Okay, so obviously the risk with carrying a phone these days is how dependent we are on them. My phone is spazzing out—the canoe incident didn’t help, I’m sure, but it’s about to have to be replaced. As in, tomorrow. I’m busy backing up my phone, but it occurs to me that I don’t know what to do with pairing my new one to my receiver.
Now that it’s staring me in the face, I can’t even remember how I did it in the first place!
Any tips?
I know there are at least 212 people on this forum that could answer that for you! 
But the other option is to call Dexcom, because their support is the best. I think they are better than any other D company in terms of support. Kinda funny for me to say, because I get frustrated with their product a lot. But their support it great!
They could get you hooked up with no problem.
@Eric, good tip! I remember being nervous about it when I got the phone initially too, but it seemed to be a seamless transition then. @Michel, did you guys have to do this after the kayaking episode?
@Irish, it was really easy, and we did not have to call Dexcom. If I remember correctly:
I don’t remember any other step, but I could be wrong.
Aaaand this explains why I kept the recent box, which I conveniently forgot on my latest closet cleanout. Dangit! Calling Dexcom now.
So one brief ~5 minute call to Dex, and I’m up and running. I could still access the transmitter serial number through my phone app, so it was pretty easy. Thanks, Dexcom!
You mean on the old phone, right?
Right. My phone is on the fritz, but not completely dead. I can’t talk from it, and it won’t hold a charge, but I can access my apps for now while it is charging. So, I could log into the Dex app and look under
Settings>Transmitter>SN (Serial number), and it was stored there.
Perfect! I had assumed you could not use the old phone 
On a partially related note, Dexcom told me that the battery is packed in a box that has a magnetic strip that keeps the battery fresh until you start using it. They told me to keep it in the box until ready to deploy it. Not sure if it is true, just throwing it into the thread in case someone is taking their battery out of the box before they are ready to use it…
You mean for the Dexcom receiver?
No, the battery. The transmitter battery.
Not 100% sure, but I think the transmitter number is on the transmitter itself (on the bottom). Pretty sure, but not 100% And yes, I can confirm that the battery starts draining as soon as it is removed from the box.
Glad Dex told me that. It would be nice if that info was printed on the box, right?!
Just got some more information on this. The magnetic strip stops the G4 battery from wearing out but not on the G5 battery.
On the G5, it only starts to wear down once you hook it into a sensor. There is a wire on the sensor that starts the G5 battery. But for the G4, it is the magnetic strip that keeps it dormant.
So what I said earlier is only true for the G4, not the G5.
Sorry!
This is such a helpful clarification and makes sense of some of the confusion I’ve seen elsewhere about this, but @Bradford, you have a G5, right? And you’ve confirmed battery drain?
I just called Dex to get clarification, because I had heard the same thing, but the discussion on this thread led me to check my box, and I didn’t see the magnetic strip that had been mentioned. So I called them and they clarified the difference between the G4 and G5 battery.
I suppose I should say I confirmed it on the G4 and assumed the same for G5. Glad to have @Eric around to set me straight.