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I have an unlocked iPhone with a physical SIM in my 12 PM. I have an unlocked 14 PM to pick up Friday.

So what should I do? Convert the physical SIM to eSIM? And then once it is eSIM I can transfer it to the 14 PM somehow?
 
The question I have is… can you swap an e-sim back and forth from one phone to another.
I get an eSim opens space inside the phone but having a physical sim is easy to move from one to another and back

Same question I have as well. I have a 13 Pro as my main and 12 mini as a back up. I move my physical sim from the 13 Pro to 12 mini from time to time. Is that something you can do easily with e-sim? Thinking of trading my 13 Pro for a 14 Pro but not if having an e-sim means I can't move it from one phone to another.

The answer is yes but some carriers make it easier than others so it depends if your carrier supports quick transfer or if you have to reach out to CS to give them the IMEI.

It's not for people who want to phone swap weekly but I occasionally have to use my SE and the TMO number easily moves back & forth. US Mobile requires a CS Chat w/ the IMEI etc (takes 5 min). I think Verizon just lets you log into your acct to to do the swap.
 
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That seems to be an oddly specific gripe considering updates are an expected part of phone ownership. iOS 16 hits on Monday, long before you get your new phone as well.
Not really. I don’t necessarily like to update to a new iOS due to unknown issues and if my phone is stable there is no reason to update my old phone just to transfer a Sim

Apple did not specify we need update to transfer Sim.
 
Are they charging you an activation fee? Someone posted in a different thread that if you buy just a regular phone that’s not affiliated with your carrier and switch it yourself you won’t get charged a fee but if you pick one on the Apple website when you buy it then your carrier will charge $30 or something.
They’ve been wildly inconsistent. Some years yes and others no. I gave up fighting it.
 
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Not really. I don’t necessarily like to update to a new iOS due to unknown issues and if my phone is stable there is no reason to update my old phone just to transfer a Sim

Apple did not specify we need update to transfer Sim.
It's pointless to hang into iOS 15 if you're moving to a new phone that already has iOS 16 pre-installed.

And it's still possible to phone in or drop into a store and do a manual transfer. The only benefit here is an automatic service transfer during setup on 16.
 
I have an unlocked iPhone with a physical SIM in my 12 PM. I have an unlocked 14 PM to pick up Friday.

So what should I do? Convert the physical SIM to eSIM? And then once it is eSIM I can transfer it to the 14 PM somehow?
I should have mentioned I'm on AT&T and post-paid.

Let's assume I transition to an eSIM on the 12 PM. Then how do I move my service to the unlocked 14 PM???
 
do I have to have my current phone and the new phone to do this transfer or just the SIM card from the old phone? This whole concept seems odd to me :)!
 
Thank you for this thread. I'm coming from an iPhone X on a Verizon pre-paid plan and am hoping this e-sim business doesn't require contacting the carrier on a day when ten million other people are also migrating to new iPhones.

Sounds like i should upgrade my X to iOS 16 this week to make the process easier?View attachment 2055202
That’s a good catch. I didn’t see that but I also kind of skimmed over it. I guess I better read it because I’m going to be doing it on the 16th.

I would update just to avoid problems. I did it over the phone with my 13 PM and it wasn’t fun. Verizon transferred me to several people before one knew how to do it. It’s been a whole year since then so I hope they learned something
 
I’m on Verizon, and for years I would just take my SIM card out and stick it in the new unlocked phone. Worked instantly, no hassle, and no activation fee. I could also switch to old/temporary phones this way if necessary.

Will eSIM quick transfer be able to accomplish the same thing? I don’t want to pay their BS “activation fee” every time I swap phones, and I definitely don’t want to contact Verizon every time either.
 
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The question I have is… can you swap an e-sim back and forth from one phone to another.
I get an eSim opens space inside the phone but having a physical sim is easy to move from one to another and back
I actually just tried this yesterday between my 13 pro and 13 pro max , i did via Verizon chat after chatting with 3 different reps, it was a night mare ..I hope this gets sorted out once the 14 is out because I like switch between phones every now and then …it was super easy with a physical sim ..
 
It will also be hilarious when some of the people who are travelers and aren't aware of this go to another country and they have one of those physical pre-paid SIMs and when they land, they look at the phone and say, "Ok, where did they hide the SIM tray on this newfangled device?" Ha.

Bet there will be a few of those questions here as well.
 
I will be moving from a 12 Pro Max to a 14 Pro Max, and I use T-Mobile prepaid and have a micro sim installed on my 12 for that.

So, will the quick transfer be smooth even though i'm on a prepaid plan? That's what i'm worried about.
 
I actually just tried this yesterday between my 13 pro and 13 pro max , i did via Verizon chat after chatting with 3 different reps, it was a night mare ..I hope this gets sorted out once the 14 is out because I like switch between phones every now and then …it was super easy with a physical sim ..
I hate chatting with Verizon. I'm fearful to even call them. I resort to consulting everyone and everywhere before calling. :eek:
 
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I actually just tried this yesterday between my 13 pro and 13 pro max , i did via Verizon chat after chatting with 3 different reps, it was a night mare ..I hope this gets sorted out once the 14 is out because I like switch between phones every now and then …it was super easy with a physical sim ..
Try it again on Monday. The help page seems to suggest the quick transfer is a feature of iOS 16.
 
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Try it again on Monday. The help page seems to suggest the quick transfer is a feature of iOS 16.
I thought this as well. It says both phones must be on iOS 16. Now I’m glad my phone isn’t coming until later cuz the 16th is going to be a hot mess.
 
I should have mentioned I'm on AT&T and post-paid.

Let's assume I transition to an eSIM on the 12 PM. Then how do I move my service to the unlocked 14 PM???
When you receive your new phone, once you start the migration process by keeping both phones close to each other, the migration process will take care of everything for you. Your carrier information will migrate from the physical SIM to eSIM automatically.
 
Don’t think the esim will transfer with mvno’s other than AT&T, Verizon, tmobile others probably won’t be able to handle it like Tracphone, net10, spectrum etc
 
This is precisely where many carriers in the US and Canada are FAR behind the rest of the world. Many countries have something called "Multi-SIM" where you can have more than one SIM provisioned for any given line. Then, if you use two, three phones, whenever you want to move to your new phone, the SIM is already inside of it, and you dial a *XXXX# code to activate THAT multi-sim... when you move back, you dial the same code in your other phone, and suddenly THAT phone becomes primary.
 
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The beauty of esim is being able to have several “accounts” you can still purchase a local SIM it’ll just be an esim and you can do it as soon as you land in the next country and you’re good to go. You would just select that esim profile you want to use. When you head back stateside just select your US carrier.
To expand on this, it could actually be more efficient that current SIM (if the carrier in that country supports eSIM). Instead of having to go to the country, get a SIM for that carrier, then install it, you could potentially set it all up while still at home and be instantly ready to switch to that eSIM once your plane lands. While there could still be some early adopting hiccups, I see this as a benefit and time saver for most people.
 
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