Replacing Both iPhone and Cellular Apple Watch

[rhino777]

Hi!

I’m looking for advice on how best to handle an upgrade of both iPhone and Apple Watch. In my case the old and new devices have all been purchased directly from Apple. 

I’m using a physical SIM in the phone, so no problem swapping that over, but how do I handle the watch? My mobile contract is recent enough to include the watch plan and that plan is active on my old watch. 

Is the best option to:

1. Unpair the old watch from the old phone, which will create a backup on the old phone
2. Set up the new phone, by transferring from the old
3. Pair the new watch and restore from the backup made earlier
4. Activate data plan on new watch

If the above approach is correct, do I choose to keep or choose to remove the data plan during the unpairing of the old watch?

I’ve been unable to find any support articles covering the replacement of both watch and phone!

[Chris_B]

@rhino777  set up the new phone first,  you’ll go through unpairing the old watch this will pair that watch with the new phone and once setup you can then pair the old watch and then setup the new watch. 

[rhino777]

@Chris_B thanks for your reply, I did wonder if that might be a way to go.

If I do that, do I choose to keep or cancel the watch plan on either of the two instances of unpairing the old watch (once from the old phone and then from the new)?

[Ritu_D]

Hi @rhino777 

Just to add to @Chris_B post, here is an Apple Support (UK) article which guides you through the new set up. 

Thanks 

Ritu 

[Chris_B]

@rhino777   Keep the tariff.  Definitely keep the tariff.

[rhino777 · Accepted solution]

Just reporting to say that I sorted out the replacement of both phone and watch as follows:

1. Unpaired old watch from old phone, which also saves a backup of the watch data to the phone.  When asked whether to keep the data plan I selected to remove it as this just removes it from that device rather than from the EE account.

2. Performed a backup of the old phone to ensure the watch backup was saved.

3. Used the Apple Quick Setup to transfer everything from the old phone to the new.

4. Paired the new watch with the new phone and selected to restore the watch settings from the backup.

5. Tried to activate the mobile service for the new watch.  This opened an EE login page which then asked whether this was a new data plan or a transfer of the existing plan.  Selected transfer but this then generated a message to call EE on 150 and quote error code 003.  I did that and had to provide the new watch's 32 digit EID number for the CS rep to enter into the system.  Once this was done everything began working as expected a short time later.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

[Fatboy71]

I asked pretty much the same question a few months ago, and the advice was to choose to keep mobile plan when asked during the unpairing of the old Apple Watch, as I get the data add-on free with my sim only plan. 

I'm assuming that the advice to keep the mobile plan is because this would ensure that the same plan (free one) would be used on the new Apple Watch. 

Perhaps the process has changed slightly since I asked the question a few months ago.

I'll be doing the same thing in the coming days, weeks, so will be interesting to know how the easiest way/correct way will be. 

[rhino777]

Hi @Fatboy71 

I’ll be interested to know which way you go and how it turns out. 

I was eventually persuaded to remove the plan because of the following text from Apple’s guide on unpairing a watch:

For GPS + Cellular models, choose whether to keep or remove your cellular plan.

• If you want to pair your Apple Watch and iPhone again, keep your plan.

• If you don't want to pair your Apple Watch and iPhone again, remove your plan. If you aren't going to pair with a different watch or iPhone, you might need to contact your carrier to cancel your cellular subscription.

[Fatboy71]

Just thought I would come back and post an update as to how I got on, and what I did.

1: On my old iPhone and old Apple Watch, I unpaired my Apple Watch with my old iPhone.

2: During the unpairing I was asked if I wanted to keep the mobile plan, I chose to keep it.

3: On my new iPhone, I set it up with the direct transfer method (the one where you place the two iPhones side by side) from off of my old iPhone.

4: When the iPhone transfer had completely finished (took just over an hour). I then paired my new Apple Watch to my new iPhone.

5: I was prompted during the pairing process if I wanted to setup mobile data or set up later, I chose set up later.

6: I went to setup mobile data in the Watch app on the iPhone, and it picked up that the iPhone already has an Apple Watch plan connected, and to associate the existing watch plan with this phone I needed to choose replace (which I did).

7: After choosing replace, it said something along the lines of that "we need to do something at our end, and to call 150 quoting code 003".

I called 150 and spoke to a very helpful man called Dylan in the South Wales call centre. I explained the situation with him, he did a few things at his end and asked me what I could see in the mobile service section a few times, and then asked for the EID number of the new Apple Watch. After giving him this, and going back into mobile service I could see two different things this time.

One was EE plan not active, and I was unable to select that and had the option to remove it when I touched it. I think he told me to add new plan, but I'm not 100 percent sure if he first told me to remove the EE plan not active one, and after that it mentioned that it could take up to 4 hours to complete. Less than 30 minutes after the call, my Apple Watch connected to the mobile service.

Before I got off the telephone, Dylan said he wanted to look in my account just to make sure that there was not two mobile data plans showing for the Apple Watch, as he said this can sometimes happen and he was unsure why this is. He said he wanted to save me having to get back in touch if that would be the case with me.

Anyways he checked and he said that I should not have this problem as he could only see two devices and telephone numbers on my account (one is the iPhone sim only plan, and the other is the telephone number associated with my Apple Watch mobile plan for billing purposes).

He then asked me to go into the My EE app, and on the main screen you can see the telephone number associated with your phone/sim only plan, he asked me to touch on the little drop down arrow v and asked me to confirm that I could only see two telephone numbers in this section. He asked me to confirm the last three numbers of the telephone number that was not the phone number of my iPhone, I told him the last three numbers and he confirmed that was the number he could see at his end.

Dylan was really helpful and thorougher and I would like to specifically mention him as credit where it's due.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Fatboy71  🙂

Thanks for coming back to share those steps with us. I'm glad Dylan was able to help get it sorted with you.

Chris