How to Install Your First eSIM

After installation: four connection checks

Use these checks at your destination if the installed eSIM does not connect. Do not delete the eSIM.

1. Enable Data Roaming for the Wanderly eSIM and select it for mobile data. Keep data roaming off for your home SIM.
2. If the current network gives you trouble, turn off automatic network selection and try another network listed for your plan. Allow a minute for each connection attempt.
3. Temporarily turn off other SIMs/eSIMs in SIM settings, leaving Wanderly enabled. This pauses calls and texts on those lines; turn them back on after testing. Do not delete any eSIM.
4. Restart your phone, then turn Wi-Fi off briefly to test mobile data at your destination.

Manual network selection

• iPhone: Settings > Cellular (or Mobile Service) > Wanderly eSIM > Network Selection > turn Automatic off.
• Samsung: Settings > Connections > Mobile networks > Network operators > turn Select automatically off for the travel line.
• Pixel: Settings > Network & internet > SIMs > Wanderly eSIM > turn Automatically select network off. Menu names vary by phone.

Before you start

Three things account for most first-install failures, and all three are easier to fix at home than abroad.

• Connect to stable Wi-Fi. Avoid hotel and airport captive portals — the sign-in page kind — which frequently block the download server.
• Turn off any VPN or private-relay feature completely. This is the single most common cause of a failed download.
• Confirm the phone is carrier-unlocked. A phone still locked to a home carrier cannot add a travel eSIM, and every error it shows will look like something else.
• Have the QR code open on a second screen, or use the direct install link on the phone itself.
• Keep the phone plugged in or well charged — an interrupted download can consume the activation code.

The one-tap install (easiest)

Recent iOS and Android versions accept a universal link that opens the eSIM installer with the details already filled in, so there is no QR code to scan and nothing to type.

1. Open your Wanderly order on the phone you are installing to — not on a laptop.
2. Tap the install link. The phone opens its own Add eSIM screen with the details prefilled.
3. Confirm, and wait for the profile to download.

• If the link does nothing, your OS version is too old for it. Use the QR or manual route below — the result is identical.

Install with a QR code or by hand

1. iPhone: Settings > Cellular (or Mobile Service) > Add eSIM > Use QR Code. Android: Settings > Network & internet > SIMs > Add eSIM. Samsung: Settings > Connections > SIM manager > Add eSIM.
2. Scan the code, or tap Enter Details Manually and paste the SM-DP+ address and activation code.
3. Wait for the profile to download — typically 30–90 seconds. Do not lock the phone or switch networks while it runs.
4. Give the line a clear label such as "Travel".

• Type carefully if you enter details by hand: activation codes are case-sensitive, and 0/O and 1/l are easy to confuse.
• The QR code installs once. If it has already been used, another attempt cannot succeed — you need a reissued profile.

If you cannot find "Add eSIM"

A missing menu item is almost never a bug in the phone's software. It means one of three things.

• The phone is carrier-locked. Ask your home carrier to unlock it; nothing else will work until they do.
• The model has no eSIM hardware. Older handsets, some budget models, and certain regional variants — mainland-China iPhones in particular — ship without it.
• The OS is too old. Update to the current version and look again.
• Quick check on either platform: dial *#06# and look for an EID. If an EID is listed, the phone has eSIM hardware.

Settings to check afterwards

• Cellular Data is set to the new line (do this after you land, not before).
• Data Roaming is ON for the travel line — a travel eSIM needs it.
• Your home line stays on for calls and SMS, with its own data roaming OFF, so it cannot run up a roaming bill.
• iPhone only: turn off Allow Cellular Data Switching so the phone cannot fall back to your home line.
• Leave the APN alone unless support gives you one. A default APN is correct far more often than a typed one.