iPhone Users Report iMessage Deactivation Issue Linked to T-Mobile eSIM Accounts

T-Mobile's cellular service is experiencing an eSIM bug that causes some users to lose their phone number, with no way to get it back.

Mark Gurman brought the issue to light by using his own experience with the issue. Gurman said that the only way to solve his problem was to get a physical sim card.

Another solution flagged to me by some is removing your eSIM account from the iPhone and setting that up again. But that’s complex for most people and shouldn’t need to ever to be done. Not being able to send and receive texts is obviously not ideal. Not “it just works.” — Mark Gurman (@markgurman) May 19, 2022

There is a very nasty iPhone and @TMobile bug where iMessage and FaceTime for a device's phone number will randomly deactivate and there is no way to reactivate it. The only solution that worked for me is getting a new physical SIM card. An extremely disappointing issue.

Gurman said another solution that had worked for some was to remove the eSim account and set it up again.

Gurman said that the T-Mobile store representative who helped him quickly activated a physical sim for his phone revealed that other customers had visited the store with the same issue.

Gurman said that the issue had existed on the three previous versions of the software.

The thread has received replies from other T-Mobile customers who have similar experiences, with some reporting that Apple is aware of the issue but the company has not been able to resolve it. We will update this post if we learn more about the issue, which appears to be limited to T-Mobile customers.