Unable to activate eSIM of Airtel on IPhone 13 running on iOS 16.0.2

I fear this problem is specifically to the users who got their iPhones from US, lol 🥲

I just hope some magic happens or something at this point. Why don't you try contacting Apple's Senior Advisor there through customer support. Try talking to them let's see what they say? I tried talking to one here. And they said Apple is aware of the issue. And it should be fixed in the next software update :/

Hey, in my case I have tried doing everything correctly, scanned the QR code and waited for it to get activated. But nothing. (I don't have any other sim though) just the physical sim in my iPhone X. I even went to the Airtel store. They just repeated the process I did, and when they saw the same message all they said was we don't know and gave the phone back.

I wanted to post an update. Today after more than 24 hours my eSIM got activated. During this I did the following, not sure if they did anything.

I turned off the phone which had the physical sim.

I turned off the eSIM in the iPhone 14.

When I turned on the eSIM, I was pleasantly surprised to see it activated.

So the summary is just wait.

Okay so I have an update as well. I converted my SIM to postpaid and did the eSIM process all over again. I was told to ignore the error message and wait for 2 hours. The network signal disappeared from my other phone which had my physical SIM. I then restarted my 14 Pro and voila! My eSIM was activated.

Yes it worked. Ignore the "unable to activate eSIM" messsge by pressing "ok" and just wait for 2-3 hrs you'll notice the network bars disappearing from the phone in which you have your physical SIM in and then the network bars will appear in your new phone. If you don't see the bars on your new phone just simply restart. And voila your eSIM is activated.

I have been struggling to convert my Airtel SIM to eSIM for quite some time. On every attempt, I had to cancel the process after receiving the 'Unable to activate eSIM. Your eSIM could not be activated. Contact AirTel for assistance' error. Even got the physical SIM deactivated on couple of occasions. However, today I let the process continue even after receiving the error message. And after about 2 hours of waiting, the eSIM got activated and both the physical SIM as well as the eSIM are active now. I can now remove the physical SIM and replace it with my other carrier SIM - Finally!

Same as several others, after 3 failed tries, ignored 'Your eSIM could not be activated.' with 4th try. Almost exactly 2 hours later, physical SIM was out of service (Deactivated) and eSIM was working without doing anything. Airtel's system works but the information/description in SMS, email and web site is incorrect or out-of-date, which I cannot comprehand how it could happen.

If you did not cancel the conversion by sending SMS ‘NOSIM’ to 121, the conversion will be completed in 2 hours as I and others have stated. If you did cancel, you can get a new QR code by requesting a new conversion, and the previous eSIM profiles in ‘Activation incomplete’ can be removed. If you leave them on the phone, they are harmless and will do nothing.

Obviously, fully activated eSIM should never be deleted as you quoted from Airtel. Otherwise, you will need to get a physical SIM from Airtel. Hope above helps.

Thank you it worked for me as well exactly after 2 hours but we just have to ignore this error unable to activate sim after you scan the QR code. By the way Mine is Iphone 14 pro Max US purchase and it worked with Esim activation Airtel India

I'm on iOS 16.1.1 and I was facing the same issue, iPhone 14 pro bought in US. Failed on first two tries but on third try, got activated after 1.5-2 hours. Just followed the process on Airtel website and ignored the Unable to Activate message. Seems like third time's a charm!

Go through the eSIM activation process and ignore the message that shows "unable to activate eSIM" by just pressing okay and wait for 2 hrs. It'll activate exactly after 2 hrs. SMS services will be blocked for 24 hrs for security reasons but you can make calls!

Yes I got the sim activated on a Iphone 14 pro max US purchase. after you scan the code just have to leave it for 2 hours and ignore the error in between. After 2 hours or so you should see Sim activation on New phone.

Follow your carrier's instructions on how to add eSIM. After you scan the barcode and all during the activation process (which take couple of mins) after that it shows error message of "cannot activate eSIM contact carrier for support" just ignore that message by pressing okay and continue waiting for 2 hours. It'll automatically activate eSIM on your device you'll see the signal bars appear

Facing the same issue with my iPhone 14th us model with Airtel as service provider. But my esim was not activated even after 2 hrs and my physical sim got deactivated as well. This is a serious issue. Someone please help.

Did you try to check if the eSIM has been activated by restarting your device? If not go to the main Airtel office. They will help you with the physical sim and do the eSIM process in the office itself. But make sure you go to the main Airtel office not those small 3rd party shops