Guide to Upgrade Swapping

[Shyfe]

Being a person who had many questions about upgrade swapping and got many different answers, I wanted to create a guide based on my personal experience and how it should actually work.

Scenario 1: Person 1 has an iPhone 2G. You have some random phone and want to upgrade to 3G. Person 1 wants to continue using iPhone 2G.
1. Receive new iPhone 3GS
2. Remove iPhone 3GS from box and activate it on Person 1's line with pre-installed SIM still in there
3. Call ATT, explain to them that you bought an iPhone 3GS on one line, want to use it on your line. Also tell them to switch Person 1's line back to iPhone 2G (If they have no idea what to do, tell them to switch the IMEIs)
4. Confirm which line has what phones/data plans with the ATT representative
5. Remove SIM card from your phone and place it into iPhone 3GS
6. Take SIM card that was originally installed in iPhone 3GS and put it into iPhone 2G
7. Plug iPhone 2G into iTunes and activate
8. End result: Person 1's line remains the same, you have an iPhone 3GS on your line

Scenario 2: You previously had a 3G phone and want to give it to someone after using their 3GS upgrade
1. Receive new iPhone 3GS
2. Remove iPhone 3GS from box and activate it on Person 1's line with pre-installed SIM still in there
3. Call ATT, explain to them that you bought an iPhone 3GS on one line, want to use it on your line. Also tell them to switch Person 1's line to the iPhone 3G previously on your line (If they have no idea what to do, tell them to switch the IMEIs)
4. Remove SIM card from your iPhone 3G and place it into iPhone 3GS
5. Take SIM card that was originally installed in iPhone 3GS and put it into iPhone 3G
6. End result: Person 1's line has an iPhone 3G, you have an iPhone 3GS on your line

Notes: It should still work even if you don't call up ATT and have them switch it, however your line will not show up as using the correct phone

I know scenario 1 for a fact since I just did it yesterday. I am pretty sure it will work this way for scenario 2.

If I am missing any scenarios, or info is wrong, tell me and I'll work on it. Good luck to all those upgrade swapping.

General concepts
1. Whatever SIM card you have in there while activating will become the phone number that you purchased the iPhone on, regardless of what number was on there originally

 

[SephirothXR]

Hey thanks a lot for the help I actually bookmarked this page incase I need it again. I have this one scenario, it'll only work though if I can manage to sell my current iPhone 3G on Ebay for around $300

My mom has an iPhone 3G, I have one as well. When I sell mine, I'll take my SIM out, and I want to get the 3GS by having my mom upgrade. I think this is the same as scenario 1, but can she activate the 3GS (since she has to do this with her account) with her previous 3G SIM in the 3GS, or she has to with the one already in the 3GS? She's the type that wants to make sure nothing wrong happens, so how do I make sure that all her contacts and account stay on her 3G? I'll just put my SIM card in her 3GS, but how do I make sure that she's fine? Because when you activate the pre-installed SIM card in the 3GS and put it back into say my mom's iPhone 3G and then activate it with iTunes again, how will she get her contacts back again, is that just in iTunes?

 

[BrownManUPS]

Scenerio: One person on your family plan is eligible for an early upgrade but you aren't. You have an iPhone 3G or something and that other person has another phone (in my case, a blackberry). Let's call the person on the plan that is eligible for the upgrade SP (subsidized pricing).

1. Get SP to agree to 2 more years of AT&T(toughest part?)
2. Go to the Apple Store with: Last four digits of social, the phone number eligible, and the billing zipcode.
3. If eligible, you will get an iPhone 3GS! But, the sim inside is for the number eligible. Oh and SP's phone will no longer work. =(
4. Hurry home to the SP and you take out the sim card in the iPhone 3GS (before plugging into iTunes) and put it back into SP's phone (the blackberry in my case).
5. Put your sim from your iPhone into the new iPhone 3GS!
6. You may start syncing and activating the iPhone 3GS. Meanwhile, we need to fix SP's blackbeerry (or other phone) again for normal service.
7. Call AT&T (611) and explain what you did. This is perfectly allowed and isn't illegal. They will need the IMEI of the phone (or will have it in their system). In 2 minutes, their phone should be good as new. You will need to reboot SP's phone.
8. NOTE: If the SP had a blackberry data plan this IS NOT the same as an iPhone plan, and the connection will refuse. So, you must call AT&T to change this.
9. Done! And now you have a new phone and your cool family member just sat there and took the two years! Hug that person for good measure!

I had to do this. But it was painless! Hooray good customer service!

 

[Shyfe]

Hey thanks a lot for the help I actually bookmarked this page incase I need it again. I have this one scenario, it'll only work though if I can manage to sell my current iPhone 3G on Ebay for around $300

My mom has an iPhone 3G, I have one as well. When I sell mine, I'll take my SIM out, and I want to get the 3GS by having my mom upgrade. I think this is the same as scenario 1, but can she activate the 3GS (since she has to do this with her account) with her previous 3G SIM in the 3GS, or she has to with the one already in the 3GS? She's the type that wants to make sure nothing wrong happens, so how do I make sure that all her contacts and account stay on her 3G? I'll just put my SIM card in her 3GS, but how do I make sure that she's fine? Because when you activate the pre-installed SIM card in the 3GS and put it back into say my mom's iPhone 3G and then activate it with iTunes again, how will she get her contacts back again, is that just in iTunes?

Unless she knows her contacts are saved on her SIM card, it is probably saved on her iPhone and I would just recommend using my method. I was planning to do it like the way you suggested when I got it. The first thing I did was pull out my SIM from my old phone and put into the 3GS. However, I noticed that it still showed up as Person 1's number when I tried to activate it. If you try to activate it using your SIM, you will no longer have any SIM card with your # on it. It would be hers instead and her original SIM would be useless. I don't know if ATT can swap phone numbers on SIM cards from their side, but good luck. You can also try taking her original SIM and activating it with that. That should work.

 

[1984]

What if two family members both have newly activated iPhone 3GS's but want to swap them? (color preference) Do they just swap the SIM cards and that's it? What about this IMEI number business? What does that identify? Is it tied to the phone or the SIM card? My last phone didn't even have a SIM card. 😀 I had that one a long time!

 

[Shyfe]

I don't think it matters. It would work just fine if you only swapped SIM cards, but the IMEIs would prolly be incorrectly registered, not that it actually matters.