tldr; if you are transferring an eSim on Verizon wireless and the main iOS transfer workflow fails, you need to speak to a technical team member. The automated systems and first line support person won't be able to help. You'll know you're talking to the wrong person if they ask for a non-existent ICCID on the new iphone
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I had an iPhone 13 Pro that has an eSIM replaced with a new phone of the same model via AppleCare+.
The automated activation method provided by iOS failed repeatedly, requesting I contact the carrier.
I tried using Verizon's automated activation method, but it requires the ICCID of the new phone.
This number is not available in Settings > About. And the Phone option in Settings is greyed out.
Despite Verizon's best efforts to prevent me from doing so, I was able to speak to a support person live on the phone.
This person repeatedly requested the ICCID of the new phone, which I explained repeatedly was not listed in Settings > About. They did not seem to have process to handle eSIM activation.
Flummoxed, the Verizon Wireless support person put me on hold to transfer me to a "technical team." Of course, after waiting in silence for ten minutes, my call was disconnected.
I called back, and was more quickly transferred to a technical team member and promised they would not allow my transfer to be disconnected.
The technical person understood the situation in two sentences.
For the first time across all automated and human support methods, this person requested the IMEI2 on the new phone. They were the first person to clearly understand that eSIMS were involved.
Ultimately, I removed the Used as Primary from the cellular plans, and then a new row on the main Settings view under the big iCloud row showed something like "this line is ready for activation"
If you tap this, you must tap continue. If you cancel, you do not get another shot at it. From here, there are a number of strange steps, with modals "Waiting for Activation: this may take some time" with only Dismiss as an option and "iPhone is Activated" with Dismiss as an option.
As the technical person explained it, an ICCID does not exist on a new iPhone that has not had an eSIM activated on it. It does exist if there's a physical SIM.
So if you tell the person the new phone has an eSIM and they don't know this, tell them you want a technical team member.
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I had an iPhone 13 Pro that has an eSIM replaced with a new phone of the same model via AppleCare+.
The automated activation method provided by iOS failed repeatedly, requesting I contact the carrier.
I tried using Verizon's automated activation method, but it requires the ICCID of the new phone.
This number is not available in Settings > About. And the Phone option in Settings is greyed out.
Despite Verizon's best efforts to prevent me from doing so, I was able to speak to a support person live on the phone.
This person repeatedly requested the ICCID of the new phone, which I explained repeatedly was not listed in Settings > About. They did not seem to have process to handle eSIM activation.
Flummoxed, the Verizon Wireless support person put me on hold to transfer me to a "technical team." Of course, after waiting in silence for ten minutes, my call was disconnected.
I called back, and was more quickly transferred to a technical team member and promised they would not allow my transfer to be disconnected.
The technical person understood the situation in two sentences.
For the first time across all automated and human support methods, this person requested the IMEI2 on the new phone. They were the first person to clearly understand that eSIMS were involved.
Ultimately, I removed the Used as Primary from the cellular plans, and then a new row on the main Settings view under the big iCloud row showed something like "this line is ready for activation"
If you tap this, you must tap continue. If you cancel, you do not get another shot at it. From here, there are a number of strange steps, with modals "Waiting for Activation: this may take some time" with only Dismiss as an option and "iPhone is Activated" with Dismiss as an option.
As the technical person explained it, an ICCID does not exist on a new iPhone that has not had an eSIM activated on it. It does exist if there's a physical SIM.
So if you tell the person the new phone has an eSIM and they don't know this, tell them you want a technical team member.
