I dont think you actually need to go to store. if you go to update sim cards
you can enter everything there, including IMEI and ICCID and it even says activate ESIM right there
Last edited:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone ESim active on AT&T
- Thread starter rbalkun
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
you can enter everything there, including IMEI and ICCID and it even says activate ESIM right there
Following up from my earlier post: I was able to get an eSim from a different AT&T Corp store where their Apple Specialist was really excited to help me. I was his first physical to eSIM conversion.
A few things to know:
The stores got their memo early today that they can do the activations.
The eSIM must be activated against the digital IMEI on the phone. You’ll have odd issues if it isn’t - specifically with Visual Voicemail
Keep your eSIM card! You should be able to use it in the future if you accidentally erase the cellular plan when the phone is wiped.
I had an artifact where my old physical SIM was left in settings. Tap on it and choose “Update Contacts” and it’ll go away.
Other than that, all went well and the guy is going to convert his phone now to eSIM! Oh, he also gave me an unprovisioned SIM in the event I have any problems with eSIM — I can just do a sim swap online and go back to a physical sim.
Edit: you should also check that your iMessage and FaceTime has reactivated.
A few things to know:
The stores got their memo early today that they can do the activations.
The eSIM must be activated against the digital IMEI on the phone. You’ll have odd issues if it isn’t - specifically with Visual Voicemail
Keep your eSIM card! You should be able to use it in the future if you accidentally erase the cellular plan when the phone is wiped.
I had an artifact where my old physical SIM was left in settings. Tap on it and choose “Update Contacts” and it’ll go away.
Other than that, all went well and the guy is going to convert his phone now to eSIM! Oh, he also gave me an unprovisioned SIM in the event I have any problems with eSIM — I can just do a sim swap online and go back to a physical sim.
Edit: you should also check that your iMessage and FaceTime has reactivated.
Last edited:
Good to hear someone is actually doing it.
I went to 3 stores and nobody was able to get it done, I was mostly told i need to activate a new line and esim and it is not possible to do a sim swap to an esim.
Where in the country are you?
I am in Seattle. I forgot an important piece: the education they’re being given leads them to think eSIM only works for secondary lines of service.
Thanks makes sense why he said it only works if i buy another line.
Can you tell me which store in Seattle you went to and who you worked with? I went to a local store in California and he couldn't figure out how to make it work. He replaced the Physical Sim with the Digital Sim IMEI # and the Esim ICCID in my existing account and when we tried to activate it said you couldn't have 2 AT&T #'s activated at the same time.
He had to revert to giving me a new Physical Sim so my phone would work but gave me a Esim card in case I could figure it out. He also left the Digital Sim IMEI in my account.
Thanks
It’s the corporate store at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila. I believe the guy’s name is Tre and he is the Apple Specialist.
I have something similar on my phone, after I tried out and then abandoned/removed a TruPhone eSIM.
Can you try restarting your phone, and go back into Settings->Cellular. Is the old SIM listed there again, and does tapping it ask you to update contacts again? I get that thing reappearing after every reboot.
Here is the order description of the card I'm being sent:
AT&T Activation SIM Card---for Iphones
Hopefully this will be a eSim and correct.....
Mine just says SIM card for iPhone 8 but he said it’s an esim as much trouble as I’ve had with these yahoos I’ll believe it when I see it.
Good points! I had the similar experiences when I swapped my number to eSIM. When first enabled eSIM while I still had my original SIM in the slot, it couldn't get connecting to data network (LTE), then I ejected SIM card, got prompted for update contacts for primary line, then everything worked as supposed to. You are correct that seemed employee of AT&T were emphasized in training (appeared) to associated eSIM with second line option, not being used for moving the existing line..... It make sense from their marketing point of view, they are trying to using that eSIM to get more businesses from ones who already had other carrier services on physical SIM already.....
Got my att sim activated today, it wasn’t completely easy but it wasn’t hard once it was figured out. The person got held up at activating the sim. They had moved my sim and I didn’t have Wifi. So I had no data and it couldn’t call home to activate. Once I was on the Wifi, smooth and it took a couples minutes of the data to begin working.
Nah, maybe first day when i kept playing around with it, but no, overall id say its the same.