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upgrade swap gone wrong?
- Thread starter iphonenub
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I ported a line in from Sprint to at&t with my order for the new 4S. Received phone, activated it(no probs), then switched SIMS with my existing 4G. No issues with that either. Went to at&t online to check original line and it indicates the device is a 4Gs. So, I didn't call them to do the IME ordeal and I'm not sure it's necessary. I just don't want any reason for at&t to mess with my unlimited data on the original existing line. The new line/data is tiered.
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Seems those of us on AT&T who ordered from Apple are stuck needing to
a) Get a "cold SIM" from an AT&T store to activate the 4S on the line it was ordered on. I'm going to assume doing it this way will deactivate the SIM that the line is currently using. Which is no good for those of us swapping with people in other states/countries.
b) The pittmann87 method in post 94 - if AT&T has already swapped the ICCID and IMEI of the 4S to the line you want to use it on (different than what it was ordered on) you need to insert a microSIM that matches the number the 4S was ordered under from Apple to activate the 4S, and can then switch around. Only works for those switching between 4 and 4S - microSIM phones.
I don't believe that any amount of waiting for Apple & AT&T's servers to sync will fix this issue - sounds like phones ordered from Apple are tied to only activating on the line they were ordered on.
For me, I'm stuck as I want to swap with someone currently using a 3GS that lives several states away and is currently traveling and needs a phone. I'll have to wait until next week to convince him to be without a phone for a day and then I can do a 'cold SIM' swap and overnight my 4 to him.
Beyond frustrated that Apple and AT&T could not get their ducks in a row and get this process communicated and documented better. It shouldn't be this hard.
a) Get a "cold SIM" from an AT&T store to activate the 4S on the line it was ordered on. I'm going to assume doing it this way will deactivate the SIM that the line is currently using. Which is no good for those of us swapping with people in other states/countries.
b) The pittmann87 method in post 94 - if AT&T has already swapped the ICCID and IMEI of the 4S to the line you want to use it on (different than what it was ordered on) you need to insert a microSIM that matches the number the 4S was ordered under from Apple to activate the 4S, and can then switch around. Only works for those switching between 4 and 4S - microSIM phones.
I don't believe that any amount of waiting for Apple & AT&T's servers to sync will fix this issue - sounds like phones ordered from Apple are tied to only activating on the line they were ordered on.
For me, I'm stuck as I want to swap with someone currently using a 3GS that lives several states away and is currently traveling and needs a phone. I'll have to wait until next week to convince him to be without a phone for a day and then I can do a 'cold SIM' swap and overnight my 4 to him.
Beyond frustrated that Apple and AT&T could not get their ducks in a row and get this process communicated and documented better. It shouldn't be this hard.
I'm in the exact same boat as you, but I have one question. Do you really need to overnight him the sim. My idea is do the cold card activation which screws the original line holder (my mother) then have her go to an att store and basically do the same thing back to me. Then since both phones have been activated, we don't have to deal with this Apple bull anymore.
Will this work???
How to active on a different number
Regardless of what AT&T or Apple support says, you *have* to insert the SIM from the phone with the AT&T phone number (at time or purchase) you upgraded via the Apple store.
Insert the SIM from that phone into the new iPhone 4S, do the activation, then swap back whatever AT&T SIM you want into the 4S.
After you activate, you can have AT&T move that iPhone 4S to any phone number on your family plan, etc.
Roger
Regardless of what AT&T or Apple support says, you *have* to insert the SIM from the phone with the AT&T phone number (at time or purchase) you upgraded via the Apple store.
Insert the SIM from that phone into the new iPhone 4S, do the activation, then swap back whatever AT&T SIM you want into the 4S.
After you activate, you can have AT&T move that iPhone 4S to any phone number on your family plan, etc.
Roger
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Yeah this is my plan except att didn't know what they were doing and associated the new sim from the iphone 4s with MY account instead of my mothers. I can't use her sim either because she has a 3gs so I am going to try the cold sim method. Then I will have her number and she will have nothing. She can go to an att store and get a new SIM and we can swap the numbers.
I followed your steps and the numbers switched over just fine. The back up of the 4 did not restore on the 4s after sim swap. Did I miss something or is it just not possible?
Thanks for sharing the information with us!
I had to go back to the AT&T store for a second time. I asked for a micro SIM with the original number. We tried that and it didn't work the first time but we waited a few minutes and attempted again and it activated. After that we just had to get a new SIM for the original line, remove the iPhone data plan, and put the sim for the number I wanted swapped to back in the iPhone.
Did pretty much the same thing. Third trip to AT&T store made them assign a SIM to the line I originally upgraded with. Then switching lines was easy. They were amazed it worked.
Got much better info here than from all the AT&T and Apple reps.
The cold SIM option works. But make sure that you pick up another SIM for the phone/number that you ordered the 4s with because when I activated the 4s with the blank SIM it took down the number I ordered the 4s on.
The number I upgraded was a Razr so i needed a regular SIM.
The number I upgraded was a Razr so i needed a regular SIM.