this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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The screen died on my wife's iPhone, fine I have other spare iPhones aplenty she can switch to. But at some point she had accepted a prompt on the iPhone to switch to eSIM so we couldn't just move a physical SIM over, you had to go through the "transfer eSIM" menus, which we couldn't do because the screen was dead. The only option the carrier gave us was going to a physical store.
I'm never switching my main carrier to eSIM, what a PITA for absolutely no upside.
(they're great for throwaway travel SIMs though)
Your carrier is the problem. I just login to my carrier's app on the new phone and boom new esim.
So I have Xfinity and your supposed to be able to do this via web. I was riding my dual sport deep in the woods and lost my phone. Tried my damnest to activate an s21+ I had in a drawer and it kept kicking it back. I go to store and they cannot activate it as it's "not supported by their network". They try to sell me a new phone. I'm frustrated and on like day 3 no phone so I said fuck it I'll buy the cheapest Motorola on the shelf, but under one condition. I refused to buy the phone or continue my contract unless they would give me a physical sim (they tried pushing the esim HARD). I got home, took the sim out of my Motorola, popped it into my "unsupported phone" and it worked fucking fine. Esims are just another complication and way to get tech illiterate into the store. As long as I can I will never let go of my physical sim ever again.
What a sane person would want to install a shitty carrier app just for that? There should be a way to do it via their web ui in the least
Well, my carrier's app isn't super shitty, actually. No ads, no bloat, just account management.
But... You get a new phone, you install the app and login to get your esim, then uninstall. Not exactly a difficult problem.
That's not a solution. There is no other carrier that has the coverage I need.
The problem with eSIM as a concept is that it puts too much responsibility on the carrier, and there are way too many shitty carriers out there, and with the cost of building a network and the limited amount of spectrum, mobile carriers are not a functioning free market.
That doesn't mean that your carrier isn't the problem.
Just like the person you replied to, I to can just log in to my carriers app on a new phone and get eSIM fixed there if my old phone is in an unusable state.