General Be careful messing with dual eSIM

[EtherealRemnant]

I had to factory reset today (actually I used the Android Flash Tool just to make sure I had a totally clean slate). I was using my Boost (AT&T) pSIM with my Tello (T-Mobile) eSIM no problem but I installed the eSIM for the free T-Mobile Network Pass yesterday and it was acting weird. Kept losing data, sometimes I would lose both my Tello and T-Mobile eSIMs... It was very strange as I never have any issues with the phone so I swapped the T-Mobile eSIM for my Boost pSIM at which point Boost and Tello started working together perfectly again.

Well today I decided I wanted to see if the T-Mobile eSIM was working any better. I mean it should seeing how my Tello eSIM on the same network works fine. I tapped on the T-Mobile eSIM, it prompted me to turn off my Boost or Tello SIM, I told it to turn off Boost, and immediately I was right back to having data and signal issues. Went to turn my Boost pSIM back on and it was nowhere to be seen in the network settings. The phone acted like there was no SIM at all. Removed it, put it back in, rebooted the phone, reset network settings... Nothing would work. Even worse, when it was in, it knocked out the signal on my two eSIMs right after it got inserted each time. I freaked out thinking my SIM slot died, pulled out the Boost pSIM, stuck my old Tello pSIM in and... It popped right up. Put the Boost pSIM in my OnePlus 9 and it worked there so I knew at this point it was my phone but I thought that it could still be software. Ended up biting the bullet and restoring the stock .031 ROM (I was on the beta 3 QPR), stuck the pSIM in when the phone was at the home screen, and I was back to having both my Tello eSIM and my Boost pSIM again.

I don't know what was up with the T-Mobile eSIM but I removed it since I have no desire to mess around with this and have to reset again. This could have been a fluke or it could be a legit bug. Also, I forgot to mention, I tried disabling the T-Mobile eSIM when I was trying to get the Boost pSIM to be recognized again and the phone said that there was an error. Same when I tried to delete it. I had to reboot to get it to cooperate.

I would advise people wanting to mess with dual eSIM to be careful. This isn't the first glitch I've had with it. In fact the first time I enabled dual eSIM, Settings crashed, and I have gotten the error turning off an eSIM once before as well when I had US Mobile eSIM and Tello eSIM active and wanted to switch back to my SafeLink pSIM but that time it just took a reboot to fix it.

As for the T-Mobile eSIM issue, my guess is the phone didn't like two SIMs connected to the same network. It could be a modem limitation. On my 12 Pro Max I was able to use Tello on pSIM and T-Mobile on eSIM no problem but that could be a Qualcomm vs Samsung thing or it could be specific to dual eSIM. Like I said, I'm not willing to mess with it anymore. I had to do all this at my partner's house and I ended up losing everything on my phone besides what was backed up to the cloud by Google. It's not a huge deal as none of it was all that important but it's a pretty big inconvenience as I had about 50GB of stuff on there that I'll have to manually download and restore.

 

[jaseman]

You do realize that it would take a team of rocket scientists to even be able to follow your work flow? SMH

 

[EtherealRemnant]

You do realize that it would take a team of rocket scientists to even be able to follow your work flow? SMH

I mean I explained the whole sequence of events as they happened. Not much more that I can really do.

 

[EtherealRemnant]

I was able to trigger this again. I was trying to see if I could get the QCI for my eSIM with Network Signal Guru so I told the phone to disable the pSIM and it disappeared again. Reinserting it didn't work. What did was turning off my eSIM and *then* reinserting the pSIM. Since I opted to go back to .031, this bug appears to be in both the release and beta versions.

 

[quorn23]

Kept losing data, sometimes I would lose both my Tello and T-Mobile eSIMs...

I'm seeing very similar behavior with a physical sim and an e sim
I had planed to leave the pSim in the phone for calls/sms and using an eSim for data.

Data connection is "spotty" at best, if i don't see the same behavior and i just lose connection on both (both showing with a little x)
Even worse, my pSim isn't reachable randomly and only starts working again when i either start a call, or reboot the phone. (Seeing this as i'm getting a bunch of sms from my provider about missed calls)

(This is on a Pixel 7, i'm just adding the info here as for me with as a first time eSim user it feels very buggy)

 

[EtherealRemnant]

I'm seeing very similar behavior with a physical sim and an e sim
I had planed to leave the pSim in the phone for calls/sms and using an eSim for data.

Data connection is "spotty" at best, if i don't see the same behavior and i just lose connection on both (both showing with a little x)
Even worse, my pSim isn't reachable randomly and only starts working again when i either start a call, or reboot the phone. (Seeing this as i'm getting a bunch of sms from my provider about missed calls)

(This is on a Pixel 7, i'm just adding the info here as for me with as a first time eSim user it feels very buggy)

Are both of them on the same network by chance? My phone seems to do fine with AT&T network pSIM and T-Mobile network eSIM or Verizon network eSIM and T-Mobile network eSIM but when it was dual T-Mobile eSIM, it freaked out. I have used dual SIM since I got the phone without any issue until I tried two from the same network.

 

[quorn23]

Are both of them on the same network by chance? My phone seems to do fine with AT&T network pSIM and T-Mobile network eSIM or Verizon network eSIM and T-Mobile network eSIM but when it was dual T-Mobile eSIM, it freaked out. I have used dual SIM since I got the phone without any issue until I tried two from the same network.

Hi Ethereal,

I wasn't sure and checked, it's two different networks (two biggest networks we have here in Switzerland)

 

[EtherealRemnant]

I can confirm this same bug still exists in the November update.

To trigger it all I have to do is have a pSIM and an eSIM active and then turn off the pSIM. It disappears from the list on the SIM screen and removing and re-inserting it doesn't re-enable it unless I disable the eSIM first.

You can see what I mean in this video. Once I turn off the pSIM, it disappears from the list of SIMs in the phone.

screen-20221107-173748~2.mp4

drive.google.com

 

[xstefen]

edited

 

[96carboard]

It may not be a "dual esim" problem, according to this thread, there may be issues with tello sim configurations even in physical format; https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/data-connectivity-major-problems.4519577/

 

[EtherealRemnant]

It may not be a "dual esim" problem, according to this thread, there may be issues with tello sim configurations even in physical format; https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/data-connectivity-major-problems.4519577/

No, it happens no matter what eSIM I have active. If I have an eSIM active and disable the pSIM, it disappears from the phone entirely.

Also, my Tello pSIM had issues but my Tello eSIM has been fine.

 

[96carboard]

No, it happens no matter what eSIM I have active. If I have an eSIM active and disable the pSIM, it disappears from the phone entirely.

Also, my Tello pSIM had issues but my Tello eSIM has been fine.

Is there always a Tello *something* when there are issues?

 

[EtherealRemnant]

Is there always a Tello *something* when there are issues?

No. It happens with a Verizon eSIM too. It's definitely a bug. In fact I just tested a hunch and if I turn off the eSIM first, I can disable the pSIM without it disappearing, so it's something with the eSIM being active and the pSIM not that's the issue.

 

[supermansaga]

Hello. iPhone 13 Pro Max definitely supports two eSims from the same carrier but of diff number, whereas Android 13 can’t seem to do it. Maybe it’s because there is only one EID per phone, despite two IMEI? Thanks. Will December update fix this? Are we saying iOS is more superior? I am using TMobile network pass (3 months free) and T-Mobile grandfathered plan.

 

[EtherealRemnant]

Hello. iPhone 13 Pro Max definitely supports two eSims from the same carrier but of diff number, whereas Android 13 can’t seem to do it. Maybe it’s because there is only one EID per phone, despite two IMEI? Thanks. Will December update fix this? Are we saying iOS is more superior? I am using TMobile network pass (3 months free) and T-Mobile grandfathered plan.

I haven't actually done further testing to confirm my suspicions so it's all a guess at this point. That said, the iPhone uses a Qualcomm modem and the Pixel uses Samsung, it wouldn't surprise me to find this to be one of the inherent differences between the two modems. I also can't see it being an issue for more than 99% of people as most run dual SIM to have different carriers.

 

[Ducter]

I'm utilizing both physical sim and esim and it's marginal at best. Both numbers are T-Mobile, the physical sim struggles for connection at times it shouldn't and text/sms is hit and miss. I believe in part it's rcs that's problematic but not sure. Voicemail is another issue, depending which sim I have set for default is the one that receives voicemails. My previous phone was a note 20 ultra direct from Samsung and that had no such issues.

 

[EtherealRemnant]

I'm utilizing both physical sim and esim and it's marginal at best. Both numbers are T-Mobile, the physical sim struggles for connection at times it shouldn't and text/sms is hit and miss. I believe in part it's rcs that's problematic but not sure. Voicemail is another issue, depending which sim I have set for default is the one that receives voicemails. My previous phone was a note 20 ultra direct from Samsung and that had no such issues.

I have zero major issues using two different networks. I'm using Boost Mobile (AT&T network) pSIM and Tello (T-Mobile) eSIM just fine. It was only when I was using two T-Mobile that things went wacky.

Or if I turn off the pSIM in the settings instead of removing it... That causes it to disappear entirely from the phone. Really annoying.

Hopefully they can address these issues but even with them, I'm still pretty happy with my phone so far. Still much less buggy than the OnePlus 9 it replaced.