Some iPhone users using T-Mobile cellular service encountered an eSIM bug that caused iMessage and FaceTime to deactivate their phone number, unable to reactivate it.
Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman exposed the problem by tweeting about his own experience with the issue. Gurman said the only solution that worked for him was getting a physical SIM card.
In a follow-up tweet, Gurman said that another solution that has worked for some is to delete the eSIM account from the iPhone and set it up again. "But it's complicated for most people, and it's best not to do it," he added.
Another solution flagged to me by some is removing your eSIM account from the iPhone and setting that up again. But that’s complex for most people and shouldn’t need to ever to be done. Not being able to send and receive texts is obviously not ideal. Not “it just works.”
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) May 19, 2022
Gurman said a T-Mobile store representative who helped him quickly activate a physical SIM for an iPhone revealed that other customers had visited the store with the same eSIM issue after Apple was unable to resolve the issue, suggesting it may be an increasingly common problem. The problem.
"This issue definitely exists on iOS 15.4, iOS 15.5, and iOS 15.6 Beta 1," Gurman continued in another tweet. "It could be earlier, but I can only confirm that right now."
The Twitter post has since received responses from other T-Mobile customers who had similar experiences, with some reporting that Apple was aware of the issue, but the company was unable to fix it.
Others reported that they had the same problem with other carriers, including Verizon in the US, and Bharti Airtel in India.
What is an eSIM?
An eSIM is a chip built into the iPhone's motherboard. With the launch of the iPhone XR and XS in 2018, Apple started bringing eSIMs to the iPhone.
An eSIM has two main advantages: an easier setup process and the ability to use two phone numbers on one phone by using both the physical SIM and the eSIM. Starting with the iPhone 13, Apple no longer requires a physical SIM card, even with two numbers.
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