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iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max stuck after cellular setup

patseguin

patseguin

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 28, 2003
1,713
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Just got mine and it did the cellular setup and now it is on the "cellular setup complete" screen with a button sowing the busy icon. Been that way for about 20 minutes. Do I need to reset it?
 
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ETA: I just turned off the new iPhone and redid the set up. It worked this second time.

Mine is currently doing the same thing. It's been like this for almost 30 minutes now. Following because I don't know if I should end the setup or turn off the phones or what.
 
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ksmp1822 said:
ETA: I just turned off the new iPhone and redid the set up. It worked this second time.

Mine is currently doing the same thing. It's been like this for almost 30 minutes now. Following because I don't know if I should end the setup or turn off the phones or what.
Click to expand...
I turned off my phone and turned it back on and it continued on with the installation
 
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iPhone 16 Pro Max and got stuck at Cellular Setup as well. Restarted phone as suggested and got straight through it after that.
 
Also stuck. Hit the power button and got options to Start Over or Shut Down but the screen doesn’t respond when I choose either.
 
Had the same issue. Had to go to the ATT store after the Apple Store to get it work. Worst setup of an iPhone I’ve ever encountered.
 
magicschoolbus said:
Had the same issue. Had to go to the ATT store after the Apple Store to get it work. Worst setup of an iPhone I’ve ever encountered.
Click to expand...
Apple released a revised version of iOS 18 for the 16 pro and should’ve made it installed before proceeding the transfer. Definitely a possible overlook bug…
 
Mine did the same thing (iPhone 16 Pro + T-Mobile), I just shutdown the new phone completely, booted it up again and did the setup again. All is fine.
 
Yep I’ve been having major issues trying to get the phone set up. Mainly probably because I haven’t been on my home network the whole time.

But I’m currently stuck in a faceid loop? If I try to unlock it it flickers from unlocked to locked in half a second and I can’t do anything. I can’t even restart it at this point because if I hold down the 2 buttons the power down screen shows for half a second then a spinner comes up and it’s back locked. If I keep holding it doesn’t force restart…. So this is great, they did something wrong here.

It’s also really hot, so it’s stuck doing something
 
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Same problem. Restarted the new phone, but then it didn’t see the old phone to set up from it. Then I restarted the old phone, and the new phone saw it, but when I got the pattern on the screen of the new phone, nothing happens when I point the old phone’s camera at it. Next I tapped Authenticate Manually and entered the number displayed on the new phone into the old phone and… it thinks I’m trying to set up the OLD phone from the NEW phone. Ugh.😣
 
My iphone 16 pro max just got delivered, and now I'm worried about having to deal with this. I'm surprised I haven't seen any articles on this so far. I am curious, is everyone here setting up from backup/quick start or setting up as a new device?
 
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Ok, after a few rounds of reboots of both phones it’s working. I was never able to scan the code on the screen. I had to do Authenticate Manually. I’ve never had trouble like this setting up a new iPhone from an old one. I hope this isn’t happening to people who aren’t tech nerds like me.
 
Manatee said:
Ok, after a few rounds of reboots of both phones it’s working. I was never able to scan the code on the screen. I had to do Authenticate Manually. I’ve never had trouble like this setting up a new iPhone from an old one. I hope this isn’t happening to people who aren’t tech nerds like me.
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Glad the phone is working. I've been keeping this thread up to see what has worked so that I'm prepared just in case. Do you always set up as new, or do you transfer from your previous phone? curious to know where the problem is occuring
 
Manatee said:
Ok, after a few rounds of reboots of both phones it’s working. I was never able to scan the code on the screen. I had to do Authenticate Manually. I’ve never had trouble like this setting up a new iPhone from an old one. I hope this isn’t happening to people who aren’t tech nerds like me.
Click to expand...

I’m glad I saw this thread before my Phone was delivered. I too had to do a restart, and I wasn’t able to scan the code either, and had to authenticate manually. But now everything is set up and I’m a happy camper.
 
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Yeah something is up with their servers. Had to hard restart many times on two new iPhones to get thru and my messages in the cloud are still slowly downloading even tho phone has been plugged in for hours not being used. It’s crawling

Also interestingly, the restore moved every app except for ChatGPT. Coincidence?
 
kpnss85 said:
Glad the phone is working. I've been keeping this thread up to see what has worked so that I'm prepared just in case. Do you always set up as new, or do you transfer from your previous phone? curious to know where the problem is occuring
Click to expand...
I always set up from the old phone. I have a gazillion apps installed, and it would be quite a burden just to reconfigure the icons on the new phone!
 
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Manatee said:
I always set up from the old phone. I have a gazillion apps installed, and it would be quite a burden just to reconfigure the icons on the new phone!
Click to expand...
Makes sense. The reason I was asking to see if setting up from back up or quick set up may be interfering with the set up process with the e-sim or cellular activation. Thanks for the follow up. Enjoy your new phone!
 
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Same issue. Hangs at cellular setup complete. I rebooted and attempted again but it wouldn't authenticate via the swirly blue and manual authentication wouldn't work either. It took a reboot of the donor phone as well to get things going and again only manual authentication worked. But we're an hour into transfer and things seem promising.
 
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