Can I set up an iPhone for a child before adding cell service?

My child currently has another type of phone geared towards younger kids. We're moving her to an iPhone for her birthday this year, and we have an iPhone for this purpose already. I don't want to activate her phone number to the iPhone until after her birthday, but I'd like to do some basic set up on the iPhone now so when she opens it, it has her account set up already with apps, and is usuable on wifi.


My question is if I set the phone up NOW (create a child's account and an Apple ID and so on), customize the settings, and add apps, does anything change when I go to move her phone number onto this phone? Will I need to factory reset in order to add cell service? I don't want to spend a ton of time customizing it if I will need to factory reset.


Thanks for all the help.

iPhone 14 Plus

Posted on Jul 29, 2025 8:12 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 29, 2025 8:31 AM

There's no requirement to factory reset an iPhone to setup cell service on it.


You can transfer setup an eSim after the fact.


click here ➜ Set up your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


See the following for creation of child accounts, it should happen on your Apple device for under-13 year olds. Then later it can be used to set up the new iPhone.

click here ➜ Create an Apple Account for your child - Apple Support




3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 29, 2025 8:31 AM in response to rsapricot

There's no requirement to factory reset an iPhone to setup cell service on it.


You can transfer setup an eSim after the fact.


click here ➜ Set up your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


See the following for creation of child accounts, it should happen on your Apple device for under-13 year olds. Then later it can be used to set up the new iPhone.

click here ➜ Create an Apple Account for your child - Apple Support




Jul 30, 2025 10:14 AM in response to rsapricot

You can set up the iPhone now and leave the cellular service for later. That's a completely separate service. I have several old iPhone for wi-fi use only that work perfectly fine (except for services that are cellular-only) as long as wi-fi is available. My wife gave me her old cellphone and I used it for several weeks around the house until I got around to transferring my cellular service to it.

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Can I set up an iPhone for a child before adding cell service?

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