Todd Vaziridumb question of the day: is there any harm in converting my physical SIM to an eSIM?
And, the benefit is easier transfer of service from phone-to-phone, right? (I have an iPhone 12, soon to get an iPhone 16)
Alex Padilla@tvaziri I haven’t done the conversion myself, but I have used Verizon’s website to do a phone-to-phone eSIM transfer and it was surprisingly painless (ymmv)
Kevin Patrick Doyle 🍅🥫@tvaziri I have had little issues when transferring phones with esims (specifically that belonging to my wife), always solved with a chat or call to the carrier.
Will Richardson@tvaziri some anecdata for you—I got my phone repaired and after restoring from an iTunes backup, my travel eSIM(s) had just disappeared. Will keep my physical SIM for as long as I can.
Although since iPhones only use eSIMs in the US, I assume it must be better there? Although I hear about people having to call their telco when they buy a new phone which seems wild.
Wayne Dixon@tvaziri I didn't have any issues moving mine. It works just the same. And yes, it can easily be moved between devices, it's a step in the setup portion when transferring devices.
mlhope@tvaziri Somewhat more convenient, with two caveats:
1) If the devices between which you’re transferring eSIM service don’t have the ability to detect one another in close proximity, I think you need a QR code or something issued by your carrier.
2) My carrier here in Japan (au Mobile) have hours during which the service is not available, usually a late night maintenance. I’m not sure if this impacted physical SIM transfers in the past or not.
Penguin@tvaziri eSIM transfer on AT&T very easy & flawless through two iPhone 16 Pro setups. And nice not to have to open 2 tiny drawers & move a tiny card from one phone to another 🙂
Nick Lockwood@tvaziri what is perhaps not obvious is that transferring to eSIM wipes/disables the original SIM card.
A friend got into trouble doing an eSIM transfer during the upgrade to a new phone - something went wrong and they had to restore from an earlier backup, but as a result they were left with neither the eSIM nor a working SIM card.
Chris Finazzo@nicklockwood @tvaziri When I upgraded from an 11 Pro to the 14 Pro, we did the eSIM transfer in-store (an AT&T Authorized Retailer) just in case there were issues with initialization.
J. Steven York RESISTS@tvaziri Well, for one thing, the connection to a physical SIM is a reliability issue. It's apparently not robust. My old SIM failed to work properly when I inserted it in my new Pixel 8pro and it had to be replaced with an eSIM. Use of eSIMs also likely makes it more practical for phones to support multiple SIMs at the same time, like the 8 Pro does.
Matt Broughton@tvaziri None (at least here in Australia)! I did the swap from 12 Pro to 16 Pro and it took two minutes in store.
Timo Hetzel@tvaziri I like to keep a physical (data) sim around to swap into other 4G/5G routers or test phones. My main voice line is on an eSIM and always stays in the main iPhone.
malducin@tvaziri not dumb, I'm considering the same thing for my international trips.
Brent York@tvaziri I’m 98% sure it will transfer without your having to do that step. I’d leave it as is. I had a similar situation and didn’t do that. Ain’t broke don’t fix rule applies.
not that coachmike@tvaziri In Canada so we still have SIM slot - it’s literally less than a minute to have new phone active - most of which is figuring out orientation of the SIM card. No websites. No ‘quick’ call to customer service.
It’s just done.
It’s just done.