eSIM QR code not working: why it fails and what to do, Wigoo

The code will not scan, the download fails, or the phone says the plan cannot be added. What each failure means, including the two cases where the honest answer is that it cannot work.

The code will not scan, or it scans and the download fails. The first thing to establish is whether the phone has a working internet connection, because installing an eSIM is a download, and the second is whether the code has already been used, because a QR code installs exactly once.

Those two account for most failures. Here they are in order, with the rest behind them.

1. Is the phone online?

An eSIM is not stored in the QR code. The code only tells the phone where to fetch the profile from, so without a connection there is nothing to fetch. Apple tells you to connect to a Wi-Fi network or hotspot before adding one, and Google says the same on Pixel.

What counts as a connection:

Wi-Fi, the normal answer.
Another line on the phone that already has working data, including a home line that is roaming. This is how you install one at an airport with no usable Wi-Fi.
A hotspot from a travelling companion's phone.

The exception: a few eSIM-only iPhone models can activate without Wi-Fi in some countries. Useful if it happens, not something to plan around. Install before you leave home and the question never comes up.

2. Has the code already been used?

Each QR code corresponds to one profile, and a profile downloads once. After that the code is spent. The phone will usually fail with something unhelpful like "Unable to Add Cellular Plan" or "Cellular Plan Cannot Be Added", which is the same message you get for half a dozen other causes.

This is the honest part: a used code cannot be made to work again, not by rescanning, not on another phone, not after deleting the profile from the first one. If you installed it and then deleted it, wiped the phone, or let a transfer move it, the code is gone with it. Ask support rather than retrying: what is left to do depends on what happened, and retrying never helps.

3. Are you scanning it in the right place?

Pointing the camera at the code from the home screen works on recent phones, but the reliable route is the phone's own eSIM screen.

iPhone: Settings, Mobile Data (Cellular on US English, Mobile Service on iOS 18 in some regions), then Set Up Cellular or Add eSIM, then Use QR Code.
Pixel and stock Android: Settings, Network and internet, SIMs, Add SIM, then Set up an eSIM.
Samsung: Settings, Connections, SIM manager, then Add eSIM.

If the code is on the same screen you are scanning from, you cannot point the camera at it. On iOS 17.4 and later you can press and hold the QR image in Mail, Photos, or Safari and tap Add eSIM. Otherwise open the email on a laptop, or print it.

4. The camera will not read it, so type it instead

Every QR code is just two strings: an SM-DP+ address and an activation code. Any provider that gives you a code can give you those, and typing them works when a blurry screenshot does not.

iPhone: on the Add eSIM screen, choose Enter Details Manually.
Android: on the same Add eSIM screen, choose to enter the code manually.

Copy them exactly. They are long, they are case sensitive, and a single wrong character fails with the same generic error as everything else.

5. Has the phone got room for the profile?

Phones hold a limited number of eSIM profiles. iPhone stores eight or more; Pixel 7 and later hold two at once where the carrier allows; many Samsung and other Android models hold just one. If you already have a work eSIM and a personal eSIM, a third will refuse to install, and the phone will not always tell you that is the reason.

Delete an expired profile to free the slot, never a live one.

6. Is the phone locked to a carrier, or does it support eSIM at all?

The second honest dead end. A carrier locked phone rejects any profile that is not its carrier's, and nothing on the phone changes that. Only the operator that sold it can unlock it.

iPhone: Settings, General, About, then Carrier Lock. It should say No SIM restrictions.
Android: the wording varies by maker. If a foreign SIM has never worked in that phone, treat it as locked.

Support for eSIM is the other half of the question. Every iPhone from the XS and XR onwards has it; on Android it depends on the model and sometimes the country it was sold in. What an eSIM is covers the basics if you are not sure.

7. Everything else

Restart the phone and try once. Installation is a handshake with a server, and it can get stuck.
Switch Wi-Fi networks. Hotel and airport captive portals interfere with the download more often than you would expect. A personal hotspot usually works when hotel Wi-Fi does not.
Check the date and time are automatic. A wrong clock breaks the secure connection the download relies on.

If it still fails, send support the exact error the phone shows, the phone model, and the OS version. The wording of the message narrows it down fast, and it saves you guessing.

Quick answers

Can I download an eSIM without Wi-Fi?

Only if the phone has another working connection, such as a second line with data or a hotspot. The download itself is not optional. This is why installing at home, before the trip, is worth the two minutes.

Can I use the same QR code on a second phone?

No. The code installs one profile, once. Once a phone has downloaded it, the code is finished, and on a second phone it fails.

Can I install it now and start it later?

Yes, and that is the right way round. Installing does not start the plan: validity begins when the eSIM first connects to a network at your destination. Install on Wi-Fi at home, land, and switch the line on.