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Set up the phone with a throwaway iCloud account - or none at all if they still let you do that.
Then sign into your own iCloud on another device and it will ask you for a code. Click the "didn't receive a code" link and it should give you the option to text you the code over SMS instead of over the secret Apple device message system.
grams
I have damaged the screen on my iPhone 8 and I'm unable to access anything.
So I have put the sim card into an iPhone 11 my wife doesn't need any more because she has a work phone. When I try to set it up, Apple is trying to send me a code to a broken phone that I can't access.
It's the only Apple device I own so the code can't be sent to another device. Obviously the code can't be texted to me because I don't have a phone that works.
I have phone Apple support and they seemed to think this was a highly unusual scenario but surely it can't be. All the guy could suggest was going through account recovery, which I have done even though there's nothing wrong with the account itself - I still know my password etc. I assumed that would be enough to get me in.
Apparently they will contact me in 24 hours.
Does this sound right? It's hugely frustrating at a time I'm trying to buy a house to not have a phone.
It seems like the only way I can expedite the process is to put my sim in a phone that will let me set up and receive a text without an Apple ID sign in or to have my old phone repaired at the cost of about £60.