Grey cellular bars for physical SIM card on iPhone 13 mini in roaming, but eSIM works fine
iPhone 13 mini,
iOS 18.3.1
I’m currently in roaming, but i was recently in roaming with the same phone and SIM cards in at least 4 European countries and all was working fine.
After landing in Spain and turning the airplane mode off I can no longer make and receive phone calls in my physical SIM card. Cellular bars are full but grayed out. Internet is working through.
Some times after phone restart or turning airplane mode on/off it gets normal, but once I try to call someone or someone tries to call me the call fails and bars turn grey again. Also I’ve received a message in the first day from carrier that someone was trying to call me 5 times but none of those calls came through and no sms since then either.
I tried to pinpoint the problem to whether it is carrier or phone related and looks like the phone is the main culprit:
- Tried 2 other working SIM cards from different carriers - no luck.
- Rebooted my phone cleared carrier settings, reinstalled SIM card - no luck
- Inserted my SIM card into my wife’s iPhone(15 Pro) - all works fine, bars are normal color, can make/receive calls. BTW she is also in roaming with the same carrier and has no issues.
- Turned on my eSIM and that’s where things got interesting. It all works fine for the eSIM i.e. normal bars, calls, sms, but physical SIM card still doesn’t work for calls and sms.
Any help will be very appreciated.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]