Esim Problem - add cellular plan not exisisting

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I see that someone said you should replace your phone on the link above. Perhaps that is the best solution for now I have had this problem after updating to iOS14.0. I posted the following on your link, but repeat it here for others since it might be useful...(?). My phone is out of warranty now, so replacement is not an option.

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I suspect iOS14 did not solve your problem!, and may have made it worse if that is possible.

My eSIM line (US AT&T) with Swedish SIM was working properly but began to have SIM Failure during iOS13.x (not sure which 'x'), but was always able to recover after restarting the phone. With iOS 14.0, the 'add data plan' option has disappeared, and my eSIM always has SIM Failure on restart even though the data for the eSIM line (IMEI, etc.) is still there under Settings/General/About... . I cannot remove the eSIM data or try to reinstall as 'eSIM installation unsupported on your device' now occurs, and that is clearly wrong since it worked earlier (i.e., both lines worked in Sweden, and eSIM for the US line was installed in Sweden, not in the US ). Apple Care Support (who deal with software issues apparently) has a case open for my problem, but I am not hearing anything the past days. The hardware (XS Max, unlocked, bought at Apple Store in US) has been scanned by Apple and is ok, so it's a software problem, of some kind. Bottom line: iOS 14.0 broke the eSIM line completely.

14.0.1 was released today. Even before I installed it, my XS Max behaved differently after restart -- i.e., it began to notice the eSIM plan again, and 'add data plan' appeared in setting/cellular. I am not sure what might have changed -- just downloading 14.0.1 before install?

Anyhow, I went ahead and installed 14.0.1, and both the SIM and eSIM are noticed, and the lines are 'on', but the Service though briefly on for both, became "No Service" for both. I had to restart the phone several times after the installation before the SIM line connected properly to local Swedish provider. I also had to turn "WiFI calling" on for the eSIM (US ATT) line as 'No Service' continued to happen after briefly connecting to a local cellular provider. (I had the "WiFi calling" on during initial problems during 13.x flakiness.)

The phone appears to have returned to previous operational capability -- I have had no "SIM Failure" yet after 14.0.1. It is early though. :)

Same problem after 14 update, with eSim. Operator AT@T in US: briefly connected to the network and then lost the signal, showing “no service” all the time. After 14.0.1 update installed- sim failure and for both physical and eSim showing- “no sim”. Phone was restarted several times and eSim line disappeared, just working with physical sim. No “add cellular plan” as well..

Consultant at the At@t store said they have numerous complaints after 14 update...

(maxym112): That's interesting. I didn't really think that 14.0 -> 14.0.1 solved my/the problem with "SIM failure" or loss of 'add cellular plan', but I have 'recovered' in the sense that I have not experienced either problem since this last update after 14.0. However, I have had to turn "Wifi calling" on for the ATT eSIM plan to keep that line 'on'. If there's no Wifi, it connects to a cellular data network (even though data roaming is turned off for the eSIM line). So far, the SIM failure hasn't happened again, but I expect it will if I'm away from decent wifi connection or the cellular data connection it is using to stay 'on' fails for some reason. I still have a case open with Apple Care about this problem, but they have been unresponsive, so I suppose no one really understands what's happening. It is good to hear that ATT personnel have noted complaints about 14.0+, so maybe this will trickle up the food chain to the developers somehow. Thanks!

Now at 14.2, and SIM failure occurred immediately after upgrade. Restarts did not help, it just 'no SIm'd" the eSIM account, but kept all the information of that account on the phone. After I few days of this, I tried to force it out of whatever state it was in. Nothing worked until I took the physical SIM out, rebooted the phone -- more than once, I think, and finally, with the SIM still out, it activated the eSIM line again (with Wifi calling mode enabled). I then put the physical SIM back in, and it remained stable so far -- i.e., both lines connected.

Apple Care support has stopped responding to my query I opened with them before coming here to report, so as someone said here, they are pretty useless in the end; just ignoring my followup questions on an open ticket. Pretty bad form.

So whatever the eSIM failure problem is -- in software -- it definitely has not been fixed in 14.2, and I doubt anyone at Apple may even be aware of or working on it. Pretty sad state of affairs.

In my case, Apple took readings from my phone online to check the hardware, and then I followed up at the Apple Store nearby so they could examine more aspects of the hardware. No hardware problem was discovered. (Others on this thread got their phones replaced under warranty and seem to be ok. That is not an option for me.) So I believe this to be a software problem of some kind, and Apple Care is the software arm of customer support, and they are responsible, if anyone is, to track down and fix this. But so far they have stopped communicating on my case, and iOS upgrades are not addressing the problem. I only have found a stopgap way of getting the eSIM line back on -- it has stayed on for 24 hours+ since my last post above.

I know others have the same problem on different iPhone versions, and recovery seems to be random so far. Most who have recovered got new phones it seems. So I can't advise you what to do unfortunately as the fundamental problem remains to be exposed. Try to talk to Apple Care rather than Apple customer support though -- it's two different support organisations. Good luck!

This is actually happening to me as well with my iPhone 11 Pro Max (now on iOS 14.2 (18B92)) with an AT&T eSIM after several calls with Apple Care. I reset and then restored my phone and it seemed to help for awhile (a few weeks), but has come back. The restart trick seems to work most of the time, but I’m getting sick of the eSIM failure issue. This is beginning to happen more frequently.

I have had the same issue over the last day..I have an 11 Pro Max and iOS14.3.. I have two SIMs,- one AT&T (eSIM) and one physical SIM with a Canadian provider. Has worked fine for the last 18+ months..When I woke up yesterday neither lines worked ("SIM Failure").. Lots of interactions with Apple/AT&T and ended with erasing/resetting the phone.. After that the physical SIM worked, but my eSIM didnt ..The "Add Cellular Plan" option is not showing up, and if I try to scan the QR code it says "eSIM installation is unsupported on your device" ... I also got a new QR code to re-activate the eSIM from ATT again... That didnt help.. same errors.. AT&T "refreshed the settings in the servers" on their end, also no help...I know have a ticket in with Apple Support (which will take a few days at least apparently).. Meanwhile I dont have my AT&T line working and realizing how dependent you are of that thing given all the services/apps/verifications that uses your phone... Also, I am currently in Canada and it will be a while until I return to the US in case that adds to why I am having the issue.. So, if anyone has an idea of how to fix all this let me know!

So I made an appointment with Apple, I took my iPhone and they told me that this issue was new to them and asked me to leave my phone for them to analize the problem. After 5 days they returned my iPhone with a new mother board (or something like that) and a new battery (as a thank you) and now everything is working fine. Both of my lines are working flawlessly. They gave me a loner iphone while waiting for mine. I hope this information helps.

You can see the earlier reply from jzairik yesterday who said Apple replaced some hardware in his phone which somehow fixed the problem, so if that option is available to you, perhaps that is best. In my case -- which is also open with Apple for some months now -- a hardware replacement was not offered (my phone is out of warranty). (Also, Apple investigated my XS Max extensively (online and in the store) and found no hardware problems.) Anyhow...

I continue to experience the same problem as you (with Sweden instead of Canada in my case for the SIM), but ATT eSIM for US line. Every time Apple upgrades iOS, i hope that there is some fix pushed out, but so far nothing has happened. As soon as the phone updates (or in some cases after a shutdown/restart), the eSIM line in particular has SIM failure.) However, I have been able to get by, and I try to explain what I do though there is some randomness to the success rate, so I can't guarantee this would work for you. (I should also mention that the last time I was able to get both lines working, I made sure WiFi calling was turned on for the ATT eSIM. When there is no WiFi available, the eSIM uses the cellular data from SIM line (Sweden Telenor 4G). This seems to keep the ATT eSIM line alive. So if you get the eSIM back online, maybe turn the WiFi calling 'on' to keep the line working. I think the eSIM fails eventually otherwise, and you're back to square one. )

Here's how I proceed. When I get the SIM failure message after an iOS upgrade or restart (sometimes it's for both lines after an iOS upgrade), the phone should be connected to WiFi. I wait about 30-60 minutes before restarting the phone as perhaps there is some resettling of the iOS going on which needs to complete. Then I turn off the phone and restart. Usually, the SIM reconnects to the network at this point (or after another shutdown/restart), and I have Swedish line back. But the eSIM fails (even though the phone remembers the eSIM line information -- I can see the US number under 'cellular' section in General, but it says 'no SIM' next to the number.) I turn off the phone, pull out the SIM and restart. Usually, one gets SIM failure message again after restart (rather than just 'no SIM'). so I insert the SIM and the Swedish line reconnects. I repeat the procedure of turning the phone off and restarting (sometimes removing SIM and re-inserting after restart, other times just leaving the SIM in, and letting the SIM failure occur.) Eventually, the eSIM line reactivates - sometimes at first with a very strong signal which collapses to WiFi calling with 'weak' signal strength. I don't know why the eSIM line won't reconnect to telecom network after this transition to WiFi calling, but since it stays 'on', I stop playing with things until the next time I have to upgrade/restart the phone. I find that once the eSIM is back online with WiFi calling, it is pretty stable. (I don't use the US number for much of anything in Sweden except to receive notification of calls on US line. I don't have data roaming turned on for US number or use any of ATT's international data plans either in Sweden.)

Sorry for the rambling, long thread here. But you can see that the 'solution' is just to keep trying to turn your phone off and on (with SIM out or not, and reinserted) until the eSIM line reconnects. If this sounds like a random 'solution', I agree, but it has worked for months now. The fact that this problem exists across iPhone models makes me believe it is not a hardware problem, but a software problem which Apple or ATT have not identified or properly assigned 'blame' in order to get it fixed.

Because of pandemic, I also have not been able to visit the US since March, so I don't know what will happen when I try to use the eSIM as primary line in US. (It worked fine on previous travels to US, but that was before the SIM failure message started happening some time in iOS 13.x, I forget precisely which iOS 13 upgrade started having the problem.)

My case with Apple Care (who handle software problems for iOS) is still open, but no one is responding to my queries when I ask 'how's it going?' -- so no idea if anyone in the software department is actually working on identifying the problem/solution. If you can keep pushing from your side, perhaps this problem will finally rise to a level where some attention is given to it.

Until then, please try and see if the eSIM line recovers on its own by forcing the phone to try and activate it again. (I also get the eSIM not supported message blah blah when I put the QR code in the camera after a eSIM failure and restart so I don't think that has anything to do with the solution, just part of the problem.)

Apple replaced my phone. I spent hours on the phone with Apple/AT&T and on forums... Nobody could figure it out... Until Apple said it was a Motherboard issue and I needed a new phone.. It took me a minute to set everything up with the new phone and I havent had any issues at all after that.. Thanks all!!

I have the same problem with an iPhone 12 Pro, I have spoken several times with Apple supervisors and they have not solved, they have done many tests and they cannot find the error, they all have commented that they had never seen this error in any device, I showed them this thread and they said they have no notification of this type of error in any device, today I will communicate again because they ask me to perform a factory reset without restore my iCloud backup, the result was the same, no option to add data plan showed.