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Dual eSIM on iPhone 14

  • 17 September 2022
  • 22 replies
  • 18020 views

Does anyone know, definitively, if one can have two TMobile lines on an iPhone 14? Today, I have an iPhone with a physical SIM and and eSIM. Both are TMobile lines — what Apple calls “cellular plans”.
 

I had to return an iPhone 14 because a TMobile store could not transfer both lines to that new iPhone. 
 

The support site is (as always) confused and out of date. “Experts” I contacted online are anything but. 
 

I’m surprised that TMobile hasn’t has enough time to consider this use case and provided details to customers and staff on if, how and when this can be done — or if it’s not possible. 

22 replies

syaoran
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Do you have one of the dual eSIM models only and was it purchased directly from T-Mobile?  eSIM's on T-Mobile have always been somewhat of an issue depending on the device.  I don't know how Apple's eSIM is implemented, but eSIM's are more commonly used on Prepaid accounts, unless that has now changed.  Have you tried reaching out to T-Mobile Support via 611 or the T-Force Team via Facebook or Twitter to see if they can help with you setting up Dual-eSIM on your iPhone 14? 

T-Mobile's eSIM help page has nothing about Dual-eSIM.  https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/device-troubleshooting/apple-on-device-activation-troubleshooting

Syaoran - I am not a T-Mobile Employee but I could use a new job!
Z

Well, short answer - it does work.  My current iPhone 14 Pro (purchased at Apple) is using two eSims

 

Long answer - it took two hours on phone with high level tech support.  The key seems to be making sure Cellular Data is turned OFF on the phone.

 

That, and considerable patience and tenacity

 

Good luck!

 

T
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I had two active T-mobile accounts on my iPhone 12 Pro Max - physical SIM, and eSIM. There’s nothing preventing you from having two lines from the same provider. People do this all the time for personal and work.

The iPhone 14 supports up to 6 saved eSIM’s, but only 2 can be active at one time. Both eSIM’s can be t-mobile. Unfortunately, the folks in the store are not very knowledgable. There’s a strong chance that if you do anything in a store, they are going to charge you $35 a line anyway.

You can active an eSIM on your phone using a QR code. You always have the option of calling 611 and asking them to send you the QR code for the eSIM setup. 

Once you get the QR code, go to Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → Scan QR

T
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I had two active T-mobile accounts on my iPhone 12 Pro Max - physical SIM, and eSIM. There’s nothing preventing you from having two lines from the same provider. People do this all the time for personal and work.

The iPhone 14 supports up to 6 saved eSIM’s, but only 2 can be active at one time. Both eSIM’s can be t-mobile. Unfortunately, the folks in the store are not very knowledgable. There’s a strong chance that if you do anything in a store, they are going to charge you $35 a line anyway.

You can active an eSIM on your phone using a QR code. You always have the option of calling 611 and asking them to send you the QR code for the eSIM setup. 

Once you get the QR code, go to Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → Scan QR

One more thing - when they send you the QR code, you can either print it out or display it on another device. You’ll need to use the camera to scan the code….which means you can do it on the same device that you’re trying to add the eSIM on. At least I haven’t found a way...

M

T-Mobile has a process in place for Dual sim service DSS and DSDS Dual sim, Dual Standby service (0b5a9) When you call into care or Team of experts, and they are not familiar with this activation process provide them Doc 0b5a9 to enable them to complete the process.

 

Key points in esim activation:

  1. Have Wifi
  2. Have the tmobile esim QR code or sm-dp+ address handy
  3. you may complete the change on mytmobile.com by updating the line you wish to use from psim to esim by entering the EID from the device you wish to activate OR have the EID handy for care teams to activate.
J

Im also trying to get dual esim activated. I work for t mobile and nobody can figure it out. The problem seems to be the EID is already in use on an existing number so it won’t let you reuse the EID. Im sure if it was two separate providers it wouldn’t be a problem but same provider seems our systems and reps can’t figure it out 

J

well i figured out a work around until t mobile gets their stuff together. I had a second number on an android phone. I used my old iphone connected it to ios 16 and put the android number in with my apple id. Once i did all of that I went into my new iphone and add esim it automatically recognized the number and added it on

M

Im also trying to get dual esim activated. I work for t mobile and nobody can figure it out. The problem seems to be the EID is already in use on an existing number so it won’t let you reuse the EID. Im sure if it was two separate providers it wouldn’t be a problem but same provider seems our systems and reps can’t figure it out 

Do you have one of the dual eSIM models only and was it purchased directly from T-Mobile?  eSIM's on T-Mobile have always been somewhat of an issue depending on the device.  I don't know how Apple's eSIM is implemented, but eSIM's are more commonly used on Prepaid accounts, unless that has now changed.  Have you tried reaching out to T-Mobile Support via 611 or the T-Force Team via Facebook or Twitter to see if they can help with you setting up Dual-eSIM on your iPhone 14? 

T-Mobile's eSIM help page has nothing about Dual-eSIM.  https://www.t-mobile.com/support/devices/device-troubleshooting/apple-on-device-activation-troubleshooting

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209044

 

It's based on device capability, newer iPhone can have up to 6 sim profiles installed while only two can be active for switching. Esim isn't new to Android.  My android from 2018 had 2 esim profiles with tmobile. Currently one of my iPhone se 3rd generation has 2 active esim profile no psim.  

 

It can be done. Just gotta get to the right person.  

Johnrocket

T-Mobile has a process in place for Dual sim service DSS and DSDS Dual sim, Dual Standby service (0b5a9) When you call into care or Team of experts, and they are not familiar with this activation process provide them Doc 0b5a9 to enable them to complete the process.

 

Key points in esim activation:

  1. Have Wifi
  2. Have the tmobile esim QR code or sm-dp+ address handy
  3. you may complete the change on mytmobile.com by updating the line you wish to use from psim to esim by entering the EID from the device you wish to activate OR have the EID handy for care teams to activate.

This 100% works. Tforce on Twitter just did it for me. It even popped up on my phone to add it, no QR code needed. FWIW I am on iOS 16.1 beta on iPhone 14 Pro. 

G

T-Mobile has a process in place for Dual sim service DSS and DSDS Dual sim, Dual Standby service (0b5a9) When you call into care or Team of experts, and they are not familiar with this activation process provide them Doc 0b5a9 to enable them to complete the process.

 

Key points in esim activation:

  1. Have Wifi
  2. Have the tmobile esim QR code or sm-dp+ address handy
  3. you may complete the change on mytmobile.com by updating the line you wish to use from psim to esim by entering the EID from the device you wish to activate OR have the EID handy for care teams to activate.

Can you please detail the process a little more. Im trying ot setup dual ESIM with Tmo as my main and Google Fi as my backup.

 

I have both profiles setup but if i have them both enabled at the same time they kind cancel out each other and the phone goes into SOS mode. If I disable the google fi. The tmo esim will work fine. If i disable the tmo esim the google fi never works.

 

Some background.   I had a dual sim setup with these same numbers on my 12 pro. But it was 1 physical sim (tmo) and 1 esim (google fi).

Y
Badge

T-Mobile has a process in place for Dual sim service DSS and DSDS Dual sim, Dual Standby service (0b5a9) When you call into care or Team of experts, and they are not familiar with this activation process provide them Doc 0b5a9 to enable them to complete the process.

 

Key points in esim activation:

  1. Have Wifi
  2. Have the tmobile esim QR code or sm-dp+ address handy
  3. you may complete the change on mytmobile.com by updating the line you wish to use from psim to esim by entering the EID from the device you wish to activate OR have the EID handy for care teams to activate.

This 100% works. Tforce on Twitter just did it for me. It even popped up on my phone to add it, no QR code needed. FWIW I am on iOS 16.1 beta on iPhone 14 Pro. 

So, I went into a store since the online “techs” wouldn’t read this doc to me. The doc does say one can use two eSIM mobile lines on iPhone 14. 

But there are no instructions on how to do it. 

The store rep wouldn’t let me see them but she told me there were lots of questions from other employees about how to do this and that it doesn’t appear to work.

Classic TMobile to not be ready and to head-fake their own employees with incomplete information.

 

Johnrocket

T-Mobile has a process in place for Dual sim service DSS and DSDS Dual sim, Dual Standby service (0b5a9) When you call into care or Team of experts, and they are not familiar with this activation process provide them Doc 0b5a9 to enable them to complete the process.

 

Key points in esim activation:

  1. Have Wifi
  2. Have the tmobile esim QR code or sm-dp+ address handy
  3. you may complete the change on mytmobile.com by updating the line you wish to use from psim to esim by entering the EID from the device you wish to activate OR have the EID handy for care teams to activate.

This 100% works. Tforce on Twitter just did it for me. It even popped up on my phone to add it, no QR code needed. FWIW I am on iOS 16.1 beta on iPhone 14 Pro. 

So, I went into a store since the online “techs” wouldn’t read this doc to me. The doc does say one can use two eSIM mobile lines on iPhone 14. 

But there are no instructions on how to do it. 

The store rep wouldn’t let me see them but she told me there were lots of questions from other employees about how to do this and that it doesn’t appear to work.

Classic TMobile to not be ready and to head-fake their own employees with incomplete information.

That’s unlucky. I mean if it helps I’m happy to give you one of my phone numbers they did it on so they can see how to. But I doubt that’s allowed for them to look. 
L

Having just gone through this on my iPhone 14 Pro Max, I’d like to post MY EXPERIENCE.

I had my T-Mobile and my Tello (T-Mobile MVNO) lines on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. NEVER AGAIN!! It only worked for a couple of hours. Whenever I made a call from my Tello line it would take about a minute to connect and it would always drop the call. 
 

If you’re wondering why I had Tello… for $10 a month and free international calling to the country I call every week, why not? It costs me on T-Mobile $15 for international calling plus the price of the line.

 

The major problem was the fact that when the iPhone connects to wifi and disconnects, both lines would go to SOS being displayed for the signal bars. That meant I had no service on either line!! Even after powering the iPhone off and on, resetting network settings…. NOTHING WORKED. 

I have since switched to only 1 ESIM line on my iPhone and the line being a digits line.

 

Hope this helps 🤙🏼

S
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Apple website clearly states that two dual esim can be active at a time. I am not sure why t-mobile support staff not ware of this.

A

I’d like to confirm that it IS definitely possible to have dual eSIM phone numbers activated on a single device with T-Mobile.  I currently have this with an iPhone 14 Pro Max.  The ease of doing this may depend on whether these are new phone numbers, are ported over numbers from another provider and just what T-Mobile support staff you end up talking to.  If the following is similar to your situation then this may work for you as well.  Nobody at T-Mobile was ultimately able to help me do this after 7 hours of multiple elevations of telephone assistance with T-Mobile and Apple along with two trips to local T-Mobile stores.

I was porting over two numbers from two separate phones from another provider onto a single T-Mobile iPhone 14 Pro Max..  While both numbers ported over easily to T-Mobile service only one was able to be transferred onto the iPhone.  When trying to activate the second eSIM, the second number stubbornly always came up with an error message stating that the number wasn’t eligible for porting to T-Mobile (even though it already was).  It’s just the phone wouldn’t accept it. 

To end what was a long painful story, since I still had my old phone which was on IOS 16 and had a physical SIM slot, I asked the T-Mobile store to activate a physical SIM card with that second number for use in the old phone.  Once the old phone became activated with the second number that I wanted to transfer (a 10 minute process), I was able to put the old and new phones side-by-side to transfer and activate the second eSIM in the new phone without any problems.  In theory, you should also be able to do this using a QR code but support seemed fixated on the path of direct activation.

Note that the T-Mobile staff was always patient and polite but just didn’t have the answers for what I assumed would be a very common request.  The phone works great now with both numbers.

Hope this work around might be useful for some.

V

I’d like to confirm that it IS definitely possible to have dual eSIM phone numbers activated on a single device with T-Mobile.  I currently have this with an iPhone 14 Pro Max.  The ease of doing this may depend on whether these are new phone numbers, are ported over numbers from another provider and just what T-Mobile support staff you end up talking to.  If the following is similar to your situation then this may work for you as well.  Nobody at T-Mobile was ultimately able to help me do this after 7 hours of multiple elevations of telephone assistance with T-Mobile and Apple along with two trips to local T-Mobile stores.

I was porting over two numbers from two separate phones from another provider onto a single T-Mobile iPhone 14 Pro Max..  While both numbers ported over easily to T-Mobile service only one was able to be transferred onto the iPhone.  When trying to activate the second eSIM, the second number stubbornly always came up with an error message stating that the number wasn’t eligible for porting to T-Mobile (even though it already was).  It’s just the phone wouldn’t accept it. 

To end what was a long painful story, since I still had my old phone which was on IOS 16 and had a physical SIM slot, I asked the T-Mobile store to activate a physical SIM card with that second number for use in the old phone.  Once the old phone became activated with the second number that I wanted to transfer (a 10 minute process), I was able to put the old and new phones side-by-side to transfer and activate the second eSIM in the new phone without any problems.  In theory, you should also be able to do this using a QR code but support seemed fixated on the path of direct activation.

Note that the T-Mobile staff was always patient and polite but just didn’t have the answers for what I assumed would be a very common request.  The phone works great now with both numbers.

Hope this work around might be useful for some.

I was hoping someone tried this. I just moved a second line to an iPhone 14 using this method and it was seamless. I am going to try it with my girlfriends Galaxy S9. Take that sim put it in an iPhone running iOS 16 and hope it works. But it sounds like T-Mobile is stumped at adding a second different line to a phone where the EID is already associated with a line. If they fix that these number transfers should be much easier 

P

I have an iPhone 14 Pro purchased at an Apple Retail Store. I am currently a VZW subscriber and am trying to take the advantage of Network Pass. Network Pass looks as if it installed correctly but I cannot get the Tmobile esim to work. VZW is set up as primary voice and data line. Any help is appreciated.Thanks is advance.

Y
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For the record, I did get this to work. I now have two TMobile business lines. One that was on a physical SIM, the other on an eSIM on an iPhone 14 Pro Max with only eSim.

It ain’t easy – and I relied on the fact that business users can reassign SIMs using the business portal. Nobody at TMobile would do this, so tread lightly.

To get it work, you basically need to be coming from physical SIMs. In my case, the first number was easy since it was already on a physical SIM. I simply reassigned it using the business portal.

Then, I assigned the second line (originally on iPhone 13 eSIM) to a physical SIM. Make sure to use a new TMobile SIM card. You cannot, for some reason, then move that second line’s physical SIM to the iPhone 14 eSIM.

Instead, you have to call “tech support” and have them force the move. Once you receive the “eSIM ready” on the iPhone 14 from the network, you must use the QR code (found elsewhere on the support site) to install it.

What can I say? TMobile used to have the worst network on the planet. Now, they arguably have the best. The trade-off has been “support”. Nobody, anywhere has any skill or can answer a simple yes or no question with believability and accuracy.

IOW, if you have to TMO lines and want to use a basic feature of every iPhone since at least iPhone 11 on your new iPhone 14, you are on your own with TMO basically telling you it cannot be done.

O

Thanks to this thread, I was able to get this to work.

I’m in the US. I got an iphone 14 pro from T-mobile. T-Force on Twitter was able to help me out. The key word to use was “dual sim dual standby” Keep escalating on the phone if you must, but I suggest using T-force on twitter if you can.

In 2 different stores 4-6 different reps told me i can’t have dual eSIM. I got the same answer on the phone by calling 611.  They were all trying to convince me to make one of them a DIGITS line, or trying to tell me that I would have to keep deactivating one and activating the other. None of it made any sense to me, because the apple documentation clearly stated I could have two active eSims.

 

M

The information in this topic was really helpful in resolving the issue for me and my TForce on Twitter Tech.   It took a few hours but we got there in the end.    TELLO and Mint were unable to get it working so Thank you TForce and everyone here who contributed.

D

Yes, it’s super easy.

I added a second line on my iPhone Mini 13 and called regular T-Mobile support.

They had me up and running in about 15 minutes, and it works great!

 

T

For anyone reading this in the future, here’s what worked for me in less than 10 minutes.

I just asked chat for the QR code for the line I’m wanting to add, they sent it, had to activate it. They asked for the EID of the device, which I provided. I never mentioned setting up a second ESIM on the same device. Once they activated it, I turned off cellular data, scanned it, and was up and running in no time.

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