iPhone 15 Pro Max Anyone able to get their Tracfone service transferred to an eSim iPhone?

[xbjllb]

On the Apple website, it says Tracfone supports carrier activation. Tracfone says if you want to upgrade from a physical sim phone (iPhone 13 was the last) to any eSim model YOU LOSE YOUR PHONE NUMBER/MINUTES/DATA/SERVICE. They will only activate eSims with NEW NUMBERS/SERVICE!

This is horrific when you need to keep your old number over decades for medical and business reasons.

Is this because Tracfone's new owners want to force you to Verizon which is illegal? Will they transfer a Verizon physical sim phone number to eSim but NOT one grandfathered to T-Mobile? Is that legal?

Now I have an almost $2000 iPhone 15 Pro Max I cannot use because I need to keep my iPhone 12 Pro Max to keep my old phone number/service/data/hours and business and medical contacts. And I'm limited on the time I have to turn it in for a refund to upgrade.

Whose fault is this?

Tracfone/Verizon has had a full year to be able to do what their website says and do a simple "bring your own phone" transfer to an eSim iPhone and they are telling me no one who upgraded to an unlocked iPhone 14 complained before me?

I'm FINE with being forced to Verizon and having to get a new physical SIM card as long as then I'll be able to transfer my number/service/minutes over. But they will not tell me that because I suspect IT IS ILLEGAL.

How does this get fixed? Do I just return my iPhone 15 and get a refund and keep using my iPhone 12 while my partner uses his iPhone 11? That's STUPID and enraging.

Between Tracfone, Apple, and Verizon, SOMEONE NEEDS TO FIGURE THIS OUT and make "it just work".

In the meantime, Apple needs to remove Tracfone from its list of supported carriers, and I've already complained about this.

Has anyone gotten this to work? Thanks.

 

[kayak4ever]

On the Apple website, it says Tracfone supports carrier activation. Tracfone says if you want to upgrade from a physical sim phone (iPhone 13 was the last) to any eSim model YOU LOSE YOUR PHONE NUMBER/MINUTES/DATA/SERVICE. They will only activate eSims with NEW NUMBERS/SERVICE!

This is horrific when you need to keep your old number over decades for medical and business reasons.

Is this because Tracfone's new owners want to force you to Verizon which is illegal? Will they transfer a Verizon physical sim phone number to eSim but NOT one grandfathered to T-Mobile? Is that legal?

Now I have an almost $2000 iPhone 15 Pro Max I cannot use because I need to keep my iPhone 12 Pro Max to keep my old phone number/service/data/hours and business and medical contacts. And I'm limited on the time I have to turn it in for a refund to upgrade.

Whose fault is this?

Tracfone/Verizon has had a full year to be able to do what their website says and do a simple "bring your own phone" transfer to an eSim iPhone and they are telling me no one who upgraded to an unlocked iPhone 14 complained before me?

I'm FINE with being forced to Verizon and having to get a new physical SIM card as long as then I'll be able to transfer my number/service/minutes over. But they will not tell me that because I suspect IT IS ILLEGAL.

How does this get fixed? Do I just return my iPhone 15 and get a refund and keep using my iPhone 12 while my partner uses his iPhone 11? That's STUPID and enraging.

Between Tracfone, Apple, and Verizon, SOMEONE NEEDS TO FIGURE THIS OUT and make "it just work".

In the meantime, Apple needs to remove Tracfone from its list of supported carriers, and I've already complained about this.

Has anyone gotten this to work? Thanks.

I am up in a similar boat, but thankfully still within the return window for the iPhone 15. The person at Tracfone I chatted with said they are trying to fix this but haven't as of yet. Not just a new phone number but the entire account (minutes and data and expiration date) does not port so it will be like starting Tracfone from scratch and losing whatever minutes etc you have been in your account. We typically buy the annual plan so many months still left on it.

There must be many people using iPhones with Tracfone who are planning to upgrade to an iPhone 14 or 15 or a later one in the future that Tracfone may well lose if they don't fix this. ESIMs are where all phones are going so it is odd that is has been over a year and this problem still exists. I have been with Tracfone for 20 years I think and sure has saved us a ton of money over a "regular" carrier. Hate to see that end.

 

[xbjllb]

I am up in a similar boat, but thankfully still within the return window for the iPhone 15. The person at Tracfone I chatted with said they are trying to fix this but haven't as of yet. Not just a new phone number but the entire account (minutes and data and expiration date) does not port so it will be like starting Tracfone from scratch and losing whatever minutes etc you have been in your account. We typically buy the annual plan so many months still left on it.

There must be many people using iPhones with Tracfone who are planning to upgrade to an iPhone 14 or 15 or a later one in the future that Tracfone may well lose if they don't fix this. ESIMs are where all phones are going so it is odd that is has been over a year and this problem still exists. I have been with Tracfone for 20 years I think and sure has saved us a ton of money over a "regular" carrier. Hate to see that end.

There are, Verizon (who bought and run Tracfone) are well aware of it and want it that way, they are the worst and the absolute most expensive carrier there is, I bought the bullet and went with Mint. Double the tracfone yearly fee BUT unlimited data and still one fourth the cost of Verizon. And that's without paying double for Verizon's "free" apple phones on top of the service. I live in a rural area where verizon won't even work reliably. I sensed when tracfone was bugging me to switch my sim to the "free Verizon sim" for two years the end was probably coming, and it did.

Get this. I posted on the apple forums to warn people of the situation and it was deleted. And the Apple website STILL says Tracfone supports the iPhone 15. And yes, I complained to all the outlets including on the phone.

One thing was good about it. Once I decided to make the transfer, I got the transfer code from Tracfone easily and finally got the e-sim on the new phone activated. After I stupidly activated the e-sim for Mint on the OLD PHONE BY MISTAKE.

So be careful.

 

[kayak4ever]

So you were you able to keep your phone number by porting to Mint? That is the biggest hassle in all this.

I also see that Verizon-owned Visible has a $25/month everything included plan (unlimited data) that is still double what I've been paying annually with Tracfone with the extra data I end up buying.

 

[xbjllb]

Absolutely. You get a release code from tracfone that releases the number, (I did it on the phone but you can do it online I think) then you give that to mint and they're able to activate the e-sim with your old number. What I liked about Mint was I was able to prepay for a year like I did with Tracfone. When you pay monthly is when they stick it to you, because the interest they make yearly in advance on pre-paid accounts lets them lower the cost.

 

[kayak4ever]

Very helpful - thank you! I am now considering Mint. It uses T-mobile network - I'm not sure how that would be as I spend 6 months of the year in a rural area (can't load their coverage map for some reason). I know that there are all sorts of fees and taxes over the base amount, but having a hard time getting a real number (or estimate) from their website. EG - If I bought the annual plan (say 5Gb) what would the cost be (assume 15X12 or 180) but can't tell about the additional taxes and fees?

 

[xbjllb]

Yes, right, T-Mobile. That's the service that works the best out here, and why Tracfone worked fine until Verizon bought it.

 

[adwade]

I wanted to report that I have successfully transferred my Tracfone Wireless Service over from an older iPhone XR (purchased from Tracfone) to a brand-new iPhone 14 (purchased directly from Apple) with an eSIM. It wasn’t easy or straightforward, but it is possible!

It took me four phone calls using my landline, each averaging about 20 minutes each. The main issue I ran into with call was the fact customer support employees are reading from a script and it’s really hard to get them to put the script aside and listen to what you are trying to tell them.

[*TIP 1: Document your issue with Tracfone by obtaining a CASE #. This alone will save you the problem of starting over with each new call to their customer service. Also get the NAME of who you are speaking with each time.]

Whenever I tried to “Set Up Cellular” on the new iPhone 14, I was given two options to proceed: 1)Transfer from Nearby iPhone or, 2)Use QR Code.

Not having a QR Code, I chose “Transfer from Nearby iPhone” and the new iPhone 14 would generate an onscreen code, which I was then asked to type into my old iPhone XR. As soon as I would do this, the following error would always appear: “Your SIM is Not Supported - The SIM in your old iPhone does not support eSIM transfer. - Contact TFW for assistance.”

Notice: The error message references the (old/existing) SIM Card’s inability to transfer TFW Service information over to your (brand) new eSIM.

The issue is whenever you tell a Tracfone employee this error message, they (falsely) hear you say the error message states: “eSIMs are not supported” and proceed to tell you your cellphone is not compatible with their TFW network.

Again, that’s NOT what the error message says, it states that: Your (old/existing) physical SIM does not support (automatic) eSIM data transfer.

After I finally got ‘Charles’ (below) to finally LOOK at this webpage on Tracfone’s own website, he figured out it was achievable and acceptable: https://support.tracfone.com/en/brands/Apple/TFAPESIMSUPPORT1/tutorial/1694814/

As such, the new eSIM IMEI number needs to be entered into the Tracfone System M-a-n-u-a-l-l-y by them. Now, getting them to do this is the challenge. Once they understand what needs to be done, it's fairly simple, but getting them to go ‘off-script’ and LISTEN to you is the real task at hand.

SIDENOTE: Using Tracfone’s page to check and insure my new iPhone 14 was compatible with their service, I used the BYOP/KYOD check to validate my new iPhone 14 was compatible before I ever opened the new iPhone 14 up. After entering my first IMEI number (NOT the IMEI2) it validated as compatible, with a green checkmark indicator. I was keeping my existing phone number, so used the first IMEI to transfer my (existing) service over to.

It took a series of four calls into TFW customer service to achieve the process. On my first call I was simply told flat-out by ‘Charles’ that my newly purchased iPhone 14 was incompatible with TFW Service. I refused to acknowledge this and requested for the representative to open a CASE #, which he did and I documented the Case Number.

On my second call, ‘Marlon’ suggested I let the two iPhones communicate for 20 minutes (even with the error message showing on the screen), and if that failed to shut them both OFF and then back ON again. THEN, if the new iPhone 14 did not update to call back in again...I did so, and the new iPhone 14 did not update.

On my third call, ‘Frapi’ read through the Case notes entered to date and after some discussion said he would have to transfer me to “Higher Level Support.”

Upon transfer, I was speaking with ‘Albert’ who realized the problem and said he could help me out. He asked me for the last four digits of my new phone’s EID (Note: Some refer to this as the SIM number, it is a 32-digit long number) As he took a bit to document the issue in the Case Notes...he dropped the call, in error.

[*TIP 2: Have your 32-digit EID number ready, so you can give customer support the Last 4-digits when requested. Also, have your first IMEI number ready if you are transferring your existing phone number. Otherwise, I gather some use the second IMEI (ie IMEI2) if you are establishing a new phone number and you later want to port another phone number in as your primary number.]

Finally, calling back I spoke with ‘Kimberly’ who read through my case notes (so far) and said she understood and could fix the problem. All she needed at this point in the process, was my first IMEI and she took it from there. Within minutes, she had my information keyed into their system and my new iPhone was functioning under TFW Service at last!

Three webpages I found both informative and helpful during this process were:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102478

https://networkbuildz.com/tracfone-esim-activation/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-transfer-sim-esim-phone-number-to-apple-iphone-14/

 

[plant59]

On the Apple website, it says Tracfone supports carrier activation. Tracfone says if you want to upgrade from a physical sim phone (iPhone 13 was the last) to any eSim model YOU LOSE YOUR PHONE NUMBER/MINUTES/DATA/SERVICE. They will only activate eSims with NEW NUMBERS/SERVICE!

This is horrific when you need to keep your old number over decades for medical and business reasons.

Is this because Tracfone's new owners want to force you to Verizon which is illegal? Will they transfer a Verizon physical sim phone number to eSim but NOT one grandfathered to T-Mobile? Is that legal?

Now I have an almost $2000 iPhone 15 Pro Max I cannot use because I need to keep my iPhone 12 Pro Max to keep my old phone number/service/data/hours and business and medical contacts. And I'm limited on the time I have to turn it in for a refund to upgrade.

Whose fault is this?

Tracfone/Verizon has had a full year to be able to do what their website says and do a simple "bring your own phone" transfer to an eSim iPhone and they are telling me no one who upgraded to an unlocked iPhone 14 complained before me?

I'm FINE with being forced to Verizon and having to get a new physical SIM card as long as then I'll be able to transfer my number/service/minutes over. But they will not tell me that because I suspect IT IS ILLEGAL.

How does this get fixed? Do I just return my iPhone 15 and get a refund and keep using my iPhone 12 while my partner uses his iPhone 11? That's STUPID and enraging.

Between Tracfone, Apple, and Verizon, SOMEONE NEEDS TO FIGURE THIS OUT and make "it just work".

In the meantime, Apple needs to remove Tracfone from its list of supported carriers, and I've already complained about this.

Has anyone gotten this to work? Thanks.

I didn't have any problems keeping my same phone number when transferring everything over from an iphone 8 (physical sim) to iphone 14 (e-sim). Call tracfone cs, but for some reason, you do have to request the e-sim on their website.

 

[xbjllb]

Thanks to everyone, I switched to Mint Mobile a long time ago. The problem was tracfone is only Verizon now, and Verizon doesn't work in my rural community. Mint Mobile is T-Mobile, as was the original Tracfone. Mint is about a fifth the cost of Verizon if you take the year plan, and with unlimited data.