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

New Iphone 6 plus unable to activate with ATT

C

Carla748

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 25, 2012
49
1
I picked up my phone at 8 am this morning from UPS. Came home and tried to activate it and no luck---- I've talked with 4 different people from ATT and Apple and the have escalated my case. Its been 10 hours now and my new phone is not activated. I'm told to sit tight and wait to hear back from them.

They can't seem to see what the problelm is and won't let me exchange it for another. They say it has to do with ATT/Apple activation.

Anyone else having a problem activating their new phone? :(
 
Carla748 said:
I picked up my phone at 8 am this morning from UPS. Came home and tried to activate it and no luck---- I've talked with 4 different people from ATT and Apple and the have escalated my case. Its been 10 hours now and my new phone is not activated. I'm told to sit tight and wait to hear back from them.

They can't seem to see what the problelm is and won't let me exchange it for another. They say it has to do with ATT/Apple activation.

Anyone else having a problem activating their new phone? :(
Click to expand...

spent about an hour and a half trying to activate my new 6 under an existing att number ( trying to do upgrade swap)... and it was a pain in the ass... finally got done..had to activate under the phone number i didn't want and then change a ton of ****
 
I had the exact same problem with my wife's 5s last year whereas mine activated just fine. Ended up going to the AT&T store and they reset it. Nothing we did at home worked.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
I had the exact same problem with my wife's 5s last year whereas mine activated just fine. Ended up going to the AT&T store and they reset it. Nothing we did at home worked.
Click to expand...

I purchased the iphone from Apple online - I'm not sure if ATT can help? Did you purchase yours from the ATT store or Apple? I've talked to so many people from my home phone and they have walked me thru everything, even resetting the iPhone from my ouse.
 
Carla748 said:
I purchased the iphone from Apple online - I'm not sure if ATT can help? Did you purchase yours from the ATT store or Apple? I've talked to so many people from my home phone and they have walked me thru everything, even resetting the iPhone from my ouse.
Click to expand...

Purchased through Apple. Take it to a physical AT&T store and they'll be able to solve it.
 
Carla748 said:
I purchased the iphone from Apple online - I'm not sure if ATT can help? Did you purchase yours from the ATT store or Apple? I've talked to so many people from my home phone and they have walked me thru everything, even resetting the iPhone from my ouse.
Click to expand...

I purchased mine through Apple, and had the same problem trying to activate it online. Called ATT 866-895-1099 and ended up talking to an ATT customer service agent who got it activated within minutes.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Purchased through Apple. Take it to a physical AT&T store and they'll be able to solve it.
Click to expand...


I just waited in line (I was number 10 in line) at a ATT Store for over a hour tonight and they could not get it activated. Since I purchased it at Apple.com they said I had to take it to them.
 
Carla748 said:
I just waited in line (I was number 10 in line) at a ATT Store for over a hour tonight and they could not get it activated. Since I purchased it at Apple.com they said I had to take it to them.
Click to expand...

I supposed if they can't activate it, it must be defective and Apple will need to swap it out. Make a Genius appointment and they'll swap it out on the spot.
 
You've verified your IMEI number with ATT?

I had an issue registering on the LTE network in January with a new 5s, and this was the cause. Long story short, my NEXT purchased 5s was given a new IMEI# on my account, but somehow it got registered as a 2 year contract phone, so I NEXT'd a 6.

My ATT-bought 6 I got today required a website activation, but the Apple-bought one came ready to go with just a couple of simple setup steps through wifi.

Forgot. If you have a sim from a 5s or 5, try it in the 6.
 
iPhone activated

I had the same problem with my wife's phone and i just did the settings > general > reset > erase all content and settings and when the phone restarted it automatically connected to the network no problems.
 
Hi. I'm having the same issue. Been stuck like this for basically a whole day now. I talked to both Apple and At&T and they were saying that I need to wait. Apparently my phone arrived too early, which is crazy considering that it was delivered when it was supposed to be on Friday. Don't know how they screwed this up but I literally can't do anything with the phone.
 
Phone will not activate.

Spend all my Friday evening with both ATT and Apple. My issue is yet to be resolved. The explanation that I have is that the data entered in the Apple server that communicates with the ATT server is not correct, therefor the Apple server is unable to verify my ATT account.

ATT activated the SIM card on my iPhone 6. I know this because I had to swap cards to get service on my now deacvtivated iPhone 5. Now I am waiting for a response from Apple. They said it could take up to 24 hours to get an answer.

I am going to try to escalate this higher.
 
Last edited:
JayLenochiniMac said:
Purchased through Apple. Take it to a physical AT&T store and they'll be able to solve it.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. In my case, the ball was dropped by Apple, not ATT. Apparently Apple servers do not have the correct account information to connect to ATT servers to verify my identity. Supposedly Apple is working on fixing the problem for me. In my case, ATT activated the SIM card, but I can't get the phone activated because it thinks that I entered the wrong ATT account info to open the phone for me.

Very frustrating and disappointing.
 
Carla748 said:
I picked up my phone at 8 am this morning from UPS. Came home and tried to activate it and no luck---- I've talked with 4 different people from ATT and Apple and the have escalated my case. Its been 10 hours now and my new phone is not activated. I'm told to sit tight and wait to hear back from them.

They can't seem to see what the problelm is and won't let me exchange it for another. They say it has to do with ATT/Apple activation.

Anyone else having a problem activating their new phone? :(
Click to expand...

I had this same problem, tried to activate using ATT website, told me activation pending. Restarted phone after 2 hours, still no cellular. Finally after 6 hours it occurred to me that maybe the fact that my old phone was still on was interfering with the transfer to the new phone. So I powered off my old phone, powered off my new phone, powered on my new phone and then it immediately connected.
 
Resetting the network settings fixed issue for me

I got my phone yesterday, activated it last night thru the ATT website. My old iphone 5 was deactivated by the service but my shiny new iphone 6 refused to activate on to ATT. Thanks ATT and Apple.. would you ever get this right?? :mad:

Anyhow I fixed it by resetting the network settings. Goto Settings->General->Reset->Reset Network Settings.

The phone will restart but magically you will get ATT service now. :cool:
 
why do you have to deactivate the old one and activate iphone 6? can't you just take the sim card from the old one and stick it in the new iphone 6?
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
I supposed if they can't activate it, it must be defective and Apple will need to swap it out. Make a Genius appointment and they'll swap it out on the spot.
Click to expand...

i've made a Genuis Appt for tomorrow. That was the soonest they had open

----------
jm200909 said:
I had the same problem with my wife's phone and i just did the settings > general > reset > erase all content and settings and when the phone restarted it automatically connected to the network no problems.
Click to expand...

My phone won't get past the activate screen. It asks for my zip code and soc security number and says it desn't recognize it.

I've been on the phone with apple, and ATT. I've gone to the ATT store and n one can make it work. ATT says its apple's proble, Apple says "wait ' till our engineers have time to look at my case. Seems I'm in line since noon yesterday for a engineer at Apple to review.

----------
AustinIllini said:
Restarting the phone for both of mine fixed everything for me.
Click to expand...

Apple over the phone had me do this- didnt help. Still can't activate it.

----------
Grapho said:
Not necessarily. In my case, the ball was dropped by Apple, not ATT. Apparently Apple servers do not have the correct account information to connect to ATT servers to verify my identity. Supposedly Apple is working on fixing the problem for me. In my case, ATT activated the SIM card, but I can't get the phone activated because it thinks that I entered the wrong ATT account info to open the phone for me.

Very frustrating and disappointing.
Click to expand...


This is exactly what is happing to my phone!! Finally, someonne else besides me. When I tried for to activate my phone by calling the att number given here --Att activated the sim card on the new iphone 6 plus and now my 5 s no longer works !!

I have no operating cell phone now!
 
Grapho said:
Spend all my Friday evening with both ATT and Apple. My issue is yet to be resolved. The explanation that I have is that the data entered in the Apple server that communicates with the ATT server is not correct, therefor the Apple server is unable to verify my ATT account.

ATT activated the SIM card on my iPhone 6. I know this because I had to swap cards to get service on my now deacvtivated iPhone 5. Now I am waiting for a response from Apple. They said it could take up to 24 hours to get an answer.

I am going to try to escalate this higher.
Click to expand...


DITTO for me!!! I've already waited 24 hours and have not heard back. They have offered me some free apple gifts for the incomvience. Bid deal- I just want a working phone.
 
Mine took just a few seconds to activate this morning. I'm assuming overload yesterday was the problem?
 
AustinIllini said:
Try going to the AT&T activation page. If you put in all that information, it should tell you if its activated or not.

https://www.wireless.att.com/activations/

Sorry if this isn't helpful!
Click to expand...

Did this-- Its says its already activated and is ready to go. My problem is same as " Grapho" above.

Sim card is activated - my old sim card is deactivated. If I put the iphone 6 sim in my iPhone 5 s it could mess up getting activated by Apple I was told.
 
Carla748 said:
i've made a Genuis Appt for tomorrow. That was the soonest they had open

----------



My phone won't get past the activate screen. It asks for my zip code and soc security number and says it desn't recognize it.

I've been on the phone with apple, and ATT. I've gone to the ATT store and n one can make it work. ATT says its apple's proble, Apple says "wait ' till our engineers have time to look at my case. Seems I'm in line since noon yesterday for a engineer at Apple to review.

----------



Apple over the phone had me do this- didnt help. Still can't activate it.

----------




This is exactly what is happing to my phone!! Finally, someonne else besides me. When I tried for to activate my phone by calling the att number given here --Att activated the sim card on the new iphone 6 plus and now my 5 s no longer works !!

I have no operating cell phone now!
Click to expand...

Switch the SIM card on your locked iPhone 6 on to your iPhone 5 and at the very least, you will have service. I am waiting to hear from Apple also.
 
Last edited:
I had to call using Skype to activate mine (deactivated old phone, didn't activate new one). The automated activation service forwarded me to a support rep who helped me out.
 
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