New iPhone, eSIM not working: what changed and what to check

Every year the same thing happens. A new iPhone comes out, people move to it during the week before a trip, and the travel eSIM that worked yesterday is gone or shows no service. The phone is fine. What broke is an assumption about how eSIMs move between devices.

What happens during a transfer

When you set up a new iPhone from a backup, iOS offers to bring your mobile lines over. That offer is about carrier lines: the ones your operator issued, which the operator can re-issue on the new device.

A travel eSIM is not that. It is a profile installed once on one device by a provider you bought data from, not a line your carrier controls. During a transfer it can:

• not appear at all in the list of lines to move;
• appear, fail to activate, and leave you with nothing;
• move successfully, which happens with some providers and not others.

The safe assumption is the first one.

The order that avoids the problem

1. Finish the trip on the phone the plan is installed on, if you can. It is the simplest rule.
2. If you must switch mid trip, ask support first, before erasing the old phone. Once the profile is deleted, there is nothing to recover.
3. If the trip has not started, buy the plan after you have moved to the new phone, not before.
4. Never delete the eSIM "to clean things up" on the old phone while the plan still has days on it.

If the new phone shows the eSIM but it has no service

Go through these in order, they take a minute:

• Is it the line used for data? Settings, Mobile Data, Mobile Data, choose the travel eSIM.
• Is data roaming on for that line? Open the line and turn it on. A travel eSIM is always roaming.
• Is the line turned on at all? A transferred line often arrives switched off.
• Restart, or airplane mode for fifteen seconds. After a transfer this clears a surprising number of problems.

Our guide on data roaming on but no internet goes through the rest.

Does the newest iPhone still support eSIM?

Yes. Every iPhone from the XS and XR onwards supports eSIM, and in several countries, including the United States, recent models have no physical SIM tray at all. New models make eSIM more normal, not less.

What changes year to year is the layout of the settings, not the capability. If a menu is not where this article says, look for the same words rather than the same position.

Quick answers

Can I move a travel eSIM to a new phone?

Sometimes, and only if the provider supports a reinstall. Ask before you erase the old phone. With Wigoo, a profile that has been installed cannot be reused, so plan the switch around the trip.

I bought a plan and then got a new phone. Did I lose it?

If you had not installed it yet, no: install it on the new phone. A plan that has not been installed can also usually be cancelled and refunded.

Should I wait to buy until after I upgrade?

If your upgrade is close to the trip, yes. It costs nothing to buy a few days before departure, and it saves the whole problem.