iPhone 11 Pro Setup New Phone Without Activating Service Right Away

[fjfjfjfj]

Is it possible to setup my iPhone without activating the service right away? My situation is that I need to setup my wife’s new iPhone but I have to make sure that it is exactly like the old way she had it setup before I give it to her. Going through the normal process flow the first thing it does is activate the Verizon service which means her old phone stops working (for phone calls). Is it possible to setup the phone without activating the service until I’m all setup and ready for her to take it?

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Why don’t you just wait till she’s there with her old phone? Then all you need to do is set the new phone next to the old one and it will ask if you want to set the new phone up with everything from the old phone. It’s easy and works like a charm

 

[fjfjfjfj]

Why don’t you just wait till she’s there with her old phone? Then all you need to do is set the new phone next to the old one and it will ask if you want to set the new phone up with everything from the old phone. It’s easy and works like a charm

I guess I should have added that I’m one of those people who start from scratch each time!! I like that new clean feeling and now with contacts, documents, calendar, etc all on iCloud it’s actually not that painful. Downloading the apps and making the settings identical is really the pain point but oh so worth it!

 

[doboy]

I guess I should have added that I’m one of those people who start from scratch each time!! I like that new clean feeling and now with contacts, documents, calendar, etc all on iCloud it’s actually not that painful. Downloading the apps and making the settings identical is really the pain point but oh so worth it!

This is so not worth your time. Sure, if she only has a handful of apps, but it's such a waste of time for anything more. I've restored from backup since the OG iPhone and never ran into issues.

To answer your original question, I believe you should have no problem setting up the iPhone before activating it. Just remove the SIM card from the new phone before booting it and skip activation. I buy unlocked phones and don't activate them until I check out the features and possible defects.

 

[Super Spartan]

I guess I should have added that I’m one of those people who start from scratch each time!! I like that new clean feeling and now with contacts, documents, calendar, etc all on iCloud it’s actually not that painful. Downloading the apps and making the settings identical is really the pain point but oh so worth it!

That's exactly what I do every time! Since the contacts and photos are all in the cloud, it's just a matter of reinstalling the apps and get a fresh new start with 0 traces of the old backup/profile.

With that said, today I was trying to setup my phone as new again after a factory reset and I have an eSIM so there was no way for me to activate it since I cannot receive an SMS on my phone (eSim not activated yet after a factory reset) so I had to be near my MBP to get the authorization code to activate it after logging with my Apple ID. I wish there was a way to skip that long setup wizard and just get into the phone and setup everything later.

 

[fjfjfjfj]

This is so not worth your time. Sure, if she only has a handful of apps, but it's such a waste of time for anything more. I've restored from backup since the OG iPhone and never ran into issues.

To answer your original question, I believe you should have no problem setting up the iPhone before activating it. Just remove the SIM card from the new phone before booting it and skip activation. I buy unlocked phones and don't activate them until I check out the features and possible defects.

To each his own I guess...

 

[ET iPhone Home]

Is it possible to setup my iPhone without activating the service right away? My situation is that I need to setup my wife’s new iPhone but I have to make sure that it is exactly like the old way she had it setup before I give it to her. Going through the normal process flow the first thing it does is activate the Verizon service which means her old phone stops working (for phone calls). Is it possible to setup the phone without activating the service until I’m all setup and ready for her to take it?

I know a sim-free phone can be set-up without activation.