What you need to know
- Pixel users continue to report faulty eSIM experiences for Google’s Pixel 9 and 10 series devices.
- Users claim that their device will say “something went wrong” or simply won’t recognize or activate their eSIM, even though it works fine on a different device.
- Google has been made aware of this issue and is reportedly working on a fix for a future update.
The bad run of issues affecting Google Pixel users continues with reports of broken and faulty eSIMs.
As usual, reports began about the Google Pixel subreddit earlier this week, with the original poster stating that your Pixel 9 Pro XL’s eSIM just ran out (via Android Authority). The user claims they backed out to avoid the April security update due to “finding/reading about the critical eSIM bug that caused the device to not recognize digital SIMs.” They add that your Pixel will not reconnect or activate its eSIM due to this issue.
A user with a Pixel 9 Pro encountered the same problem: “I just can’t install an eSIM, it keeps giving me an error.” A thread related to Pixel 9 Pro XL was started on the Pixel Community Forumreiterating many of the issues that others have expressed on Reddit. The thread creator says that they checked their eSIM with a Samsung Galaxy device and found no such issues with their eSIM.
The user was encouraged to check with their mobile phone provider; however, doing so offered no such relief. The problem persisted, leading them to believe that the root of the problem lies within the device. Android Authority discovered that this issue is also affecting some Pixel 10 users.
On Reddit, a user with the April security patch reported no such issues. The original poster in the thread said that some users who performed a “clean update” of the April and May patches had this issue, and that there is still a chance that the more conventional OTA update could still cause the eSIM issue. Google is reportedly aware of the eSIM issue, but has not yet confirmed when a fix will arrive.
Recent history
Most of these reports refer to Google’s April security patch, which had different difficulties for other Pixel users. In mid-April, reports emerged about a serious battery discharge problem. What made matters worse was that many devices saw their batteries drain quickly while idle. As you can imagine, this was a major issue for many Pixel users from a Pixel 6 to a Pixel 10.
Google promised to have a fix for this serious battery drain in a future patch. Some users are waiting to see if the eSIM issue has been resolved in the future. May security updatebut many have not yet received it. According to Google’s changelog, no fix was mentioned for this eSIM issue, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Hopefully, the solution is there. Otherwise, we may have to set our sights on June or a surprise secondary patch later this month.
Android Central’s opinion
It almost feels like Google’s Pixels are being kicked while they’re down, or injured, at best. We’re just coming off some much-needed wireless charging and display fixes in May, and now these eSIM issues are creeping in with no resolution yet. I hope Pixel users can spend some time here in the near future where the “problems” aren’t really problems because this eSIM issue is a real bummer for a lot of people.





