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UliBaer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 10, 2024
433
891
Germany
Hi there,

i've got a serious problem: I got an additional SIM card with the same number as my main phone (Multi SIM). This new card i've put in my old spare phone (SE 2020) which immediately snapped the number for activation of iMessage and Facetime and thereby deactivated the number on my main phone.

Unfortunately i want iMessage and Facetime on my main phone and not on my spare phone. Since Apple still can't handle SIM cards with the same number in a meaningful way, i deactivated iMessage and Facetime on my spare phone and tried to reactivate iMessage and Facetime on my main phone. Of course this isn't working, cause i always get an error stating "An error occurred: Activation of this number not possible".

I tried nearly all possible solutions from the support page and finally contacted support itself. This was the most dumb impression cause they only told me the things i already tried *again*. :mad:

Internet recherche found: The number is probably blocked by the Apple servers in Ireland, because the phones tried too often to activate the number. So now i'm stuck with the error and the dumb support doesn't have a single clue... :mad::mad::mad:

Anyone enlighten me or has a helpful suggestion?
 
So you cloned your own SIM? Yeah, Apple’s servers are gonna flag that as fraud pretty quick 😬
 
So you have two different SIM cards, with different ICCID and IMEI numbers, tied to the same phone number… and activated?
 
Well - yes, exactly!
Multi Sim is using the same number on up to 10 different hand sets. All cards or e-sims share the same data volume and the same phone number. I can call from every mobile and if someone calls me, all handsets are ringing and the one i take first wins. It is a wide spread long time standard, at least over here in "unenlightened" Europe:

etc...

Apple is the only one constantly having problems with that - embarrassing...
 
As often at Apple, after ~48 hours the problem solved "magically" by itself, without any "genius" knowing, what's going on in the background.

Well, it's a pity, but regarding multi sim/multi card it is time to trade the spare iPhone and get a Pixel instead. :confused:
 
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