Newly acquired iPhone 15 iOS 26.0.1, SIM from iPhone 13 not working 'No Service'

[dholburn]

As per title.

I have a newly acquired iPhone 15.  During Data transfer it advised me to upgrade to iOS 26.0.1.  This was successfully done on WiFi and the data transfer from my previous phone went smoothly.

When I took the SIM from my working iPhone 13 and inserted it to the 15, contacts facing up, I get No Service, no bars, cannot make calls, send SMS, and no cellular data.  When I replace the SIM in the iPhone 13, I get 5 bars of 5G and everything works as it has always done in that phone (that one is still on iOS 18.7.1 and I do not plan to upgrade to 26 until I hear far more encouraging news.   

I have tried flight mode, force restart and network reset on the iPhone 15.  None of these made any difference.  I suspect this is an iOS bug (I read that this was recognised with iOS 26.0, and 26.0.1 was supposed to fix this.  Or (less likely) a phone hardware fault.  

Has anyone experienced similar and found a fix?

Many thanks for any suggestions,

[Michael_D · Accepted solution]

Hi @dholburn 

Welcome to the community.

Have you bought the phone as brand new or was it a second hand phone?

My thinking is that it is the phone could be blocklisted, especially if it is a second hand one, as the symptoms you've described could also be seen if that was the case.

It is worth trying to go to Settings > General > About and make sure that the Network Provider shows as EE 65.0.2. If it doesn't, wait on that screen for a couple of minutes to see if an update to the carrier settings appears to install.

I'd also recommend trying to do a manual network search by going to Settings > Mobile Service > Network Selection.

If that still doesn't help, please contact our tech guides, who can run some other checks with you to see if they can get it working.

Michael

[dholburn]

Hi Michael_D

Thanks for your input.  I can now add further to the info, but I'm away at a convention so can't make much progress until I return home on Sunday 12th October.

I had a conversation on my previous phone (an iPhone 13 purchased October 2023) with two EE tech advisers (Plymouth and Newcastle) on Thursday 9th October.  They were most helpful.  The iPhone 13 has iOS 18.7.1.

• They guided me to a couple of different conclusions.  The phone I have purchased is a nearly-new second-hand unit (apparently Dec 2023), and I have no complaints about the appearance, or the battery life.  It identifies as an iPhone 15, with 256Gb, with Model Number MTLY3LL/A  but its sub-number is A2846.  I understand this to mean it was originally manufactured for the US market.  My information is (and the EE advisers confirmed) that this model normally had no SIM drawer and relied on eSIM.  Everymac.com suggests the 5G network coverage of this model exceeds what is required for UK/EU operation  .. "is technically compatible with carriers around the world as long as they support eSIM".
• Despite this, my phone has a SIM drawer.  This definitely works for certain SIMs, with the contacts upward.  The working ones include the EE sim from my wife's phone, and one EE PAYG SIM I bought for confirmation.  Both seemed to give a connection and signal bars appeared.  It looks as if the drawer might accept a SIM inserted from underneath but I have not yet pursued that.
• The phone went through a fast transfer of the data from my iPhone 13.  I did not erase the 13 at that point.  In due course it will be inherited by a family member, and I will erase it then.  As part of the transfer Apple wanted to update iOS on the new phone (iPhone 15) to 26.0.1.  I seemed to have no alternative to this.  That was when the troubles started, and I reported these in my first post.
• The EE advisers invited me to remove my own EE contract SIM from my iPhone 13 (while on the call to them).  To my surprise, the call did not end, and the conclusion was that the iPhone 13 was not using the physical SIM but an eSIM.  I have no recollection of obtaining an eSIM for the '13 and seem to have no correspondence from EE about such a change which would have had to be since October '23.  I am therefore wondering if EE had been able to clone the physical SIM in the '13 and disable it (by a Carrier Update?) without me having to be aware.  That would explain why the physical SIM from the 13 did not work in the 15 while others did.
• But there was no option to Add a new eSIM to the iPhone 15, so the EE Advisers were seeking to restore this.  
• Under the guidance of the Advisers I did both a Network Reset and later, a Reset All Settings on the 15.
• That has left me with a greyed-out option for Cellular, so I cannot access the sub-menu for handling SIMs.  There is still no Add a new eSIM menu option.
• In Settings > General > About, Carrier Lock says No Sim Restrictions.  There is a Front Sim and a Back SIM IMEI parameter and they are different, though there are no physical SIMS in there.  
• Since the two Resets, the '15 no longer reports a carrier, but there was most definitely an EE section prior to the Resets.
• For the record, my iPhone 13 reports EE 64.1 in Settings > About > Network Provider

Unless I hear advice to the contrary, when I get back home to fast internet, I plan to do a full reset of the iPhone 15 and re-copy the data from my iPhone 13.  I plan to leave the physical SIM out of the '13, and see if it is possible to:

1 - transfer the eSIM from the 13 to the 15.  Forums say the phones have to have the same iOS version.  I am not sure about upgrading my 13 to iOS 26.0.1 as Forums suggest there are issues with SIMS for 26.

2 - Or, obtain a replacement physical SIM from my local EE store 

3 - if none of these succeeds I will return the phone to the seller.

Does this seem reasonable?  Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Michael_D]

Hi @dholburn 

Thanks for the thorough explanation of what has happened.

It is a little strange that your iPhone 13 is on eSIM if you didn't request it. It isn't something we can or would do so needs to be requested by the customer.

The next steps you've outlined do seem to be the best ones to take, trying the eSIM and if not getting a physical SIM from the store. You'll just need to remember to take some photo ID to the store (either a passport or driving licence) if you do go there.

Please keep me posted with how it goes.

Michael

[dholburn]

Hi @Michael_D ,

A further update.

Back at base I re-ran the fast transfer from my iPhone 13.  Although it is now evident the '13 has an eSIM, this did not transfer over during the fast transfer and I was not offered any possibility to transfer it.  There was no Add eSIM option in Settings  > Mobile Service.  As a result, I had no service from any provider, apart from WiFi

I visited the Cambridge EE Store in Grand Arcade, having phoned ahead.  Luke was the Adviser who saw me and he was very helpful (waiting to give him 10/10 when the feedback request comes).  He was quickly able to issue a new SIM card for my existing EE contract.  We were able to establish this was giving service on the iPhone 15.  However, although I asked, he was unable to shine any light on how my original SIM became converted to an eSIM while in the iPhone 13, and the physical SIM disabled.  It was in an iPhone 6S until autumn 2023, with no eSIM capability.  When I then purchased an iPhone 13, I was not aware that eSIM was a possibility, so I do not believe I could have requested it.  More recent research I've done makes it clear  that carriers actually can push eSIMs to capable phones if they want to, and the question of whether any SIM card gives service is totally in the control of the carrier.  If there are records at EE of what might have been done and when, they are not being made known to me!

The missing Add eSIM command did not appear as a result of installing a physical SIM.  The EE Adviser thought this should re-appear in 24 hours.  So far it has not.  I might do a forced restart to see if that has any effect.   So at the moment, my iPhone 15  - which is supposed to be eSIM-capable - is not, and can only be operated with a physical SIM.  My own suspicion is that this is an issue relating to iOS26 and 26.0.1 that Apple are keeping tight-lipped about.  As you will know, an iOS 26.0.2 is in test, ahead of the planned iOS 26.1 around end of October.  I draw the obvious conclusion, but it is less obvious if it will fix my issue.

In the 15, Settings > About > Network Provider I now see EE 65.0.2.  I have yet to see a box indicating there's a carrier upgrade.

So the bottom line is the phone is functional, but there remains the mystery of what has happened to eSIM support on it, and how I came to have an eSIM in the first place.

Many thanks for your encouragement and advice.

David H

[Ali_A]

Thanks for keeping us updated @dholburn 

Glad to hear you were able to get a replacement SIM which is then working in your iPhone 15. 

You can usually transfer your eSIM between iPhones by following the steps at Transfer your phone number from your previous iPhone using eSIM Quick Transfer.

As you now have a physical SIM, if you'd still like to revert back to an eSIM you can follow our Get, set up and use an eSIM page for further help.

Ali