"Set up cellular" grayed out, can only activate on billing date

[nate93032]

I'm trying to activate an Apple Watch SE via my iPhone 13. "Set up cellular" in my Apple Watch app for the watch is grayed out, and it says that I can't activate the watch with my Visible plan. After talking with Visible chat support, they said I have to wait until my billing date. Why is this still a requirement? Is Visible working on fixing this? It is frustrating to be excited to use a new watch, and then wait upwards of 30 days, or more if you forget to activate during that specific one day each month.

[RyanBlakeIT]

@nate93032 - I can assure you that you're not the only one.  The Superusers group members with Apple watches has brought this to the attention of Visible and we're hopeful they can come up with a solution.  To help us, please consider creating a "feature" request.  Then you can get your friends to "Kudo" the post and the more Kudos it receives, the higher priority the request will be seen to Visible management.

[nate93032]

Ryan, I went ahead and posted a feature request. This is very frustrating, and I'm ready to leave Visible. It is now my Visible bill date, and I still can't activate Visible service on our new Apple Watch SE (model A2726, which has cellular).

[RyanBlakeIT]

@nate93032 Did you try chatting with customer care? They should be able to sort out the issue for you. Please let me know how it goes either way.

[nate93032]

I have several times. During the pairing process, the Cellular Setup screen appears. It always says "The Visible account on this iPhone cannot be used to add a cellular plan to "Tom's Apple Watch". For more information about Apple Watch cellular plans..."

[RyanBlakeIT]

@nate93032 - And you've updated both your phone and watch to the latest version of iOS and you've made sure your Visible app is up to date, right?

If you've done all that and it still doesn't work, I'll see what I can do to get you some help.

[nate93032]

Yes, both iPhone and Watch are set up. After further troubleshooting, the issue appears related to something with setting up the Apple Watch for a family member. I just tried setting up the Apple Watch for myself and was able to start the cellular activation process. I canceled it because this watch is for our son, and not me. Does anyone know if there are unique family member settings to allow cellular activation?

[RyanBlakeIT]

@nate93032 - Does your son have a phone? I'm presuming not and you want to activate a watch on your line for him so you can use features like GPS tracking if he gets lost, right? I remember hearing other superusers mention troubles with the Apple family setup but since I'm not an Apple user (outside of my corporate issued iPad), I'm not going to be much help. I'll see if another Superuser can help.

Update: I did find this post that isn't very promising. But I'll still ask.

Update 2: This is the "workaround" someone did to get it working, but I don't consider it much of a workaround since it's signing up for the service using Verizon.

Update 3: Doubt this is your issue since you were able to get it to work on your own phone, but this is something I noticed others mention where they couldn't activate except with this workaround.

[nate93032]

It appears Visible doesn't support cellular service for Apple Family Members (i.e., not for yourself). It is listed here -> https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/#table-family-setup . Given that, we had to get service from another cell provider. We went with Verizon, and it is about $15/watch. I'll go back to Visible when they support family members.