Can I activate a Galaxy S5 with my old SD Card?

[Tina1172]

I am trying to activate a new Galaxy S5 using the SD card out of my RAZR. I used Verizon's site to transfer the phones, it has not worked. It also does not appear that the S5 is reading the SD card. Can anyone help?

[GalaxyClass]

First give a try to reinstalling that SD card to be sure your reading that card.

[Tina1172]

I just tried that again. The phone sits for about 5 minutes after being turned on with the message, "please wait until your phone has been activated" Then nothing is different. On the verizon site, it is still showing my RAZR as the active phone.

[tikibar1]

Swapping phones should be as simple as moving the SIM card from one phone to the other (in other words, you don't have to go through the Switch Devices on My Verizon, you just move the SIM card).  But it sounds like you may have a bad SIM card or some other issue.  You may want to contact Customer Service if you have access to a working phone, or else visit your local Corporate Verizon store.  If the SIM card is corrupt, a replacement is free at Corporate stores or by calling Customer Service.

[Jchartraw · Accepted solution]

Transfer the Sim Card, not the SD card.

[Tina1172]

I'm confused. I have transferred phones in the past without a problem. This time I used the SIM that came with the new phone and on transferred the SD card. I am assuming that I made a mistake?

[Tina1172]

Trying that now....

[Tina1172]

It worked....thank you!! It doesn't appear to be reading the SD card, but I can work with that later.

[tikibar1]

No, you didn't necessarily make a mistake.  You'd want to move the SD card from the old phone to the new one.  And, of course, to activate the phone, you need either the SIM card from your old phone or the SIM card that came with the new phone.  The easiest way to activate is to just move the SIM card from the old phone.  If you used the card that came with the S5, it sounds like it hasn't been activated yet, even though you went through the steps on-line.  You could try going through the activation steps again, or you could try using the SIM card from your old phone (simply move it to the S5), or call Customer Service and ensure the new SIM card is activated.