Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone family trickle down

D

DrHorribleWins

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2010
4
0
I have just ordered the iP4S using my wife's upgrade eligibility. My wife currently has an old normal flip phone, my son has an iP3GS, and I have an iP4. What I want to do is make the new iP4S mine, give the iP4 to my son, and give his iP3GS to my wife. After syncing and backing everything up is it as simple as these steps?
1. Restore the iP4S with my iP4 backup
2. Move my iP4 micro sim to the iP4S
3. Restore the iP4 with my sons iP3GS backup
4. Cut the iP3GS sim into a micro and move it to the iP4
5. Move the sim from my wife's flip phone to the iP3GS
6. Setup the iP3GS as a new phone

What am I missing?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Looks right. I'm doing close to the same
 
This had me worried.. but upon reading it again it just says that whenever you put a different sim into the iPhone it will start the activation process again. No big deal right?

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=61149#fbid=JsREuOYCfRc

Can I swap the SIM in my iPhone?

iPhone only works with the SIM card that is installed in the phone during the activation process. If you put a SIM card from another device into the iPhone, the next time you connect to your computer, the activation process will start again.

Visual Voicemail only works on the iPhone. If you take the SIM card out of the iPhone and put it into another device, the new device will still only have access to standard voicemail, not Visual Voicemail.
 
weird, I want to do this too, and I was I was told by an ATT rep that you have to call before activating due the IMEI numbers or something.

I don't want to call on launch day, because I expect the wait times to be long...

I guess I could just try it, what's the worst that could happen?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think the only snag may come from your wife's SIM into the 3GS. it may not work properly. But that's a big may. It easily could work too. From iPhone to iPhone though, until they change the format of SIM card, they will swap fine. Ive seen it done first hand.
 
hogo said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

I think the only snag may come from your wife's SIM into the 3GS. it may not work properly. But that's a big may. It easily could work too. From iPhone to iPhone though, until they change the format of SIM card, they will swap fine. Ive seen it done first hand.
Click to expand...

So in my case, my wife has a 3G and I have a 4. Should I activate the new 4s as normal (tied to her number), and then just switch the SIM's?
 
protobiont said:
So in my case, my wife has a 3G and I have a 4. Should I activate the new 4s as normal (tied to her number), and then just switch the SIM's?
Click to expand...

You can't switch the sims because the iPhone 4 has a micro-sim and the 3GS has a regular sized sim.
 
Don't forget you will have to add a data plan to your wife's phone or ATT will do it automatically for you when they detect you wife is now using a smart phone.
 
Every year I get the new iPhone and give my old one to my wife. But every other year we use her eligibility to get me a cheaper phone. This way I always get a phone each year and I always get the eligibility discount. I used my wife's eligibility for the the 3GS, and then with the 4S.

So I ordered this morning using her number. When it comes the sim in it will be for her. When we did this with the 3GS I simply called AT&T and told them that my wife ordered the new iPhone but was going to give it to me, and I was going to give her my old one.

They took some information over the phone, had me swap the sims, and everything worked fine.

If you are switching phones that have different sim card sizes, you'll have to go into the store and have them give you a new sim. Takes 30 seconds. They will then update your info.

Very easy and 100% doable.
 
As far as I remember from doing this in the past, make sure you switch SIMs into where you want them to be, THEN activate phones and restore from backups.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

One thing you may want to do is update ATT on who has which phone (through IMEI number) for their record-keeping purposes.
 
Poster above has it correct. That's the only thing I contacted AT&T for was to give them the correct IMEI numbers to correlate with the proper phone numbers.
 
JRoDDz said:
You can't switch the sims because the iPhone 4 has a micro-sim and the 3GS has a regular sized sim.
Click to expand...

I know. That's why I would activate the 4s as her line, and then switch the SIM's between "her" 4s and "my" 4.

Would this work?
 
I am doing a similar trade between my wife and myself. I am giving her my iP4 and I am getting the iP4s, and we are selling her 3Gs. I presume, since all of our information is synced on our mac, that I will just backup my 4 and then have the 4s restore from there. And then my wife will backup her 3Gs and then have my old 4 (reset to factory settings) restore to her 3Gs backup.
Am I correct in doing this? Thanks.
 
protobiont said:
What can result from them having the IMEI numbers backwards?
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly, but I think that when adding or changing features (data, text, etc.) is is done via IMEI. In other words, on the website my wife's phone would show as an 4S even though I am using it, if the IMEI info isn't updated.

We've only had the issue once and the AT&T rep fixed it in 30 seconds for me. Maybe it was a wasted 30 seconds. Dunno.
 
ItsGavinC said:
Every year I get the new iPhone and give my old one to my wife. But every other year we use her eligibility to get me a cheaper phone. This way I always get a phone each year and I always get the eligibility discount. I used my wife's eligibility for the the 3GS, and then with the 4S.

So I ordered this morning using her number. When it comes the sim in it will be for her. When we did this with the 3GS I simply called AT&T and told them that my wife ordered the new iPhone but was going to give it to me, and I was going to give her my old one.

They took some information over the phone, had me swap the sims, and everything worked fine.

If you are switching phones that have different sim card sizes, you'll have to go into the store and have them give you a new sim. Takes 30 seconds. They will then update your info.

Very easy and 100% doable.
Click to expand...

Good info. Thanks. Looking to do the same thing, except I'm bringing my wife over from Verizon.

When you switch sim cards, does anyone know if my grandfathered text message plan stays on with me on the new phone, or would go to my wife? In other words, when you switch phones (by switching cards), does plan specifics also switch?
 
ItsGavinC said:
I don't know exactly, but I think that when adding or changing features (data, text, etc.) is is done via IMEI. In other words, on the website my wife's phone would show as an 4S even though I am using it, if the IMEI info isn't updated.

We've only had the issue once and the AT&T rep fixed it in 30 seconds for me. Maybe it was a wasted 30 seconds. Dunno.
Click to expand...

Good point. Thanks!
 
DrHorribleWins said:
Anyone get this to work? I couldn't get the 4s to activate with my ip4 sim card
Click to expand...

I just did it over the phone, the rep seemed apprehensive but unsure when I asked about using the other sim... but she was able to switch lines easily over the phone.
 
I am trying to do an upgrade swap and initially tried to switch SIM cards before turning on the device, no luck. Says incorrect SIM. Sat on the phone with AT&T for almost 2 hours, told him the situation and gave him the IMEI # and SIM # of the one that came with the 4S, after he did stuff on his end, still no luck. They told me they have no answer and said to keep trying to activate, claiming it's something with apple's server.

I can't simply activate the phone with the line that it was purchased with and then switch SIM cards because they are out of town for the week.

Anyone else have this issue?
 
DrHorribleWins said:
I have just ordered the iP4S using my wife's upgrade eligibility. My wife currently has an old normal flip phone, my son has an iP3GS, and I have an iP4. What I want to do is make the new iP4S mine, give the iP4 to my son, and give his iP3GS to my wife. After syncing and backing everything up is it as simple as these steps?
1. Restore the iP4S with my iP4 backup
2. Move my iP4 micro sim to the iP4S
3. Restore the iP4 with my sons iP3GS backup
4. Cut the iP3GS sim into a micro and move it to the iP4
5. Move the sim from my wife's flip phone to the iP3GS
6. Setup the iP3GS as a new phone

What am I missing?
Click to expand...

It would be easier if your son kept the 3gs... but that seems right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back