I am unable to send SMS after installing eSIM on my iPhone

Question

I am unable to send SMS after installing eSIM on my iPhone

I cannot send SMS on my iPhone 13 on iOS 17.5.1 for a month now. It all started when I got back from vacation a month ago. I had an eSIM installed on my phone during my trip and kept my physical SIM card inside. I experienced no trouble while abroad using the eSIM.

When I got back home, I noticed I could not send any SMS messages on my iPhone. I could send messages on iMessage to other iPhone users using my email but not my phone number. For a long time, I had the error message that my phone number could not be used for iMessage of FaceTime. I thought the problem was with my SIM card so I contacted my phone carrier. However, despite all their efforts, they were not able to fix the issue on their part. Also, when I tried my SIM card in my old iPhone, I was able to send SMS from it without any difficulty and was able to pair my phone number back to my iMessage and FaceTime. Thus I assume that the problem is coming from within the iPhone. I tried everything: restarting the phone, toggling on and off iMessage and FaceTime, doing a network reset and even a whole factory reset. Nothing worked. I feel out of solutions... The funny thing is that I can make and receive calls as well as receive SMS. I can also use my data (even though 4G or LTE is not written by the battery logo on the top right corner of the screen). Just sending SMS is not working.

I am providing a few pictures of the anomalies I noticed on my phone. My main SIM card (the one not working) is set to Business instead of Primary and I don't see all the details of the SIM such as my phone number when I click on its settings. Also it seems like my personal hotspot and my voicemail is not working.

That's basically it. If you have insights on what's going on it would be greatly appreciated.

[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 13, iOS 17

Posted on Jul 19, 2024 6:51 PM

Reply

Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,262 points

Jul 19, 2024 7:40 PM in response to francis_carrier

francis_carrier wrote:

I cannot send SMS on my iPhone 13 on iOS 17.5.1 for a month now. It all started when I got back from vacation a month ago. I had an eSIM installed on my phone during my trip and kept my physical SIM card inside. I experienced no trouble while abroad using the eSIM.

When I got back home, I noticed I could not send any SMS messages on my iPhone. I could send messages on iMessage to other iPhone users using my email but not my phone number. For a long time, I had the error message that my phone number could not be used for iMessage of FaceTime.

I thought the problem was with my SIM card so I contacted my phone carrier. However, despite all their efforts, they were not able to fix the issue on their part. Also, when I tried my SIM card in my old iPhone, I was able to send SMS from it without any difficulty and was able to pair my phone number back to my iMessage and FaceTime. Thus I assume that the problem is coming from within the iPhone. I tried everything: restarting the phone, toggling on and off iMessage and FaceTime, doing a network reset and even a whole factory reset. Nothing worked. I feel out of solutions... The funny thing is that I can make and receive calls as well as receive SMS. I can also use my data (even though 4G or LTE is not written by the battery logo on the top right corner of the screen). Just sending SMS is not working.

I am providing a few pictures of the anomalies I noticed on my phone. My main SIM card (the one not working) is set to Business instead of Primary and I don't see all the details of the SIM such as my phone number when I click on its settings. Also it seems like my personal hotspot and my voicemail is not working.