[scottjays]

In my i5 M60, I did the OTA update without issue, eSim thru ATT worked. Yesterday my spouse borrowed the car, I connected her ATT wireless phone not mine which had the eSim synced to and this morning I get Att message my phone has lost it's connected car connection. In the vehicle eSim showed step 3 of 4 to activate. went down the rabbit hole to get it re-synced, gave up and called ATT to cancel. I realized how infrequently i use it. if i am sitting charging i watch you tube. so now I will watch on phone instead.

[SkykingUSA]

I'm not sure if this will help anyone, but I thought I'd share my experience with T-Mobile customer service, in case it does.

Background

• My car received the OTA update on Sunday, October 6th.
• The eSim has worked fine the entire time - never had any outage or error messages.
• I have had the eSim active with T-Mobile since April 2024, and have not had a problem.

Issues After This October 2024 Update

1. Since the update, I have received a number of emails and texts from T-Mobile indicating, "Your SIM change is complete." I have probably received 6 of these messages over the past two weeks.
2. I have received texts from T-Mobile multiple times thanking me for adding a new line to my account.
3. When I checked my T-Mobile account online, it shows my car eSIM line (the one I setup back in April), plus three additional lines with no data usage.

Contacted T-Mobile Support Today
I called T-Mobile support today and explained that my car received an OTA update and after that, I have been getting emails and texts and have three additional lines on my account that I don't want to pay for and aren't sure are necessary or valid.

The rep was amazing and really understood the situation as I explained it. She took the time to look up support in her system and found documentation about BMW eSims. Her docs basically said that there may be a bug in the BMW software which will create multiple lines/accounts for the eSIM after an update. She said the steps to follow include checking the BMW app to make sure there is no "automatically create new accounts" turned on in the eSIM settings anywhere. I checked the app and the in-car screens (under the Mobile Devices app) and couldn't find such a setting. She ended up removing the three additional lines from my account.

The final steps include me monitoring the situation and to call back in if more new lines get created. If more lines do appear, it will be sent to the T-Mobile tech department for further investigation. I was glad to know that T-Mobile actually had a support article about the situation with a number of steps to take for resolution.

One other thing I thought might be worth mentioning here. When I was in the car, looking at the eSIM under Mobile Devices, I saw at first that it was actually showing step 3/4 like others have reported. However, after a couple of minutes, it changed to setup complete and I was able to go into the eSIM menu and look at the settings like normal. For some reason it just fixed itself as I was fiddling in the menus. Weird. I suppose I'm just lucky, or maybe T-Mobile is able to handle the buggy situation more readily than some carriers (or a combination of both).

Either way, I am hoping that this may help others in an indirect way who may still have an issue with the eSIM.

[dubb13]

Yeah I have T-Mobile and I tried to deactivate my ESIM from that app and reactivate but now I get this message in the app it's been there for weeks should have left it alone

So the activation button is greyed out i even had T-Mobile remove my account
Didn't fix this

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by dubb13

Yeah I have T-Mobile and I tried to deactivate my ESIM from that app and reactivate but now I get this message in the app it's been there for weeks should have left it alone

So the activation button is greyed out i even had T-Mobile remove my account
Didn't fix this

Weird that even with the same carrier, there are different situations. I'm assuming you already tried an iDrive reboot. Also, have you tried activating/deactivating from within the car (not using the myBMW app)? I think the eSIM stuff is in the Mobile Devices app in iDrive.

[dubb13]

Yes I tried rebooting the iDrive and no where is that setting in iDrive to reactivate

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by dubb13

Yes I tried rebooting the iDrive and no where is that setting in iDrive to reactivate

Ok. Just wanted to make sure you looked in the iDrive menus directly as well. Good luck and hopefully it will get fixed by BMW soon.

[dubb13]

Yeah it's been fine until that update

[dubb13]

And if I go active I'm the iDrive I sends me to the app

[dubb13]

I can't believe BMW let this ESIM issue go broken this long

[Kennethjk]

Originally Posted by scottjays

In my i5 M60, I did the OTA update without issue, eSim thru ATT worked. Yesterday my spouse borrowed the car, I connected her ATT wireless phone not mine which had the eSim synced to and this morning I get Att message my phone has lost it's connected car connection. In the vehicle eSim showed step 3 of 4 to activate. went down the rabbit hole to get it re-synced, gave up and called ATT to cancel. I realized how infrequently i use it. if i am sitting charging i watch you tube. so now I will watch on phone instead.

BMW has no timeline of when it will be fixed so I also cancelled.

[dubb13]

Yeah it's been broken for awhile I canceled

[btlalum]

I cancelled mine with T-Mobile as well....will be interesting to see if the purported update 11/2024 fixes the issue....not holding my breath.

[Kennethjk]

Originally Posted by btlalum

I cancelled mine with T-Mobile as well....will be interesting to see if the purported update 11/2024 fixes the issue....not holding my breath.

11/24 update will be rolled out in Feb 2025 at best.

[okankaymak]

Originally Posted by Kennethjk

11/24 update will be rolled out in Feb 2025 at best.

It will be available for dealer services sooner I think.
Btw, I also canceled with verizon today. Maybe reactivate one day if it gets stable again.

[AiredaleDad]

Following this one. I am probably getting my car today, but not going to even activate it until it's stable.

[SkykingUSA]

To all those who have cancelled their service, or whose eSIM has not been working for a few weeks:

Do you actually notice any difference with your regular use of the vehicle? I'm beginning to wonder if I should keep the service or cancel it even though mine is working fine. I don't really watch video in the car since I'm not sitting around charging much and I don't even take a lot of calls in the car without my phone anyway. I'm not sure it's actually worth the $20/month to me anymore.

[dubb13]

It probably is not

[Kennethjk]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

To all those who have cancelled their service, or whose eSIM has not been working for a few weeks:

Do you actually notice any difference with your regular use of the vehicle? I'm beginning to wonder if I should keep the service or cancel it even though mine is working fine. I don't really watch video in the car since I'm not sitting around charging much and I don't even take a lot of calls in the car without my phone anyway. I'm not sure it's actually worth the $20/month to me anymore.

The only reason I had it was I was going on a number of long trips and my wife wanted to use her I pad in the car, so was using it for a better hot spot than the phone. I think the speed was better than the phone but not really sure.

[btlalum]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

To all those who have cancelled their service, or whose eSIM has not been working for a few weeks:

Do you actually notice any difference with your regular use of the vehicle? I'm beginning to wonder if I should keep the service or cancel it even though mine is working fine. I don't really watch video in the car since I'm not sitting around charging much and I don't even take a lot of calls in the car without my phone anyway. I'm not sure it's actually worth the $20/month to me anymore.

I thought it might be nice for long trips, as has been noted by others, but haven't yet made any. I certainly don't miss it at all driving regionally, so am thinking it may just stay cancelled. That said, I DO expect BMW to do a better job with their "updates"....eSIM no long works and I've never been able to get scheduled charging to work correctly since 07/2024.40 was installed. I expect that components will be functionals *should* I decide to use them.

[AiredaleDad]

Originally Posted by Kennethjk

The only reason I had it was I was going on a number of long trips and my wife wanted to use her I pad in the car, so was using it for a better hot spot than the phone. I think the speed was better than the phone but not really sure.

I do believe the car has a HotSpot you can use with your phone so other users can piggy back off your data connection. I think it also boosts the signal to your phone if it's on the charging tray or connected to the USB-C behind the cup holder on the driver's side.

[Kennethjk]

Thanks, aware of that, but really never have anyone else in the car for a long trip other than my wife and myself. My 3 kids are all married and have their own kids so our trips are very very quiet!

[AiredaleDad]

Yeah mine too. Most of our trips involve Airplanes since one lives in the SF bay area and the other in Austin TX. But they will come around again (Road Trips) once we return to the States.