correctly because when I activated the phone it was on the wrong number. I called customer service they said it would have to age or go into your local Verizon store and they can put in a new sim card. I went to the store and they said they dont have any sim cards (RIDICULOUS!!!). They said I could try the Apple store which isn't close (Not acceptable!!) or I could wait until 7 am and call customer services and they would be able to switch the devices. I called at 7 this morning and now the sim card has to age for 24 hours. Why the ***** couldn't someone have told me the truth and started the aging process yesterday? Now I have to wait 48 hours. From all the research I have done it looks like Verizon is the only one with this problem. I wish I would have never left AT&T!!! Horrible customer service! Make sure they set the iPhone 5 up correctly when you order it.

djdanny

Thank you, sir. I ended up calling customer service this morning and they set it all up for me.

Avilicious024

Hey there all! This may sound a tad uneducated, but I have my iphone 5 in limbo of the sim aging process and was told not to turn it on for 24hrs...my question is, I turned it on...oops...will that affect the process???? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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