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Foss

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
456
287
It’s been a hectic day trying to get Verizon service on my 2021 12.9 iPad Pro. I have an existing line for my phone, watch, and 2018 iPad Pro. I thought it would be simple process to get a new SIM to get 5G and swap out my old SIM and put into my 2021 iPad. Apparently it is not. Hopefully people can learn from my and Verizon’s mistakes.

Verizon cannot issue a physical SIM at the store for the new iPad Pro. It must be a eSIM. So they told me to cancel my current iPad line and get a new one. Then they can setup the eSIM on my new line. So I canceled my existing line online (can’t cancel a line at the store) and signed up for a new iPad line, online. If you follow that process, they ship you a new physical SIM. So after 3+ hours at the store, they canceled the new line and added another new line. Then it took a couple hours with multiple calls to help desks on their end to get an eSIM assigned. This was all news to the Verizon employees. I believe the correct process is to sign up for a new line via the setting/carrier panel. Then cancel your other line (if you’re doing a 1:1 replacement).

I hope this saves some people a lot of headache from my example.
 

AutomaticApple

Suspended
Nov 28, 2018
7,401
3,378
Massachusetts
It’s been a hectic day trying to get Verizon service on my 2021 12.9 iPad Pro. I have an existing line for my phone, watch, and 2018 iPad Pro. I thought it would be simple process to get a new SIM to get 5G and swap out my old SIM and put into my 2021 iPad. Apparently it is not. Hopefully people can learn from my and Verizon’s mistakes.

Verizon cannot issue a physical SIM at the store for the new iPad Pro. It must be a eSIM. So they told me to cancel my current iPad line and get a new one. Then they can setup the eSIM on my new line. So I canceled my existing line online (can’t cancel a line at the store) and signed up for a new iPad line, online. If you follow that process, they ship you a new physical SIM. So after 3+ hours at the store, they canceled the new line and added another new line. Then it took a couple hours with multiple calls to help desks on their end to get an eSIM assigned. This was all news to the Verizon employees. I believe the correct process is to sign up for a new line via the setting/carrier panel. Then cancel your other line (if you’re doing a 1:1 replacement).

I hope this saves some people a lot of headache from my example.
Holy cow! Thanks! I've been having so much trouble trying to activate my Verizon IPP today.
 

bevsb2

Contributor
Nov 23, 2012
4,425
13,581
I called Verizon last evening and was told to just take the SIM out of my old iPad (2018 iPad Pro) and put it in the new one. It worked but I guess I don’t have 5G which isn’t available here anyway.
 
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Pathfinder3

macrumors member
Feb 26, 2010
99
13
Okinawa, JP
I too wasted time at Verizon and on the phone with customer service and tech support. Somehow got the account set for the new IPP and now up and running with eSIM on 5G.
 

pugxiwawa

macrumors 6502
Nov 10, 2009
478
1,000
I think all you have to do is to give verizon eSim from the new iPad, and they can switch it over remotely.
 

Foss

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
456
287
It seems rather odd that they wouldn't have a new physical SIM ready.
Their system at the stores do not have an option to assign a physical SIM to the new iPad. It wasn’t a problem for last year’s iPhone. They said this is the first time they’ve seen this situation.
 

Pathfinder3

macrumors member
Feb 26, 2010
99
13
Okinawa, JP
It seems rather odd that they wouldn't have a new physical SIM ready.
When my IPP arrived from FEDEX on Friday, there wasn’t a SIM in the box. I took it over to Verizon to get one. They couldn’t get it to work. So they weren’t aware of not needing a physical SIM in order to connect to the network. Tech support on the phone weren’t aware as well. It seemed like everyone was hung up of getting the SIM associated with the IPP.
 

bevsb2

Contributor
Nov 23, 2012
4,425
13,581
I called Verizon last evening and was told to just take the SIM out of my old iPad (2018 iPad Pro) and put it in the new one. It worked but I guess I don’t have 5G which isn’t available here anyway.
After everything going smoothly last evening, I got a message from Verizon today that I couldn’t activate a 5G iPad And a number to call. I spent at least an hour with an agent on chat getting it set up and the old SIM went back in and now everything seems to be working. ?
 

DougFNJ

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2008
1,449
1,133
NJ
Verizon training is terrible. These people have no idea what they are doing, how to activate services, and even what they sell.

I swapped the sim from the old iPad to the new iPad. It shows 5g, so I’m going with it for now.
 

Caviar_X

macrumors 6502a
Sep 2, 2010
501
474
I had no issues activating my iPad Pro during the setup process. Granted I only had one line.
 

cis4life

macrumors regular
Apr 4, 2008
211
62
I had to go the physical verizon store and they gave me a 5G physical SIM card at no cost. My prior sim worked, but only was pulling LTE. support had me go in and get a 5G card and I did with no problem and it now works without a issue.
 
Last edited:

BBradac9

macrumors member
Oct 13, 2007
35
9
I made the mistake of simply moving my old sim to the new iPad. This then ties the device to your account. I had to ask the chat representative to remove my old sim information from my account before it would let me activate the eSim using the cellular data menu.
 

macguy360

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2011
829
468
It’s been a hectic day trying to get Verizon service on my 2021 12.9 iPad Pro. I have an existing line for my phone, watch, and 2018 iPad Pro. I thought it would be simple process to get a new SIM to get 5G and swap out my old SIM and put into my 2021 iPad. Apparently it is not. Hopefully people can learn from my and Verizon’s mistakes.

Verizon cannot issue a physical SIM at the store for the new iPad Pro. It must be a eSIM. So they told me to cancel my current iPad line and get a new one. Then they can setup the eSIM on my new line. So I canceled my existing line online (can’t cancel a line at the store) and signed up for a new iPad line, online. If you follow that process, they ship you a new physical SIM. So after 3+ hours at the store, they canceled the new line and added another new line. Then it took a couple hours with multiple calls to help desks on their end to get an eSIM assigned. This was all news to the Verizon employees. I believe the correct process is to sign up for a new line via the setting/carrier panel. Then cancel your other line (if you’re doing a 1:1 replacement).

I hope this saves some people a lot of headache from my example.
The correct way to activate on Verizon is to call Verizon and give them the imei number and ccid number. They then activate the Esim and your done
 

DougFNJ

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2008
1,449
1,133
NJ
I made the mistake of simply moving my old sim to the new iPad. This then ties the device to your account. I had to ask the chat representative to remove my old sim information from my account before it would let me activate the eSim using the cellular data menu.

But didn’t you want to tie the device to your account?
 
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