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iPhone 6 owners reporting that cards cannot be added back into Apple Pay after a restore [Update: resolved]

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Update: Users in the thread are now reporting that the problem has been resolved.

Multiple iPhone 6 owners are reporting in an Apple Support Communities thread that they are unable to add cards back into Apple Pay after their phone has been restored – whether as a new phone or from a backup. According to reports there, Apple has been able to resolve the issue only by replacing the phone.

I just left the Apple Store. They couldn’t diagnose the issue and we did a restore there in store and the problem persisted. The solution was to swap the hardware […]

I ended up going to the Apple Store and going to the genius bar. They proceeded to do all the thing I already tried. After they did a restore and set up as a new phone and saw they it didn’t work they went in the back and brought out a new phone. I fired up the phone and went thru steps to add my cards to Apple pay and everything worked. So getting a new phone fixed the issue.

The symptoms seem to suggest that the secure enclave is not being completely cleared, despite notifications from banks that cards have been removed at the point when the phone was restored … 

Most owners who took their phone to an Apple Store report being offered a replacement. Some say they were given a refurbished iPhone in exchange, while others state that they were given a brand new one in retail packaging.

The support thread currently runs to 71 posts over five pages.

Apple is working with its partners on expanding Apple Pay coverage, with Chevron expected to bring it to gas pumps next year, and New York City considering it for parking tickets. The company is also in talks with UK banks, Apple Pay expected to launch there in the first half of 2015.

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Comments

  1. OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 9 years ago

    “The symptoms seem to suggest that the secure enclave is not being completely cleared”

    That was my first thought when I read the headline. Sounds like there’s some incomplete cleanup of the card information when doing a restore.

  2. Marklewood at Serenity Lodge - 9 years ago

    Any kind of hick up with ApplePay is scarry. Too many companies are being hacked these days. I’ll wait until these bugs are fixed. Besides, my two banks are being cautious as well and have not yet authorized ApplePay.

    • standardpull - 9 years ago

      You think you’re less safe with Apple Pay? Maybe you didn’t read the reports of 100+ million compromised old-school magstripe cards in the press this year. About 7 in every 10 adults had their card compromised. Any kid can read an unencrypted magstripe card with a $10 reader.

      And the old school numbers? They can be reused until the credit limit is hit.

      Apple Pay is much much stronger. There is no unencrypted data in the mix, and the payment token can be used only exactly once.

      But even then, there are strong laws and policies that protect consumers. I’ve had cards compromised several times over the years (restaurants and on-line merchants and big box retailers are to blame), and I have never once had any issue contesting any illicit charge.

  3. Chad Morris (@thephatp) - 9 years ago

    Regardless of some of these “hiccups,” over this past weekend found out someone replicated my AMEX (card didn’t have a chip in it, and AMEX rep said the transaction showed it had been swiped on the other side of the US) and was making charges to it–and I found out IMMEDIATELY b/c of ApplePay. I was able to call AMEX and they canceled the cards only minutes after the pending charge showed up. So, I didn’t have to go through the hassle of disputing charges after the fact. Just canceled card and got a new number. If I hadn’t had ApplePay with immediate PENDING notifications, I would have caught it after the fact, which would have been much more painful. Thanks, ApplePay and AMEX!

  4. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Here’s hoping I dont need to restore mine, I love my Apple Pay. I am assuming if someone is able to remove their card from Passbook before doing a restore they are not affected?

  5. Michael Johnson - 9 years ago

    I can attest to this problem, they swapped my phone out.

  6. Same thing happened to me. Took in a new, unlocked iPhone 6 because of the ApplePay problem, left with a refurbished, locked iPhone 6. Apple employees claim that its “company policy” to lock customer to their current carrier and ignore the unlocked status of the phone that comes into stores for Genius Bar issues. They say I need to contact my carrier to request another unlock. It’s not like unlock requests aren’t limited or anything!

  7. luckydcxx - 9 years ago

    This happened to me the other day, I was at Walgreens checkout and was holding my phone up to the reader and nothingn was happening. I went into passbook and all of my credit cards were not there. I restored the phone about 2 days before this.

  8. Joe - 9 years ago

    No problem here. Restored my phone a couple times and haven’t had an issue. I even got a new card sent to me from Wells Fargo and when I activated it, it automatically changed my Apple Pay.

  9. Brooks Lockwood - 9 years ago

    This issue affected me. It turned out to be a hardware issue. They tested the NFC functionality on my device and it did not respond. My device was swapped on the spot and cards were re-added immediately.

    Seems to just be a batch of early hardware defect as I have had friends restore their devices and add cards back to ApplePay without issue.

  10. g2-a869810a19299946cb3838d6f963f222 - 9 years ago

    My phones (I’ve made two returns) have had a habit of just dropping my cards completely. They are there one day, then gone the next. I’ve had to call BoA about six or eight times to get my cards added back.

  11. Caleb Jenkins - 9 years ago

    I just had to do a restore on Saturday and re-adding my cards to Apple Pay worked fine. Either Apple pushed an update out to fix this problem, or these people that reported the problem don’t know how to add their cards to Apple Pay.

  12. after getting ApplePay setup on my phone, I had to sign out and into iCloud to get notifications on my mac to work again. One of the side effects of that was all my cards were erased. I was able to reset them up with no problem. I wonder if this falls into the category of having to sign out of iCloud and maybe even manually removing the cards before doing a restore. I’m not willing to be the guinea pig for this.

  13. nsxrebel - 9 years ago

    I’ve restored my iPhone 6 a few times (jailbroken) and have had no problems re-adding my cards to Pay.

    • astandy - 9 years ago

      I had to restore my iPhone 6 because Apple Genius problem solved and it let me just re-enter my card, no problem.

  14. This sucks because I like to blank out my phone every 6 months or so to remove any latent data. Hopefully they fix this soon. I don’t use Apple Pay all that much but if I restored my phone then found that I couldn’t use unless I swapped out the hardware would be a bit of a annoyance.

  15. Guys please correct me if i’m wrong but I guess all this is way too soon. Even though we live in a world where everything is in our fingertips we are not really for things like Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Everyday I read something getting hacked, things leaked and stuff.

    For example Sony Hack, iCloud hack and everything in between.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Apple Pay is massively safer than using a card.

    • braineatr - 9 years ago

      I think you need to do more research on how those hacks were performed and how they don’t work against Apple Pay.

    • nsxrebel - 9 years ago

      iCloud was NOT hacked. Some people’s iCloud accounts were hacked because of weak PASSWORDS. There’s a difference. So much misinformation/ignorance/stupidity out there in the interwebz.

  16. ericpruss - 9 years ago

    I had to restore my iPhone 6 Plus, and was able to re-add my Capital One M/C to Apple Pay without the slightest issue. As the message says to contact the card issuer, I suspect the issue is more likely with the bank portion of the process, when they are generating the unique ApplePay ID.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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