Double check phone number when activating iPhone!
I just tried activating my new iPhone a couple of hours ago. iTunes helpfully filled in all of my registration info for me... name, address, phone number... all of which looked fine at a quick glance.
Just as I was hitting OK, I noticed it was my land line number that had been filled in, not my mobile number. After that point I'd already clicked OK, however, and there was no "Back" button to fix the error. I figured somewhere along the way the bad number would make the registration fail, and I'd enter the correct number when that happened. I proceeded with syncing the new phone with the back up of my old phone.
Well, I never was given an opportunity to fix the error. Unplugging my iPhone and plugging it back in didn't help -- normal syncing is all that happened, no restart of the registration process. I tried to activate online at att.com/activate, but couldn't get that to work either.
I called AT&T tech help and was told the only solution was to go to an AT&T store and get a new SIM card. According to this AT&T guy, once I'd hit OK the wrong number was programmed into the SIM, and replacing it was my only option.
Perhaps there are other reset tricks, but I wasn't sure what they'd be, and there's an AT&T store no too far from me, so I went in. I was worried that these new micro SIMs might not be something they'd have extras of on hand, but that wasn't a problem. The AT&T store was surprisingly not very busy today, and they fixed my problem with a new SIM pretty quickly.
It was still a pain in the ass, however, compared to simply doing it all from the comfort of home, so I figured I post a warning in hopes of saving someone else the same grief.
Just as I was hitting OK, I noticed it was my land line number that had been filled in, not my mobile number. After that point I'd already clicked OK, however, and there was no "Back" button to fix the error. I figured somewhere along the way the bad number would make the registration fail, and I'd enter the correct number when that happened. I proceeded with syncing the new phone with the back up of my old phone.
Well, I never was given an opportunity to fix the error. Unplugging my iPhone and plugging it back in didn't help -- normal syncing is all that happened, no restart of the registration process. I tried to activate online at att.com/activate, but couldn't get that to work either.
I called AT&T tech help and was told the only solution was to go to an AT&T store and get a new SIM card. According to this AT&T guy, once I'd hit OK the wrong number was programmed into the SIM, and replacing it was my only option.
Perhaps there are other reset tricks, but I wasn't sure what they'd be, and there's an AT&T store no too far from me, so I went in. I was worried that these new micro SIMs might not be something they'd have extras of on hand, but that wasn't a problem. The AT&T store was surprisingly not very busy today, and they fixed my problem with a new SIM pretty quickly.
It was still a pain in the ass, however, compared to simply doing it all from the comfort of home, so I figured I post a warning in hopes of saving someone else the same grief.