Category: Apple Pay Suica

Move Suica and other transit or e-Money cards to new iPhone (updated for iOS 17)

Apple Pay transit cards (Suica, PASMO, and ICOCA) and e-Money cards (WAON and nanaco) are different from Apple Pay payment cards in that a transit or e-Money card prepaid stored value, the card balance, is stored locally on the card itself and can only exist on a single device. Apple Pay credit/debit cards coexist simultaneously on multiple devices, not Suica, PASMO, ICOCA and other transit cards like Octopus, Clipper, SmarTrip, TAP, or e-Money cards like nanaco and WAON.

These stored value cards have to be removed from the old iPhone first, then transferred to the new iPhone. There are 2 ways to transfer cards: automatic transfer with iOS 17 Setup Assistant and manual transfer with Wallet app.

Automatic card transfer with iOS 17 Quick Start Setup Assistant
Quick Start device to device data transfer is the best way to setup a new iPhone, and iOS 17 Set Assistant now automatically transfers all payment, transit and e-Money cards from the old iPhone to the new iPhone. It is very easy to do and highly recommended.

The Apple support page Add a Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA card to Apple Wallet is updated for iOS 17 and covers moving cards in the Transfer your transit Suica, PASMO, or ICOCA card between devices section.

Place the previous iPhone near the new iPhone. iOS 17 Setup Assistant has a new Wallet section that lets you select Wallet cards to transfer in the ‘Make This Your New iPhone’ splash screen. Either select the Wallet items you want to transfer or just leave it all up to Set Assistant. Setup Assistant automatically transfers Wallet items to the new iPhone. As always, make sure all devices have a good internet connection.

The Suica 2 step: manual card transfer in Wallet app
Users can do the traditional Suica 2 step of manually removing cards from the previous iPhone Wallet app before adding them in the new iPhone Wallet app.

Step 1: Remove Suica from Wallet on the previous iPhone
On the old iPhone go to Wallet > tap Suica or other transit card > tap ‘More’ ˚˚˚ in the upper right corner > scroll to the bottom > tap Remove This Card. Don’t worry, this does not delete the card. Apple Pay automatically migrates and safely stores the card on Apple Pay iCloud for you.

  • Step 2: Add card in Wallet on the new iPhone
    On the new iPhone make sure you are signed in with the same Apple ID, open Wallet and tap Add Card “+”
    Tap Previous Cards > confirm the Suica or transit card you want to add is selected > tap Continue
    The registered card name and balance will be showing in the Add Card screen
    Tap Next to add the card to Wallet or tap Add This Card to Wallet Later to cancel
Tap Previous Cards
Confirm and tap Continue
Tap Next to re-add card to Wallet
  • Transfer Suica from previous Apple Watch to new Apple Watch
    Apple Watch Suica users upgrading to a new Apple Watch is easy with watchOS 10. From the Set up your Apple Watch • Set up as new or restore from a backup section: If you’ve set up another Apple Watch with your current iPhone, a screen appears that says Make This Your New Apple Watch. Tap Apps & Data and Settings to see how Express Setup will configure your new watch. Then tap Continue. If you want to choose how your new watch is set up, tap Customize Settings. Then choose a backup from another previous Apple Watch to restore.
  • You can also add cards manually in Wallet as outlined in the previous iPhone section.

What about Suica App and other card apps?

If your Suica, PASMO, ICOCA or e-Money card is registered in the coressponding app, your account and password information will migrate to the new device like any regular iOS app when using device to device data transfer. The apps will automatically pick up the card information from Wallet but you will need to login to access the card app account. If you deleted the app before device to device data transfer, you will need to manually enter account and password information to login when re-adding the app. See the Suica App and PASMO App guide for account setup details.

e-Money card apps ask for the Japanese mobile number used for registering the card in the app and send a verification code via SMS.

Troubleshooting

Wiped old iPhone before setting up new iPhone
If you wiped the old iPhone before setting up a new one and cannot find your previous Suica Wallet card see: Recover Suica • PASMO and e-Money cards from a lost or wiped iPhone. Other topics can be found on the Apple Pay Suica • PASMO Guide.

Robust network connection is extremely important!
Make sure iPhone has a good WiFi or 4G/5G network connection and confirm you are outside of the 2am~4am JST Mobile Suica • Mobile PASMO system maintenance window. Do not use free WiFi or carrier auto-connect WiFi, they are notoriously unreliable. Don’t worry about losing your card SF account balance or commute plan information. Apple Pay iCloud and the Suica • PASMO systems preserve all of your card information. Just make sure that you are signed in with the same Apple ID on your new iPhone and Apple Pay is turned on. Remember that even a good WiFi network connection can quickly bog down when setting up a new iPhone, make sure you have a clean connection when adding Wallet cards.

Suica, PASMO, ICOCA card ID number changes
The Suica or PASMO card ID number may change when transferred to a new iPhone or Apple Watch Wallet. Linked services like EX App (smartEX and Express Reservation), Touch and Go Shinkansen and JR East Ekinet Shinkansen eTickets stop working when the Suica, PASMO, ICOCA ID number changes and users must manually update information with each linked service account to re-link services with the new ID #. For Suica and PASMO getting full ID number requires a transit card issuer app such as Suica or PASMO app, ICOCA displays the full ID number in Wallet card details.

Transferring Suica • PASMO to new iPhone with Wallet app

Recover Suica and other transit or e-Money cards from a lost or wiped iPhone

The first thing to do if you have lost your iPhone is put the device in Lost Mode from another device using the same Apple ID or iCloud.com. Lost Mode disables Apple Pay on the device. If you find your iPhone, great, but how can you recover your Suica card when your old iPhone is either lost or wiped and you want to add Suica to a new iPhone?

No matter what the situation, Apple Pay iCloud keeps your transit card (Suica, PASMO, ICOCA, Octopus, Clipper, SmarTrip, TAP, HOP, China T-Union) or e-Money card (WAON and nanaco) stored value information safe on iCloud until you are ready to add the card again. The steps below use Suica but apply to all Apple Pay stored value cards.

Delete cards from Apple ID
If iPhone is lost or wiped, go to iCloud.com or the Apple ID website and sign in with the same Apple ID used for Apple Pay. Go to Settings>My Devices and select the lost iPhone:

Apple Pay Suica Recovery E
Remove Apple Pay Suica, PASMO, ICOCA from the lost device before you delete the device
  1. First delete your Apple Pay cards. This brings up a Wallet confirmation > confirm and delete your Apple Pay cards, it may take a few minutes to process completely.
  2. After Apple Pay Suica, PASMO, ICOCA is successfully deleted, delete the old iPhone from My Devices.

The same operation can be done via iCloud settings on another iOS device or Mac signed in with the same Apple ID.

Restore Suica
Restoring Suica, PASMO, and ICOCA is exactly the same as transferring Suica to a new iPhone. Once you successfully delete the card on the lost iPhone, or if you have wiped iPhone and want to restore the card to a new iPhone, simply re-add the card: tap Add Card “+” > tap Previous Cards, select the card you want to add and tap Continue.

Tap Previous Card to re-add any card used in Wallet
Tap Continue to re-add a card to Wallet
iOS 15 transfer Suica or PASMO to a new iPhone

Troubleshooting

Card Already Exists in Wallet error
If for some reason you are having difficulty re-adding Suica, PASMO, ICOCA, WAON, nanaco to iPhone and see and a Wallet error message, “this card already exists in Wallet,” in the last step of the adding process: sign out of iCloud, restart the device and sign back into iCloud with the same Apple ID. This will clear any problems.

Card Unavailable error
If you see ‘Card Unavailable’ it means the card is fine but there are some issues that the Suica, PASMO, ICOCA, WAON, nanaco systems need to clear during the offline nightly maintenance window. Simply wait for the end of the next maintenance window: 2am~4am Japan Standard Time, or 24 hours, then re-add the card.

Linked Services
Suica, PASMO, ICOCA card ID numbers can change when removed and re-added to Wallet. Linked services like EX App (smartEX and Express Reservation), Eki-net Shinkansen eTickets and Touch and Go Shinkansen stop working when the ID number changes and you need to update the linked IC card registration information to re-link the services.

Wanted: a JR East Apple Pay Suica support campaign in English

Wanted Dead of Alive…If you see this poster…send me a picture (this one from Inoue san)

Now that plastic Suica cards are mostly unavailable unless you tearfully plead with a kind hearted JR East station staffer that you lost it and need a replacement Suica, inbound tourists are stuck with lining up at Narita or Haneda station kiosks for the not so welcome Welcome Suica. Unless of course you have iPhone. In that case any inbound visitor can add Suica and use in Wallet without any app, as long as they don’t try it with a VISA credit card.

JR East has a multilingual Train Reservation site for visitors, they even have a multilingual Suica page, but there is no mention of Mobile Suica. There is a multilingual Mobile Suica support FAQ but it is buried away and has not been updated since 2018. The only Mobile Suica English language effort to date was the temporary and long dead SuicaEng app that was a one trick pony for adding a single Suica card to Apple Pay Wallet. When Wallet added native add card Suica support in iOS 13 JR East killed the app and focused on rolling out the multilingual Train Reservation site which they did in June 2021.

But now more than ever, it’s time for JR East to get serious about English language Mobile Suica support and marketing campaign. The problem facing JR East though is where to invest precious resources that grow the Mobile Suica user base while keeping costs down. Spending multilingual money on us ungrateful, ever complaining ‘I want it now’ gaijins isn’t always cost effective ROI. Take the current version of Suica App for instance, localizing now it is a waste because Suica App will be completely replaced with a new Suica 2.0 compliant app and feature set in the near future.

There is also the problem of Mobile Suica Stored Fare (SF) balance refunds. Mobile Suica refunds can only be done via the app and sent to a Japanese bank account for a ¥220 processing fee. This is because Suica is JPY currency and originally created for domestic use only. Smartphones didn’t exist when Mobile Suica launched on Docomo in 2006, international visitor use was not possible back then.

Mobile Suica could conceivably do what Hong Kong Octopus does with forced Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) in their Octopus for Tourists app, but that is a high price, and a credit card compliance violation to boot, for the convenience of refunding a mobile transit card balance chump change in foreign currency. Better to do what JR East already recommends in English: forget the refund nonsense and run the Mobile Suica balance to zero.

Let’s keep things simple. Here are some cheap, easy things JR East can do to promote Mobile Suica for inbound use:

  • An English Mobile Suica marketing campaign that educates iPhone users how easy it is to add and use Suica without any apps.
  • An updated and easily accessible multilingual FAQ/Support page.
  • A slightly tweaked Suica App that allows users to delete a zero balance Suica card from Apple Pay without the hassle of registering a Mobile Suica account.
  • Last but not least, do whatever you can to convince the VISA payment network in Japan to remove their credit card block of Mobile Suica (and PASMO, and ICOCA). Not an easy task with all the moving VISA network pieces to be sure.

A little bit here, a little bit there can pay big dividends in the short term without reinventing anything for inbound visitors. Just make what’s already there and already great, easily accessible.

How long will the Suica card shortage last?

The first indication that something was up the FeliCa chip supply chain came on May 31 as an small announcement from Iwatekenkotsu Co., Ltd that the scheduled last leg of their Suica 2 in 1 Iwate Green Pass bus support rollout would be delayed due to new IC reader device procurement delays.

This was quickly followed by a large joint press release from JR East and PASMO on June 2 announcing that unregistered Suica and PASMO cards, the plastic ones that people can buy in Tokyo area station kiosks, would not be available starting June 8, ‘until further notice’.

On July 31 JR East • PASMO announced that registered Suica and PASMO plastic cards would not be available from August 2, expanding upon the June 8 sales suspension of unregistered Suica and PASMO plastic cards. The news turned media heads but was not a surprise to industry analysts and insiders.

The official reason for the Suica plastic card sales suspension is ‘the global chip shortage,’ but that doesn’t sound right when there are gluts out there. These things can be complex so I asked an old colleague who specializes in chip production analysis about the situation. He had this to say:

Domestic manufacturers of non-volitive memory of the type used in FeliCa chips, reduced manufacturing capacity (the NAND market segment is currently in a recession due to overproduction and excess inventory). This reduction came when there was an increase of inbound visitors to Japan buying Suica and PASMO cards. There was also increased demand for new Suica purchases due to the expansion of the Suica area to the Tohoku region, because the population is not as large as Kanto and Kansai, demand is expected to settle down soon.

However as production capacity will not return to previous levels, there is a high possibility that supply and demand will continue to be tight to some extent.

Other Japanese sources say another factor is that all transit IC manufacturing has been sub-contracted out to Taiwan. In short, buckle up folks, it’s going to be a long bumpy ride as in addition to manufacturers cutting production due to the non-volitive memory glut, Japanese IC card production (FeliCa chip, antenna, card, etc.) has been farmed out to Taiwan. As the saying goes, they’re always a great risk putting all ones eggs in one basket, especially with chip production. But no matter how many times companies learn this hard lesson, companies soon forget.

The May 27 Tohoku Suica launch and Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate card launches are certainly a short term factor in the FeliCa chip shortage as JR East is still selling both registered and unregistered Suica cards in the Tohoku region and Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate cards. Outside of the Tohoku area JR East and PASMO will continue to sell plastic commuter passes and inbound speciality cards like Welcome Suica and PASMO PASSPORT, however inventory is tight and JR East reduced the number of Welcome Suica sales outlets on August 2.

People assume that Transit IC cards from other regions like ICOCA or SUGOCA are readily available but this is not the case as operators are quietly limiting sales outlets. SUGOCA for example is not available at station kiosks but kept ‘under the counter’: buyers have to go the nearest JR Train Reservation office and ask for it. Expect this to start happening for all regular non-commuter pass Transit IC cards as well, partly to control inventory, partly to keep scalpers from cleaning out transit cards from kiosk station machines for resale.

Why not use Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO then? Unfortunately the mobile situation for inbound visitors isn’t great: visitors with only VISA cards or Android are basically out of luck.

So unless VISA lifts their foreign card Mobile Suica blockade, and it has been in place for a year now, even Apple Pay Suica • PASMO • ICOCA users are limited to using Mastercard and Amex cards…using cash recharge. More on that situation in later post.

The easiest solution for JR East and PASMO is to encourage domestic Suica and PASMO users to go with Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO instead of plastic cards. They are already doing that but expect more Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO promotion campaigns and reward point enticements. If anything, the plastic Suica • PASMO card shortage is the best Mobile Suica • PASMO promotion ever.

Using Apple Pay Suica • PASMO Commuter Passes when transfer protocol is in effect

When the going gets tough, station staff roll out the transfer protocol information board at station entrances

The Yamanote Line was not running this morning due to a signal malfunction. Yet everything looked like any normal Monday morning commute so I had no idea when I entered Asagaya station. Then I heard the announcement on the platform. The train came, I got on. Again everything looked normal, nothing out of place, no unusual crowding. Everybody seemed to know what they were doing. As the train pulled into Nakano station the train conductor gave a helpful rundown of all the train transfer options with transfer protocol in effect closing with, “Please use smartphone and tablet train information apps to find your best route.” All the major transit apps, Apple Maps, Google Maps, et al., include real time transit stoppages and re-route automatically, but don’t always give you the best train route for the situation.

I got off and took a break in Beck’s Coffee Shop, planning a new commute route while enjoying morning coffee. It can be fun to take a leisurely commute knowing I can download a delay certificate, take any route I want, get to the office late and still get paid for the whole day. Usually I take the Yamanote Line from Shinjuku to Gotanda but decided to go via the longest route: ride to Tokyo station, change to the Keihin Tohoku line, ride to Kamata, transfer to Tokyu Ikegami line and get off at my usual station. Here are a few simple pointers for using a Apple Pay Suica or PASMO commuter pass when transfer protocol is in effect.

When a major line goes out, connecting train line companies put transfer protocol into effect so that commuters can reach their final destination. With a Yamanote Line stoppage, that’s pretty much everyone.

What is it?
The Tokyo train region transfer protocol is a visual inspection re-rerouting procedure that goes into effect for commuter pass and paper ticket holders when a train line stoppage prevents them from reaching their destination via the normal route. All the connecting train line companies cooperate and allow commuter pass or paper ticket holders to travel by train and go through gates for free with a quick glance of their commuter pass or paper ticket. Regular Transit IC cards, including non-commuter pass Apple Pay Suica and PASMO, cannot be used with transfer protocol and pay regular fare at the gate.

How to use it
It’s very simple: do not tap in or out at transit gates, go through the manned gate and show your Apple Pay Suica or PASMO commuter pass to the station staff. This is easy to do with iPhone Wallet as the Suica • PASMO card displays the commute route and validity dates. Apple Watch is a little tricky: bring up the card via the Apple Pay double click, tap the card and slightly scroll down so that the commute route shows.

You are still able to use transfer protocol if you have tapped in, just make sure that you do not tap out. Once you tap out, the fare is deducted and there is no refund. Go to the manned station gate, show your commuter pass and go through. At your final destination tell the station staff you tapped in and they will reset your Suica or PASMO. If you do not do this you will get a gate error when you tap in on your next transit.

As for today’s ride without the Yamanote Line? It was fun taking completely different, and much more expensive, commute route. Thanks to transfer protocol, my commuter pass covered it all. I got to my final station with so much time to spare I didn’t even bother downloading a delay certificate.