Quick troubleshooting tips
My new iPhone has Activation Lock on the Home Screen.
Then it isn’t a brand–new iPhone. Activation Lock is part of Find My, which enables you to remotely lock your iPhone. So if you see the activation Lock Screen on your new iPhone, then either you’ve bought a second–hand one, or a problematic product from a dubious source. If it’s the former you’ll need to contact the seller, but beware — as Apple points out, some scammers do this deliberately so they can demand another payment to unlock it.
My new iPhone isn’t activating.
Is the SIM card inside? Try popping out the SIM tray with the included
SIM eject tool that came with your new phone. Take the SIM out and carefully reseat it and pop the tray back in again.
The problem could be at Apple’s end. Check the System Status page at apple.com/support/systemstatus and see if there’s a green dot next to iOS Device Activation. If there isn’t, there’s a server problem and you should try again later.
Quick Start isn’t working. Assuming you have iOS 11 or later on both your old and new devices (Quick Start isn’t available for older versions of iOS or iPadOS), the most likely culprit is that Bluetooth is turned off on your existing iPhone or iPad. You can switch it back on in Settings > Bluetooth. Still no luck? Restart both devices.
What do I do with my unwanted old device?
If you haven’t already arranged to trade it in, you could sell it on eBay or Gumtree or if it’s really old, recycle it. Whichever option you choose, don’t forget to erase your old device (and if it’s an Apple one, disable Find My first and then log out of iCloud) when you’re sure that you’ve transferred everything you need.