eSim on and off option

guinnessMD

Hi. Is there an option to switch eSim on and off without losing it?
Thanks for your help in this matter.

Eagle_Owl

guinnessMD
Hi guinnessMD!
Yes, you can deactivate eSIMs temporarily as well as SIM cards without losing them.

And as additional protection against accidental deletion there is a switch I recommend to set in the menu settings/security/advanced settings: “Confirm deletion of the SIM”
(Wording may differ in English, I have translated it from the German term).

As long as the “eSIM Support” switch in the “Network and Internet” settings menu is set to “on”, the eSIM can be temporarily switched off at any time and switched on again later.

N1b

Yes, you go to the Network Settings and there you can switch your eSIM(s) on and off. You won't lose them, but you can only have one active at the same time. Even if you switch off the "eSIM support" toggle the eSIMs emain on your device. You'd have to actively delete them or change your phone to not have them anymore.

Murcielago

N1b

You won't lose them, but you can only have one active at the same time

Depending on the model. With the Pixel 8, for example, two eSIMs can be active at the same time.

Eagle_Owl

N1b
Sorry, but that's not the whole truth ;-)
According to Google, all Pixel phones from around Pixel 6 with Android 13 can also have two eSIM profiles at the same time.
At least that's the theory. In practice, some people really use it (if you can trust what some people write in forums - even some journalists write that they use it that way (but they may use a developer/beta version)).

Two eSIM profiles work simultaneously with every Pixel 8 (Pro).
I use this myself with my Pixel 8 Pro without any problems, i.e. with two phone lines that are really both waiting for calls at the same time in standby. Of course, one line will be busy when a call comes in on the other, but that's how dual (e)SIM works.

Reference: https://source.android.com/docs/core/connect/esim-mep

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Murcielago 2 eSIM at same time and also the physical SIM or only 2 sIM/eSIM not depending of the combination? Thanks

N1b

Eagle_Owl thanks, I didn't know that. On my Pixel 6a with GOS I'm only allowed one eSIM at a time, not sure why (might be because currently there's a physical sim present as well). Anyway, thanks for bringing it up. More is better and I learned something new today.

Murcielago

Eagle_Owl

Thanks for the link to Multiple Enabled Profiles (MEP). I also did some more searching and found this article also quite helpful to understand how MEP works.

Murcielago

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You can store several eSIM profiles (via Settings> Network & internet> SIMs>+ Add SIM) and insert one physical SIM card (this applies to the Pixel 8, other models may be different). However, only two SIM cards can be active at the same time, i.e. 2x eSIM or 1x physical SIM + 1x eSIM.

Murcielago

My answer may not be correct,. What I can say is that you can't use more than 2 eSIM on a Pixel 8 at the same time. I can't say whether you can also use a physical SIM card on top.

The article I linked before -as I understand it- reads as if one could use two eSIMs and a physical SIM card at the same time:

A device with three logical slots. In physical slot 0, there is a physical SIM card with an active profile. In physical slot 1, there is an eSIM with two downloaded profiles, both active using MEP.

I apologize for my incorrect answer!

Eagle_Owl

Murcielago
Thank you, but this guy Mishaal Rahman Is the main journalist I mention when I rant about bad journalists, writing about new technologies, but don't mention that they are using a non-public beta version of software!
Und andere schlechte Journalisten und Blogger schreiben dann von ihm ab, übersetzen das alles auch noch in ihre Muttersprache und so verbreiten sich Unwahrheiten und schlecht recherchierte Artikel. :-(

Mishaal Rahman is okay from a technical point of view, but as a good journalist he would never forget to mention in his articles that he is currently using a developer version that is not available to the public.

Eagle_Owl

Murcielago
Yes, it's a fact: you can generally only use two phone lines, whether eSIM + eSIM or SIM card + eSIM.
Several eSIM profiles can also be saved and the SIM card does not have to be removed if you decide to use two eSIMs (perhaps temporarily for a trip?).
You can deactivate unused (e)SIMs temporarily via a software switch. Very convenient.

Unfortunately, information on this topic is very scarce and bad journalists make complicated research even more difficult with their misleading articles.

“Thanks” to Mishaal Rahman and a German “journalist” who copied him, in March 2023 I wasted my free time and completely unnecessarily flashed my Pixel 7 Pro with GrapheneOS back to stock Android 13 and tried under stock Android to see if dual eSIM (MEP) would work.
However, this could not work because at that time it was only possible with a very specific developer version of Android 13. Mishaal Rahman did not mention this in his article and the other journalists only copied from him. :-(