iPhone 12 - SIM swap not going well - need advice

**wakeupandworry** · 11-14-2020, 07:25 PM

Hi Guys,

Long story short, my wife and I had iPhone 7's and 6's respectively, we've been waiting patiently to upgrade to the 12s. Received them, swapped out SIMs.

Wife's iPhone 12, working flawlessly. Mine, not so much. No data, can't make calls. Tried new APN install, nothing. Reset network settings, nothing.

I know swapping SIM's is technically not cool by Tracfone standards, but I've always done it, and it's never been a problem. And obviously, not a problem with the wife's phone. Was on with support today and they said it's because the phone is 5g and they are not ready for it.

Any suggestions? My thought it to try a new SIM card (I ordered it on the site), and when it arrives, just try and act like it's a new phone and see what happens. But I would love some advice. The frustrating thing is my wife's phone does work and she's enjoying the 12 on the cheap.

Help!

**wakeupandworry** · 11-14-2020, 07:27 PM

I should mention in case relevant: the phones were purchased "Sim free" from Apple.

**advcomp2019** · 11-14-2020, 07:41 PM

I am starting to see more and more people having issues with these iPhone 12's, but they seem to be hit/miss if they work or not.

I have seen a people on reddit running into issues like you are.

It is crazy that you need 5G SIM when the device still has LTE.

**wakeupandworry** · 11-14-2020, 07:45 PM

Originally Posted by advcomp2019

I am starting to see more and more people having issues with these iPhone 12's, but they seem to be hit/miss if they work or not.

I have seen a people on reddit running into issues like you are.

It is crazy that you need 5G SIM when the device still has LTE.

This is what I don't understand. You can even choose LTE only on the 12 instead of 5G and that doesn't help. This wouldn't be nearly as maddening if my wife's phone didn't work fine.

**advcomp2019** · 11-14-2020, 08:00 PM

Someone needs to figure this out because it seems to be something lots of people are doing.

**cv91913** · 11-14-2020, 08:02 PM

Which TF carrier are you using? Does using your wife's sim in your phone work? Does using your sim in your wife's phone not work?

Edit: I just saw the Verizon logo in your post header. Oh, never mind.

**hpham** · 11-14-2020, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by wakeupandworry

This is what I don't understand. You can even choose LTE only on the 12 instead of 5G and that doesn't help. This wouldn't be nearly as maddening if my wife's phone didn't work fine.

I don't know anything about iPhones, but one thing to try is to swap the SIM in her phone into your phone, and the SIM from your phone into her phone.

1. If your SIM works in her phone, then somehow her phone has the correct set-up; in that case, closely compare the settings/parameters in her phone against yours.
2. If your SIM does not work in her phone, but her SIM works in your phone, then something in your SIM/account is not compatible with the iPhone 12.
3. If miraculously both phones work, then simply switch phones.

**rchang** · 11-14-2020, 10:55 PM

Try activating a new SIM, and since it's Verizon, you should probably give the IMEI to TF.

With iPhones, Apple has to send the phone some carrier information. So, you may have to convince Apple to do that.

If that doesn't work, have you tried installing a network profile? Had that issue with my 5s a few years ago. It wouldn't get data until I installed a network profile. Then the problem went away after one of the iOS updates.

EDIT: never mind. Reread the original post. If you can't even make a call, I would try swapping SIMs with your wife. Could be the phone.

**wakeupandworry** · 11-15-2020, 08:53 AM

Put my wife’s SIM in my phone, worked perfectly. So I guess I havE an issue with my SIM and the new phone. Very discouraging.

Not only that, in one of the customer service rabbit holes I was in yesterday, apparently they “deactivated” my number. Got an email last night that that was done. I had a ton of roller over data, minutes, texts. Now I don’t know if I can’t get my number and minutes back, and I certainly don’t know if they can pull off the new phone too. ☹️

**hpham** · 11-15-2020, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by wakeupandworry

Not only that, in one of the customer service rabbit holes I was in yesterday, apparently they “deactivated” my number. Got an email last night that that was done. I had a ton of roller over data, minutes, texts. Now I don’t know if I can’t get my number and minutes back, and I certainly don’t know if they can pull off the new phone too. ☹️

That's not good. Hope you have some solid proof of what your balances were. We always advise people to use Chat when interacting with TF, and ask the rep at the beginning of the chat to say what your balances are. That way, the balance info is in the chat transcript and TF can't refute that later. Screenshots and BALANCE texts are not as useful because there's no ready way to send them to TF (although you can use them when filing complaints with the BBB and FCC).

**kevink1** · 11-15-2020, 10:10 AM

Note. The new iPhone 12 series DO support CDMA. But I've seen many posts that Verizon has been provisioning them CDMA less. So as you mentioned, that could be it. With the soft end date for phone CDMA in 6 weeks, might as well provision it that way.

**wakeupandworry** · 11-15-2020, 08:07 PM

Well I have officially run out of options. Tried again with CS and after getting up to higher levels, the bottom line is they say that they don't have a SIM that is compatible with the iPhone 12. They say the IMEI is fine, they say the new SIM I bought was fine, but they can not tie the SIM to the IMEI.

I have a $1100 phone that I can not use on Tracfone.

Why can a MVNO like Red Pocket pull this off but Tracfone can't?

**kevink1** · 11-15-2020, 08:13 PM

How is att in your area? Maybe switch to that sim.

Not on tracfone, but I seem to recall seeing once where someone had serviced they couldn’t get to work. Changing to another carrier the. Coming back fresh seemed to cause it to work. Some junk in the settings caused issues.

**rpz1** · 11-16-2020, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by wakeupandworry

Put my wife’s SIM in my phone, worked perfectly. So I guess I havE an issue with my SIM and the new phone.

Did you put your sim in your wifes phone and did it work ?

Did you mention to TF that you have another identical phone working fine (wifes)?
Just don't tell them that phones specifics (#, imei, etc) or they'll likely disable it to support their false claim.

**wakeupandworry** · 11-16-2020, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by rpz1

Did you put your sim in your wifes phone and did it work ?

Did you mention to TF that you have another identical phone working fine (wifes)?
Just don't tell them that phones specifics (#, imei, etc) or they'll likely disable it to support their false claim.

Yes, mentioned it to them, they did not care.

I didn't tell them specifics about my wifes phone for the reason you stated. I figure she can ride the fact that it's working till it bucks, if ever.

Waiting for my Red Pocket SIM and going to call this a loss at this point.