The iPhone’s eSIM seems to be a hassle-free way to activate your Apple device, but a newly discovered bug is causing headaches for iPhone users. According to a report, the iPhone’s eSIM is triggering FaceTime and iMessage deactivation. There is no known solution other than changing SIMs.
The matter first came to light when the famous Apple liqueur Mark Gurman tweeted about it. As he described, FaceTime and iMessage were disabled on his T-Mobile iPhone and attempts to reactivate them failed. After talking to a T-Mobile representative, the only solution was to replace the eSIM with a physical nano-SIM card.
Several people have responded to his message through similar accounts, including users from other US carriers and countries. One user said he had “exactly the same problem” with Vodafone in the UK. Another user reported the same problem with Airtel in India.
The common misconceptions with the problem seem to be iPhone 13 and iOS 15.4 In most cases, switching to eSIM for a physical SIM solves the problem. Apple support doesn’t seem to be able to solve their problem in the end, so if you feel that way, your best bet is to contact your carrier for help.
Apple is aware of this problem and is working to solve it. iOS 15.5 doesn’t seem to fix the problem, and it’s unclear if iOS 15.6 beta, which came out this week, has a solution.