Samsung S20 5g- Trouble down loading ESim

Samsung S20 5g- Trouble down loading ESim

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Discussion

Roman Moroni

Original Poster:

1,108 posts

130 months

Friday 6th September
quotequote all
Hopefully one of you great sages maybe able to assist.

Last week I bought a refurbished S20 5g from Back Market who had been recommended on here as a good Company to deal with The advert stated that the phone was ESim compatible. This is the only reason I chose the phone as I need it when I go abroad next week. I've just downloaded the Airalo app in order to buy the ESim, where upon I'm getting a message stating the phone is not Esim compatible.
On the Airalo Help page there are a number of reasons why the phone may not be compatible (i.e they originate from the Far East etc). I checked the Settings; my one has an IMEI starting '35' which I know denotes it being a UK phone. It also shows an ESim IMEI beginning '35' being present, but this is greyed out.

As yet, I haven't swapped my physical SIM car from my current phone to the new one as I believe it doesn't need a physical card inserted to activate the ESim.

I have tried to contact the Company who sent the phone using their (mobile) number shown on a leaflet sent with the phone It either goes straight to answer or rings out to the answer phone. I've also messaged Back Market but it's a 1 working day turn around which means I probably won't get a reply until next week which doesn't help me. Ultimately I know I can return the phone to Back Market for a full refund as it's not as described; but it's not what I want to do in the first instance.

TIA

TL,DR: How do I activate a greyed out ESim on my S20 5g



davek_964

9,296 posts

182 months

Friday 6th September
quotequote all
Does the phone have two physical sim slots?

I tried Airalo a few weeks ago (non Samsung phone) and my Esim was greyed out. I had to go to a setting somewhere else to enable Esim - which disabled the physical second SIM slot - first. Then I could enable the Esim.