4 min read
Installing a travel eSIM on an iPhone
The three ways to add it, the questions the iPhone asks, and the two settings for when you land.
An iPhone adds a travel eSIM in Settings, and it takes a few minutes. Do it at home, on Wi-Fi, a day or two before you leave, so that when you land all that’s left is two settings.
Before you start
- Check that your iPhone has eSIM. Open Settings, then General, then About, and scroll down to find the EID. An iPhone that shows one has eSIM.
- Check that it isn’t locked to a carrier. On the same About screen, No SIM Restrictions next to Carrier Lock means it’s unlocked. If it says anything else, ask the carrier that sold it.
- Connect to Wi-Fi. Apple says the iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network or hotspot to add an eSIM.
- Keep your order page to hand. Once your eSIM is ready, it shows the QR code and the same details as text.
Three ways to install it
Your order page offers all three. Use whichever suits the phones and screens you have with you.
- On the iPhone itself. Open your order page on the iPhone and press Install on this phone. On recent iPhones this opens the iPhone’s own eSIM setup with the details filled in, and you follow the steps on the screen.
- With the QR code, from another screen. Open the order page on a laptop or a second phone. On the iPhone, open Settings, then Mobile Service, which is called Cellular on some iPhones, tap Add eSIM, then Use QR Code, and scan the code. A phone can’t scan a code shown on its own screen.
- By hand. In the same place, tap Enter Details Manually and paste the SM-DP+ address and the activation code from your order page. The iPhone asks for the two separately, which is why the order page shows them on two lines.
The questions the iPhone asks
As it finishes, the iPhone asks how to use the new line. Everything you choose here can be changed later in the same settings.
- A label for each line. A name such as Travel is easy to spot in a list, and you can change it later under Cellular Plan Label.
- Your default line. Keep your usual number, so that calls and messages to someone who isn’t in your contacts still go out from it.
- iMessage and FaceTime. Apple lets you choose which line iMessage and FaceTime use. Leave them on your usual number.
- Mobile data. Keep your usual line for data until you land. Switching over takes a minute when you arrive.
- Allow Cellular Data Switching. It lets the iPhone use data from both lines, depending on coverage. Leave it off if you want all your data abroad to go through the travel line.
When you land
- Open Settings, then Mobile Service or Cellular, and tap the travel line.
- Turn on Data Roaming for it. The travel eSIM is a foreign line where you are, so it needs roaming on to use the local network.
- Go back, tap Cellular Data or Mobile Data, and choose the travel line.
- Leave Data Roaming off on your usual line, so it doesn’t use data abroad. The line itself stays on, for calls and texts to your number.
On recent iPhones, a notification may offer to Turn On Travel eSIM as you arrive. It asks whether to use the travel eSIM alone or beside your current line, and if you keep both, the travel eSIM is used for data.
If it doesn’t connect
Apple’s own steps, in order, are to turn Airplane Mode on and off, to turn the line off and on again under Cellular, and to restart the iPhone. After each one, check whether the network’s name shows.
Check the plan too. Your order page says if its data has run out or its plan has ended. If it still won’t connect, write to us with your order number.
Keep it on the phone
Leave the eSIM installed until you’re sure you’ve finished with the plan. Its code works only once, so an eSIM you delete can’t be added again from your order page.
Back home, choose your usual line for mobile data again and turn the travel line off in the same settings.
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