Mine also had no clue that activation could happen OTA. She kept saying, "With Apple, everything goes through iTunes."
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How to: AT&T upgrade swap.
- Thread starter Captainobvvious
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Still waiting for mine to arrive.
So basically when you call, make sure your old phone doesn't have service before you turn on the new one.?
So basically when you call, make sure your old phone doesn't have service before you turn on the new one.?
this is all very helpful. My phone (ordered from Apple) hasn't shipped yet (but now I can't cancel it so I have to wait for it).
I am giving my husband my 4S and using his 4 upgrade. The 4 will become an ipod touch.
Should I switch sims between the 4 and 4S now and get him on the 4S before the 5 arrives? I can use his 4 for a week or so until the new one gets here.
I want to arrange it so that if something screws up and I need to go into the store that it only affects my phone and not his.
I am giving my husband my 4S and using his 4 upgrade. The 4 will become an ipod touch.
Should I switch sims between the 4 and 4S now and get him on the 4S before the 5 arrives? I can use his 4 for a week or so until the new one gets here.
I want to arrange it so that if something screws up and I need to go into the store that it only affects my phone and not his.
All you need to do is swap the sims, since they are both the same size, since you are doing 4s to 4
Yep. You'll have to go to an att or vzw store. If you're doing a swap, you're screwed with that SIM.
I don't know how they can't just deactivate a sim and reactivate it.. it's really annoying but whatever!
My rep started with the same thing. She indicated it's because she wanted me to read her the IMEI number. I told her "it's on the back of the box" and she said, "Oh, that's good."
My rep started with the same thing. She indicated it's because she wanted me to read her the IMEI number. I told her "it's on the back of the box" and she said, "Oh, that's good."
Exact same thing happened here. She asked for the SIM number and I said is it on the box or only on the card? She said, turn the phone on and i'll tell you where to find it in which I proceeded to tell her NO I AM NOT TURNING THE PHONE ON. I said I will eject the SIM and she replied oh...that works too. Stupid people.
FYI and for other's information it is also found on the sticker on the box. It is called the ICCID number.
I updated my original post to be more detailed and share information we have learned in the last 7 pages.
I called the 800# and selected option 2 as suggested. The rep was very helpful and had no issues with my request. She understood fully what I was doing and even asked if my wife knew I was using her precious upgrade for my own phone!
The process was pretty much painless. Was done in less than 10 minutes.
ONE HITCH that kinda bothered me was when I powered the phone up and went through the initial setup (after the rep told me to) I got to the point where it said "Please confirm that the number is the phone you are upgrading, if it is not you must call AT&T to change the phone." or something to that effect. I was VERY hesitant to move forward because it showed my wife's number there but I did it anyway. When the phone came back up after a reset it had my number in it and my wife's phone is still working as it should.
I ordered from Apple directly.
Used my wife's upgrade.
I am an AT&T customer.
Great job AT&T! Much better than last year. Hope this helps someone.
P.S. I DID turn my phone on but only because I plugged it in to charge. Still had no problem.
The process was pretty much painless. Was done in less than 10 minutes.
ONE HITCH that kinda bothered me was when I powered the phone up and went through the initial setup (after the rep told me to) I got to the point where it said "Please confirm that the number is the phone you are upgrading, if it is not you must call AT&T to change the phone." or something to that effect. I was VERY hesitant to move forward because it showed my wife's number there but I did it anyway. When the phone came back up after a reset it had my number in it and my wife's phone is still working as it should.
I ordered from Apple directly.
Used my wife's upgrade.
I am an AT&T customer.
Great job AT&T! Much better than last year. Hope this helps someone.
P.S. I DID turn my phone on but only because I plugged it in to charge. Still had no problem.
Last edited:
IT WORKED IT WORKED!
Did everything was told to do.. received the package and called at&T as i was opening the box. Connected to customer rep immediately. Told her the situation (upgrade swap) and she knows exactly what she was doing and what she needs to do. Got my sim card and imei number, did the swap.. take off the data plan of the upgraded phone, switch my unlimited to iphone5..done. Took her longer to take off the data plan than the swap. Here comes the scary part, as I go through the activation screen, it shows the upgraded phone-number the whole time, EVEN after activation completed. But I went ahead and did it..then she called me and it worked. Just be very careful, if they know what they are doing..you will see your current phone lose service (sim switch). That's a good sign, and you should proceed from there ..even the screen said differently.
Did everything was told to do.. received the package and called at&T as i was opening the box. Connected to customer rep immediately. Told her the situation (upgrade swap) and she knows exactly what she was doing and what she needs to do. Got my sim card and imei number, did the swap.. take off the data plan of the upgraded phone, switch my unlimited to iphone5..done. Took her longer to take off the data plan than the swap. Here comes the scary part, as I go through the activation screen, it shows the upgraded phone-number the whole time, EVEN after activation completed. But I went ahead and did it..then she called me and it worked. Just be very careful, if they know what they are doing..you will see your current phone lose service (sim switch). That's a good sign, and you should proceed from there ..even the screen said differently.
Why do they make things so difficult? A contract is a contract? I should be able to get a nano SIM and plop it in my device. You don't even want to know what Verizon users have to do to swap (bring an old Verizon dumbphone, can't have worked on alltel as they shut those towers down 5 months ago, must activate dumbphone for 24 hours before swapping, etc., etc., slit my wrists). I feel bad for my buddy I went with this morning.
Anyway, thanks for the info! I was under the impression I had to do it in store.
Anyway, thanks for the info! I was under the impression I had to do it in store.
I want to thank everyone for contributing to this thread. I have been updating the OP to reflect new information to make it easier for people so its a one stop informational post.
Thanks for sharing and helping out.
Thanks for sharing and helping out.
You can turn it on before you call didn't affect anything for me. Just don't go through the process before you call them/
Might also want to note that I had powered my phone up first just didn't go through the configuration. This power up happened automatically because I plugged it into power.
I did NOT connect to iTunes before all of this either.
Just tried to do a swap from a dummy line that I just created and was told that I need a phone to be placed on the dummy line once I swap the iphone from it.
OK, it worked fine for me.
I just called AT&T, and when prompted I entered the number I ordered the phone on. Used option 2 on the voice prompt since I wanted to switch it to another number. They did NOT need to ask me for IMEI or SIM number. The only concern they had was that I hadn't powered the phone on yet (which I didn't)
The one thing that was screwy was that after everything was all set, when I went to activate my phone it still listed the original phone number as the one that would be activated. I called back and had them confirm everything was OK, and rebooted and tried again and it still showed the wrong number in the activation screen.
I read in an earlier post that someone tried going forward anyway so I did as well, and it indeed did work. My iPhone is now on the correct number.
I just called AT&T, and when prompted I entered the number I ordered the phone on. Used option 2 on the voice prompt since I wanted to switch it to another number. They did NOT need to ask me for IMEI or SIM number. The only concern they had was that I hadn't powered the phone on yet (which I didn't)
The one thing that was screwy was that after everything was all set, when I went to activate my phone it still listed the original phone number as the one that would be activated. I called back and had them confirm everything was OK, and rebooted and tried again and it still showed the wrong number in the activation screen.
I read in an earlier post that someone tried going forward anyway so I did as well, and it indeed did work. My iPhone is now on the correct number.
Thanks for this post! I was following instructions and this is the part that got me confused. The Rep had me on hold and I said, "Well I saw this on a forum, so I'm going to try it anyway, even though it shows the wrong number."
IT WORKED
Thanks Captainobvvious!