When I set up my new iPhone 17 Pro I ran into a frustrating problem: I couldn’t activate some of my credit and banking cards in Apple Wallet. Since this might happen to others, here’s how I diagnosed the issue and worked around it.
Setup Context
- Transferred settings (including Apple Wallet) from my iPhone 14 Pro
- Cards from CIBC and Wealthsimple
- Used SMS (not voice) as the second factor for verification
The Problem
After transfer, my cards appeared in Apple Wallet but still needed to be re-verified. Each time I tried SMS verification, the text code arrived and auto-filled into the Wallet app — but the “Next” button was greyed out.
On some attempts, the button turned blue, but tapping it did nothing. Result: I couldn’t verify or use my cards.
The Workaround
The fix was surprisingly simple: don’t rely on auto-fill.
- Request the SMS code as usual.
- Open the Messages app, copy the code manually, and paste it into Wallet.
- This time the “Next” button turned blue and worked, letting me add the cards.
Likely Cause
Based on testing, there may be a bug in iOS 26.0 where auto-filled SMS codes don’t properly trigger the Apple Wallet verification step. Until Apple fixes it, copying the code manually may help you get around the issue.
Excited Pixels 