Status Update – iPadOS 26.4.x eSIM Cellular Issue
Following additional testing and review of reports here, this issue is now clearly reproducible and consistent across environments, does not appear to be related to carrier or provisioning, and strongly points to an iPadOS-level regression affecting eSIM functionality on 9th-generation iPads that will require Apple intervention for a permanent fix; migration to a physical SIM is currently the most reliable workaround.
Observed Behavior
Affected iPad 9 devices using eSIM will lose cellular service after normal use (hours to days).
When in this failure state, MDM telemetry shows:
- Current Carrier = (blank)
- MCC / MNC = 65535 / 65535 (invalid carrier identity)
ICCID remains present and unchanged in MDM telemetry throughout, confirming the eSIM profile itself is intact despite the loss of carrier identity.
To validate this, a user removed/reinserted the empty SIM tray, which immediately restored a valid state (Verizon, MCC/MNC 311/480) without any reprovisioning, confirming the device can recover by reinitializing the cellular stack while the same eSIM profile remains in place.
External Confirmation
Reports here show the same behavior across:
- Multiple carriers and regions
- Temporary recovery followed by repeat failure
- iPad 9 as the common factor
Internal Testing
- Confirmed transition from valid carrier identity → invalid (65535) during failure
- Verified SIM tray interaction restores valid carrier identity without reprovision
Performed controlled testing by migrating an affected device from eSIM to a new physical SIM (unused ICCID) on the same line:
- Same device (iPad 9), same OS version, same carrier
- eSIM profile removed, physical SIM activated in its place
Result:
After switching to a physical sim, the device has remained stable with continuous service for over two weeks, with no recurrence observed under normal use conditions.
This strongly indicates the issue is isolated to the eSIM handling path rather than coverage, provisioning, or general modem functionality.
Working Theory
Likely a regression introduced in iPadOS 26.4.x affecting how eSIM state is reinitialized during normal modem lifecycle events (e.g., sleep/wake, network reattach), where the device retains a valid eSIM profile but intermittently fails to reapply that identity to the baseband, resulting in loss of carrier identity (MCC/MNC = 65535 / 65535); this appears to disproportionately affect iPad (9th generation), likely due to its older modem stack being less tolerant to changes in CoreTelephony / CommCenter behavior.
Physical SIM likely avoids this condition because carrier identity is read directly from SIM hardware and does not rely on the same OS-managed eSIM activation and reinitialization path observed to fail.
Current Mitigation
- Most reliable workaround: migrate affected devices to physical SIM
