iPhone 12 & iPhone 12 Pro experiencing activation issues on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile? You aren't alone

Just purchased the latest iPhone and popped in a brand new SIM card only to see that it isn’t getting activated? Don’t despair, for you are not alone. The Apple iPhone 12 activation issues are more widespread than you think.

There have been plenty of complaints across Reddit and other forums regarding the issue as you can see below.

I’m having this same exact issue… I was told by a rep that “This is a widespread iPhone 12 Pro issue due to 5G being new. Give it 1-2 days and it should become activated”. I’m very doubtful… I was given a number to call if it doesn’t magically become activated within a day.
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Anyone else having issues with activation their new phone? Mine hangs at the activation screen.
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As apparent from the complaints, the iPhone fails to proceed any further than the activation screen. The loading indicator keeps spinning for eternity, or the phone just hangs.

Also, the issue isn’t just limited to a single carrier. There have been reports of the same issue from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and perhaps others too. However, it does seem restricted to 5G SIMs only.

If you are facing the same issue as the others above, then you have come just to the right place. We got a few workarounds for you to try, and one of them are bound to work.

Before proceeding with the rest of the lengthy workarounds, stop! Have you simply tried to reboot your phone first? Plenty of users have opened a thread on forums without trying a reboot, and have then said that it actually worked for them.

If your reboot turned out to be a lucky one and fixed the issue for you, then go on and enjoy your brand new phone. If it did not, then don’t worry. There are still plenty of workarounds below left for you to try.

1. Use your PC: Connect the phone to your PC and run the iTunes application. You may be presented with an activation page where you will need to input a few details. See if this works for you.

2. Swap SIM cards: Try swapping your 5G SIM card with the SIM card from your old phone. This has worked for several users.

3. Call the carrier: It is quite possible that the issue is something from the carrier’s end. Ringing them up may do the job for you, like it did for this happy customer:

Call your CARRIER (not Apple) and ask them to activate the phone. They’ll want the IMEI and one other number (on the bottom of the iphone’s box). Give it some time, you’ll know it’s close when your old phone loses cellular service.
Don’t even try to activate yourself, I assume the relevant servers are slammed. And leave the SIMs as-is.
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4. Use ICCID number:

I got it to activate easily by going onto Verizon’s site and activating via ICCID number. Just plug in that number from settings and it will activate the 5G SIM card that was included. https://www.verizon.com/as/byosdevicelist/
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5. Try power cycling: If none of the above solutions worked for you, then your last resort is rebooting your phone till it complies and gets activated. This has been tried by a few users and has actually fixed the problem for them.

That being said, let us know in the comments below if one of the above workarounds fixed the iPhone 12 activation issues for you.

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