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Is temporarily switching a sim card a bad idea?

jeditor

jeditor

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 18, 2016
22
0
I have an iPhone 4 with no sim card (it is arriving in a few days) the 4 is completely wiped. I want to be able to put some music and movies on it but it won't allow me to set it up without a sim card. I have an iPhone 6+ WITH a SIM card that is full of all sorts of important things. My question is, if I remove the sim from the 6 and put it in the 4, would I be able to add new music/movies/ content to 4 without damaging/deleting/upsetting the iPhone 6 once I return the sim card to it? Thank you in advance.
 
jeditor said:
I have an iPhone 4 with no sim card (it is arriving in a few days) the 4 is completely wiped. I want to be able to put some music and movies on it but it won't allow me to set it up without a sim card. I have an iPhone 6+ WITH a SIM card that is full of all sorts of important things. My question is, if I remove the sim from the 6 and put it in the 4, would I be able to add new music/movies/ content to 4 without damaging/deleting/upsetting the iPhone 6 once I return the sim card to it? Thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
The 6 uses a Nano-SIM and the 4 uses a Micro-SIM. Aside from that I don't think it matters if you use a random SIM just to activate it.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202645
 
jeditor said:
...it won't allow me to set it up without a sim card.
Click to expand...

What? I bought two iPhone 4s, used, for my daughters to play with (not as phones). I've never put a SIM card in either one, and they're both setup fine. They're using iCloud with their own accounts I created. They also share my Apple Music subscription.
 
I don't play with iOS often, but my last two iPhones, a 6s and a 5s, both on iOS 9.x, required a SIM to activate. My Verizon 4s didn't, but it doesn't take a SIM.
 
lordofthereef said:
No issues. Buy a sin adapter tray. It will set you back a buck or two.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't buy a sim adapter. Many are flimsy. If it gets stuck (which has happened to many people) you risk ruining the phone. If ruin he sim slots you will ruin the phone.
 
aneftp said:
I wouldn't buy a sim adapter. Many are flimsy. If it gets stuck (which has happened to many people) you risk ruining the phone. If ruin he sim slots you will ruin the phone.
Click to expand...
To each his own I guess. I used one for about a year when I was switching between android phones and didn't have an issue, though I purchased one with good reviews in it (not always a fool proof indicator, I know).

OP just wants to use this as a one time activstiOn method so the risk is relatively low, from my perspective anyway.
 
M. Gustave said:
What? I bought two iPhone 4s, used, for my daughters to play with (not as phones). I've never put a SIM card in either one, and they're both setup fine. They're using iCloud with their own accounts I created. They also share my Apple Music subscription.
Click to expand...
After you restore your iPhone, you need a SIM card to activate it. Once it's activated you can remove the SIM card. It's likely that when you bought the used iPhone 4s' somebody had already inserted a temporary SIM to pass the activation step.

Here are some threads on Apple's website regarding this: https://discussions.apple.com/article/HT3406
 
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