My new iPhone 16 Pro got stuck during setup. Here’s how I fixed it – fast

One of the best parts of purchasing a new iPhone is that Apple makes the transition as painless as possible, transferring all of the data from your old phone to the new one with the touch of a button or two. However, the setup process for the new iPhone 16 lineup seems to have a little wrinkle. 

On Saturday, my new iPhone 16 Pro came in the mail, and since my upgrade from the iPhone 14 was highly anticipated, I immediately set it up. After backing up my previous phone, I started the new iPhone setup, and everything went smoothly until I transferred my phone number. 

Also: iPhone 16 Pro users are reporting glitches with the touch screen – here’s the problem

I was stuck on a screen that read, “Cellular setup complete, ” with the bar at the bottom of the screen greyed out and displaying the spinning “loading button.” However, the old phone was frozen on “Finish on New iPhone,” so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. After 40 minutes, I figured it wasn’t going anywhere and looked it up. 

To my surprise, I found an Apple Community thread showing that many users experience this exact issue on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16. Fortunately, according to the thread, the consensus was to hold the power and volume up button to restart the phone.

Someone in the community said they waited an hour and a half, thinking the phone was transferring data, but it was fixed as soon as they turned it off and back on. Even though it seemed almost too simple, it worked for me, and the setup process was not messed up. Rather, when the phone turned back on, it continued the setup as originally intended.

Also: The iPhone 16 is the most-repairable iPhone yet, according to iFixit

Ultimately, if turning your handset off and back on doesn’t work or if you have other hesitations, chatting with Apple support is also a good solution. Getting started is easy: visit this website, enter your issue, and select chat or voicecall.