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Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
ACOOK7409
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 09:55 AM

My watch came Friday and initially, setup started to go fine. I was able to pair it with my phone, and everything except cellular works.

When I got to Set Up Cellular, the button is grayed out (I’m in the Watch app on my fully updated IPhone 7 Plus) and it says “this account is not ready to use with Apple Watch. Contact your carrier for more information.”

Furthermore, when I go into Settings on my watch and hit Cellular, it says Plan: No SIM and Status: No Connection

[Removed] is the deal? I contacted Verizon Friday and they had me to a hard reset and start from scratch setting up and pairing and still nothing. They said it’s a known issue but they have no solution yet? They said that in my account the device is properly activated and they dont know why it won’t allow me to setup cellular.

I’ve googled to DEATH and can’t find anyone else listing this exact problem. Anyone found a solution yet?

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Message edited by Verizon Moderator.

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
iagermeister
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-25-2017 12:19 PM

Following up -


I called Verizon customer service a third time.... finally success.

When I called back to inform them that updating my plan had not rectified the issue, the customer service rep directed me to the "Telesales" department, where I spoke with what was now a fourth customer service agent.

The Telesales department agent walked me through the following: First she had me (on iPhone) go into Settings >  Cellular > Cellular data options > Enable LTE, then switch to "Voice and Data" (my phone had previously been set on "Data Only").

Perhaps this setting alone is what was not allowing me to set up cellular on the Apple Watch however I do not know for sure because from there the agent proceeded to manually activate the Apple watch. After reading off the IMEI and EID numbers from the watch, and waiting about 10 minutes, the agent was able to successfully activate the watch.

Now (finally) my Apple Watch is Cellular activated and working as advertised (only one test call so far).

Hope this helps anyone else having the same issue-

@ DavidH - thanks for reaching out (I was already on the phone again when you reached out via PM).

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader
‎09-24-2017 10:10 AM

You didn't search very hard. See this thread. Apple Watch Series 3 Activation Troubles (Apple Store Direct Purchase)

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
ACOOK7409
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 10:13 AM

Thanks but nope, not correct. Mine was a Verizon purchase, not Apple Store. And all those comments say they activated theirs but are having issues with LTE reliably. Mine won’t activate and all and the watch says “No SIM”

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep
‎09-24-2017 10:34 AM

ACOOK7409-

Getting your smart watch to activate is the goal. No worries, we will work together to get it up and running. May I ask if your watch is a WI-FI device only? Do you have the IMEI number of your Apple watch with you handy? Please respond to my private message to continue assisting.

 

CarmenT_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport

If my response answered your question please click the _Correct Answer_ button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
ACOOK7409
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 10:43 AM

Thanks, it’s an LTE watch, and I ordered it through Verizon, selected to be paired with my phone number when I preordered. I even verified it was the correct one (and I wasn’t somehow sent a WiFi watch which I’m pretty sure verizon doesnt even sell anyway) and it indeed says “LTE” on the back of it. I’ll reply more to your PM. Thank you

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
mfc63
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 11:13 AM

I am having the exact same issue.  Please let me know your progress getting this resolved

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
JORDIC25
Enthusiast - Level 1
‎09-24-2017 04:18 PM

I’m having THE SAME EXACT ISSUE! Please let me know if they find a fix for it.

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
ACOOK7409
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 06:03 PM

I’m going to the store tomorrow and having someone look at it. So far communication with the verizon rep on here hasnt gotten me anywhere. It takes her hours between replies and the suggestions arent anything I haven’t already tried. I honestly thing they put it under the wrong phone line or something when i ordered it even though the order shows my number! When I go into manage connections in my account (where you can share a number between devices which is i think how this works from what I have googled) it only showed my husband’s line as able to accept a secondary device but my line says it cant. Irritating. I’ll just waste my time going to the VZW store tomorrow. I’ll let you know what they say!

Amy

Sent from my iPad Pro

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
mfc63
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 06:16 PM

Thanks, Amy.  I have had similarly fruitless discussions with Verizon reps over the last 2 days.  One of them (a tier 2 tech support rep) insisted that my watch was missing a sim card and that I needed to go to a store.  She resisted my arguments that many people with many providers were having the same issue and that this was not an isolated case.  I finally convinced her to call Apple, and in a 3-way conversation, he revealed that Apple had been hearing a ton of these complaints, and that the providers needed to find out was wrong with their activation protocols.  My Verizon rep finally got it and filed a ticket.

I think this will get resolved, but Verizon needs to hear from all of us to know that this is a systemic and not isolated issue.  Like you, I doubt that your visit to the Verizon store will amount to much except hopefully more awareness of the pervasiveness if this issue.  Please keep us posted!

- Mitch

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Re: Apple Watch 3 - Cellular Won’t Set Up- Says No Sim
ACOOK7409
Enthusiast - Level 2
‎09-24-2017 06:19 PM

Friday they told me that everything was activated on their end and they didn’t understand why it wasn’t working. I said my watch literally says “NO SIM” in multiple places! Also when I login into My Verizon online and all my devices are shown, it shows a generic grey phone shadow, not even a picture of a watch and it doesn’t have a name either. Something is seriously up. Hopefully they can fix it tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted

Amy

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