Activate a Verizon iPhone
Did you decide to switch to an iPhone? Are you upgrading to the newest iPhone 5S? If so you’ll need to activate your iPhone through Verizon before you can use it. Luckily, the process has gotten a lot simpler over the years. As long as you have a few bits of info handy, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. See Step 1 below to get started, and you’ll be tapping away on your new iPhone in no time.
Contents
Steps
Activating a New iPhone
- Back up your contacts. If you have been using an older iPhone, you should backup your contacts using iTunes before activating your phone for Verizon service. This will ensure that your contacts can be transferred to the new iPhone.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Make sure that iTunes has been updated to the most recent version.
- Back-Up-iPhone-Contacts to sync your contacts to your computer or to iCloud. Turn your iPhone off after backing up your contacts.
- If your previous phone was not an iPhone, you will need to find the backup instructions for your phone’s specific model.
- Turn on 4G LTE. This step is only for existing Verizon customers. Using a different phone than your iPhone, call (877)807-4646. Make sure that you have the receipt for your service handy, as you will need to provide the customer service reps with some information on it.
- Activate your iPhone. Turn on the iPhone. Your phone should automatically prompt you to begin the activation process. Tap “Use Cellular Connection” if you have signal to activate using the cellular signal.
- If you don’t have service, you can connect your iPhone to your computer and use iTunes to activate by tapping “Connect to iTunes”. You can also use a Wi-Fi connection to activate.
- You will need to read and agree to the software license in order to activate your phone.
- Phone activation can take up to 3 minutes, during which your phone will be unable to make or receive calls and texts.
- Some older iPhones must activate by connecting to iTunes.
- Finish the setup process. After the phone has been activated, you will be guided through the rest of the iPhone setup process, including creating/signing into an iCloud account and restoring your saved contacts.
- Set-Up-Voicemail-on-an-iPhone. Tap the Phone app on the iPhone and then select Voicemail. You will be guided through your Voicemail configuration.
Activating a Used iPhone
- Back up your contacts. Before you activate your iPhone, make sure that your contacts and voicemail accounts have been backed up in case you lose access to them on your original phone. For iPhones, you can Back-Up-iPhone-Contacts. For other phones, such as Android phones, you will need to find instructions for your particular operating system.
- Get your account information ready. You will need to be able to provide your phone number and your account security code.
- Dial the Verizon activation line. Using the Phone app on the iPhone, dial *228 and press SEND. Select Option 1 from the menu to start the activation process. Once you enter your phone number and account code, your phone will be activated.
- Activation may take a few minutes after you finish the activation call.
- Activate it manually. If you would prefer to activate the phone online, you can do so through the My Verizon website. Login with your My Verizon account, and then select Activate Device from the Devices menu.
- You will need your iPhone’s ESN/MEID number. You can find this by opening Settings, Select General, and then tapping About. Scroll until you find the number.
- You will have to confirm your plan features when activating the iPhone online. Once you are finished, click Submit.
- Dial *228 on the iPhone and press 1. Your phone may take a few minutes to activate.
- Restore your contacts. Once the phone has been activated, you can use iTunes or iCloud to restore your contacts if you were previously using an iPhone, or you can import your contacts from your Import-Contacts-from-Gmail-to-Your-iPhone.
- Set-Up-Voicemail-on-an-iPhone. Tap the Phone app on the iPhone and then select Voicemail. You will be guided through your Voicemail configuration.
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