How to Transfer an eSIM to a New iPhone

Moving an eSIM to a new iPhone takes one of three routes: Apple's Quick Start transfer during setup, the Settings option called Transfer From Nearby iPhone, or asking your carrier for a fresh QR code. Which route works depends on who issued the eSIM, and that single detail is what trips most people up.

Here is the part nobody tells you at the store. Carrier eSIMs, the AT&T or Vodafone line that holds your phone number, usually transfer between iPhones with a tap. Travel eSIMs usually do not, and that is not a fault, it is how they are built. This guide covers both, because on a two line phone you will be moving both.

Route 1: transfer during new iPhone setup

When you set up a new iPhone next to your old one, Quick Start offers to bring your cellular plans across along with everything else. Say yes and both phones do the work. Your old iPhone shows a confirmation, you approve it, and the number lands on the new phone within a few minutes. The old phone's copy deactivates by itself, since a number can only live in one place.

This is the route to take if you are standing in front of both phones with a carrier line to move. It needs both iPhones on iOS 16 or later, Bluetooth on, and a carrier that supports eSIM transfer. The big US and UK carriers all do now. Some smaller ones still do not, and they are the reason Route 3 exists.

Route 2: transfer after setup is finished

Already set the new phone up? No need to reset anything. On the new iPhone go to Settings, then Cellular, then Add eSIM, then Transfer From Nearby iPhone. Keep the old phone unlocked and close by. Approve the prompt on the old phone, wait for the activation to finish, and you are done. If the option never appears, your carrier does not support nearby transfer, which moves you to Route 3.

Route 3: the carrier QR code

The universal fallback. Log into your carrier account or ring them, ask them to release the eSIM, and they issue a new QR code. Scan it from the new iPhone under Settings, Cellular, Add eSIM, Use QR Code. The moment the new profile activates, the old one dies. One AT&T customer on Reddit described spending an hour on the phone confirming numbers to do exactly this, which is why we would always try Routes 1 and 2 first and keep this one for when they refuse.

Travel eSIMs play by a different rule

Now the part that matters if you bought your eSIM for a trip. Most travel eSIMs are single install by design. The profile you scanned is locked to the phone that installed it, and Apple's transfer tools will not move it, no matter how nicely you ask. This is true across the industry, and any provider who tells you otherwise is describing the exception, not the rule.

What that means in practice depends on timing. If your travel eSIM's plan has expired, there is nothing to move. Delete the profile from the old phone and buy a fresh plan on the new one, that is the whole procedure, and our setup guide takes you from purchase to signal in a few minutes.

If the plan is still active mid-trip, contact the provider before touching anything. Some, us included, can reissue an install for the remaining balance if you ask first. What kills the balance is deleting the profile from the old phone on the assumption the QR code will simply work again. With most providers it will not, the code is one use, and the data goes with it. We put this warning in writing because it is the single most common way people lose paid data during a phone upgrade.

Moving from Android to iPhone, and back

Apple supports eSIM transfer from Android to iPhone during setup for carrier lines, though the reverse trip, iPhone to Android, still means a carrier QR code in almost every case. Travel eSIMs follow their own single install rule regardless of direction. If you are switching platforms mid-trip, the practical answer is the same as above: talk to the provider, do not delete first.

Before you sell or trade in the old phone

Once your lines are safely on the new iPhone, clear the old one properly. Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Erase All Content and Settings, and when it asks, choose to erase the eSIMs as well. A leftover eSIM profile on a phone you no longer own is not a security hole in itself, the number has already moved, but a clean wipe avoids any confusion for the next owner. A clean wipe is a two minute job and we cover the exact taps later in this series.

The five minute pre-switch checklist

Check both phones are updated and on WiFi. Confirm your carrier supports transfer, one search of their help pages answers it. Move the carrier line with Quick Start or Nearby Transfer. Leave any active travel eSIM alone until you have spoken to its provider. And check the new phone is eSIM capable and unlocked before you begin, which takes two minutes on our compatible devices page. Recent iPhones are all capable, but a carrier locked phone will refuse any outside eSIM no matter how it arrives, so check the lock status in Settings, General, About before the trip, No SIM Restrictions is the answer you want.

Quick answers

Can I transfer an eSIM myself?

A carrier eSIM, usually yes, either during setup or via Settings, Cellular, Add eSIM, Transfer From Nearby iPhone. A travel eSIM, usually no, it is locked to the phone that first installed it, so contact the provider instead of moving it yourself.

Why is my eSIM not transferring to my new iPhone?

The usual causes, in order: the carrier does not support nearby transfer, Bluetooth is off or the old phone is locked, one of the phones needs an iOS update, or the eSIM is a single install travel profile that cannot transfer at all.

How do I get my eSIM QR code again?

From whoever issued the eSIM. Carriers reissue codes through your online account or support line. Travel eSIM QR codes are generally one use, so a reissue is a support request, not a re-scan. We keep every purchased code available in your MegaEsim account, which beats hunting through email at an airport.

Does transferring an eSIM cost anything?

Carriers in the US and Europe almost never charge for an eSIM transfer between your own phones. What can cost you is lost travel data from deleting an active profile, so mind the order of operations.