Setting up iPhone without a phone #?

[SnowDX]

I just read this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11038813#post11038813 which was sort of helpful but didn't answer all of my questions.

I've bought my daughter an iPhone for Christmas. I want to get some things set up today, her email, Find My iPhone, etc. and update the OS to 4.2. The SIM I have for her is not active as she is still using her old non-sim/CDMA phone and I won't be transferring her account to the SIM until Christmas day.

If I want to be able to update the OS and get things set up on the phone, can I do so with her new SIM that doesn't have a phone # attached to it yet? or can I do so with my iPhone SIM?

The other thread said *not* to update the OS on the phone, why is that? That's one of the reasons why I am doing this.

Oh, her phone will be locked to the carrier where mine is factory unlocked if there's any reason that will make a difference.

 

[JD914]

Take it back and get her an iPod touch

 

[SnowDX]

Take it back and get her an iPod touch

Uh, and how exactly would that be helpful when she needs a phone?

 

[JD914]

Uh, and how exactly would that be helpful when she needs a phone?

Sorry, I misunderstood.

You need to jailbreak and hacktivate it in order to set it up without carrier activating it.

If you're dead set against jailbreaking it, then forget it until youre ready to set it up through your provider.

edit: you can use someone else's iPhone micro sim to activate it and set it up as you wish then at christmas you can set up her mobile account through your carrier.

 

[SDub90]

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Assuming you're on AT&T and you have a microsim (ie you have an iPhone 4) you should be able to activate in iTunes using your sim.

 

[SnowDX]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

You need to jailbreak and hacktivate it in order to set it up without carrier activating it.

If you're dead set against jailbreaking it, then forget it until youre ready to set it up through your provider.

I don't want hers jailbroken for ease of updating and maintenance.

I really don't want to set it all up on Christmas Day. I want to be doing things with the kids instead of updating her phone OS, setting up email, syncing apps, etc. Ugh.

So, putting my SIM in won't work? What would happen if I did that? and her SIM won't work because there's no phone # associated with it yet, correct?

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Assuming you're on AT&T and you have a microsim (ie you have an iPhone 4) you should be able to activate in iTunes using your sim.

I'm with Telus in Canada. Mine is also an iPhone 4 with a Telus micro-sim. I do have a sim for hers as well, it just doesn't have her phone # associated with it (won't until Christmas day else she'd notice that her current phone isn't working if I did it prior to that). The only difference is, my iPhone is factory unlocked whereas hers is a Telus locked phone, but since that info has nothing do with the sim, that shouldn't cause any issues?

ETA: just saw your edit JD914. So, it sounds like I can put my sim in to activate it. I was going to try that, but I didn't want to screw anything up with my or her account by doing so.

 

[JD914]

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Assuming you're on AT&T and you have a microsim (ie you have an iPhone 4) you should be able to activate in iTunes using your sim.

he doesn't want to do that till Christmas, all he wants to do is set it up with out activating it through the phone carrier.

 

[JD914]

So, putting my SIM in won't work? What would happen if I did that? and her SIM won't work because there's no phone # associated with it yet, correct?

Yes you can put in your SIM as long as it's a micro sim. After her phone is activated you can put it any SIM as long as it's a SIM tied to your carrier.

 

[jpetticrew]

If he takes another SIM and puts it in his daughters iPhone to activate it through iTunes, takes the SIM out, and puts it back in whichever phone he got it out of, the iPhone will not be locked to his account or anything. It will just be activated and he can do whatever he wants with it. It's exactly what he wants to do.

 

[SnowDX]

If he takes another SIM and puts it in his daughters iPhone to activate it through iTunes, takes the SIM out, and puts it back in whichever phone he got it out of, the iPhone will not be locked to his account or anything. It will just be activated and he can do whatever he wants with it. It's exactly what he wants to do.

Yes, this is exactly what I want to do. I don't care if it's activated to the carrier now (there's no drawback to doing that now is there?). What I don't want is it activated to her phone # as then she'd wonder why her current phone didn't work so using my sim would resolve that. And I didn't want it messing up my account by using my sim, which it sounds like it won't.

 

[SnowDX]

I decided to give her sim a shot first. Figured the worst that could happen is that iTunes tells me it won't work. I put it in the phone, connected and everything went fine. I've updated the OS now and am able to set up email, etc. The phone said "waiting for activation", which is fine and expected since there is no phone # attached to this sim yet. After I set everything up, I'll power down the phone so it isn't constantly trying to activate. Once her # is transferred to the sim at Christmas, it will activate when turned on.

My next question is, is there anything in iTunes that can give away that she's got an iPhone now? I saw there was a back up for the iPhone now, so I deleted that back up (didn't need it, this was set up as new iPhone and no worries about starting from scratch if we need to). Anywhere else I should look? I'd hate for her to sync her Touch before Christmas and notice there is an iPhone for her there too!