[Sentz72]

Question, I have tried 20 times to activate my e-sim through the myBMW app and it gets to the point where it redirects me to Verizon. I login to my Verizon account and it locks up every time. I am unable to finish configuring. My, question, does your phone already need to be setup with an e-sim for all of this to work? Currently the phone I wish to use, iPhone 12 Pro is using a traditional sim card. I stopped by Verizon today and as expected nobody knew anything. They suggested converting my phone over to e-sim from the traditional sim card to see if that might help. I hate to do that only to find out it won't really help. My understanding is you "have" to complete this process through the myBMW app for things to sync up and work. I really would like this for our kids to use for wifi on our car trips this summer. Thank you!

[rjabend]

Originally Posted by Sentz72

Question, I have tried 20 times to activate my e-sim through the myBMW app and it gets to the point where it redirects me to Verizon. I login to my Verizon account and it locks up every time. I am unable to finish configuring. My, question, does your phone already need to be setup with an e-sim for all of this to work? Currently the phone I wish to use, iPhone 12 Pro is using a traditional sim card. I stopped by Verizon today and as expected nobody knew anything. They suggested converting my phone over to e-sim from the traditional sim card to see if that might help. I hate to do that only to find out it won't really help. My understanding is you "have" to complete this process through the myBMW app for things to sync up and work. I really would like this for our kids to use for wifi on our car trips this summer. Thank you!

I have no trouble with T-Mobile setting it up. I am not sure what the Verizon problem is. I would call your Verizon customer support. The vehicle set-up is in the BMW Navigation, Entertainment, & Communication Manual, which you may already know. I didn't complete the set up since I didn't want to pay the extra monthly charge. I believe E-SIM stands for electronic SIM and I don't believe you have to do anything to your phone.

[chicagox7]

There are some past threads on this. Esim is available for T-Mobile customers. I think they may have recently added att. I’ve not seen an announcement that they added Verizon, yet. You can search ‘esim’ in the forum and it will bring up a lot of info. Here’s one to consider:

.https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1916240

Bottom line, Verizon won’t work until bmw makes a change.

[Sentz72]

Thanks, Verizon has officially been added. It’s an option in the myBMW app under ESIM and plenty of folks have successfully got it working. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[chicagox7]

Originally Posted by Sentz72

Thanks, Verizon has officially been added. It’s an option in the myBMW app under ESIM and plenty of folks have successfully got it working. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Good to know. I had missed that. Thx!

[Sentz72]

Quick update, after some additional research I came across a few folks stating their current/aged plans at Verizon seemed to be the issue. Well… I too had an older plan called Beyond Umlimited or Unlimited Beyond, can’t remember exactly. Anyway I was able to update my plan to Ulminited Plus which happens to offer some better options and at less money (Sweet) AND as soon as I tried using the myBMW app to activate my ESIM through Verizon, BOOM it worked. I was able to do all of this at home through Verizon’s website without talking to a single person… of course after I spent plenty of time trying to talk to everyone. I still need to sync to my car and fingers crossed that part all works, however, I got past the Verizon hurdle so on to the next to the next hurdle.

[rjabend]

Here is a Verizon info site:

https://www.verizon.com/support/esim...-instructions/

[loudsnorelax]

Originally Posted by Sentz72

Quick update, after some additional research I came across a few folks stating their current/aged plans at Verizon seemed to be the issue. Well… I too had an older plan called Beyond Umlimited or Unlimited Beyond, can’t remember exactly. Anyway I was able to update my plan to Ulminited Plus which happens to offer some better options and at less money (Sweet) AND as soon as I tried using the myBMW app to activate my ESIM through Verizon, BOOM it worked. I was able to do all of this at home through Verizon’s website without talking to a single person… of course after I spent plenty of time trying to talk to everyone. I still need to sync to my car and fingers crossed that part all works, however, I got past the Verizon hurdle so on to the next to the next hurdle.

Were you able to sync to the car yet? I set mine up using the app yesterday, all seems fine. App tells me to go to the car and activate the sim. When I do that - nothing really happens at all.

If I look on Verizon's site - there isn't an additional device for the car. I'm not sure where to go from here.

[Delrazdan]

I went almost to activating on Verizon but I didn’t want to add 20$/month plan. Does one have to buy an additional plan for the bmw?

[rjabend]

Originally Posted by Delrazdan

I went almost to activating on Verizon but I didn’t want to add 20$/month plan. Does one have to buy an additional plan for the bmw?

YES

[Sentz72]

Originally Posted by loudsnorelax

Were you able to sync to the car yet? I set mine up using the app yesterday, all seems fine. App tells me to go to the car and activate the sim. When I do that - nothing really happens at all.

If I look on Verizon's site - there isn't an additional device for the car. I'm not sure where to go from here.

So once you have it all setup with Verizon you need to go to your car and remove your phone from the mobile devices. This won't remove your profile or anything so nothing is lost. Then you need to sync your phone to the car again using your bluetooth. When you do this it will prompt you to activate your ESIM and should take you through the process. Took me a bit to figure it out but it's been working great since I did this. Good luck.

[loudsnorelax]

Originally Posted by Sentz72

So once you have it all setup with Verizon you need to go to your car and remove your phone from the mobile devices. This won't remove your profile or anything so nothing is lost. Then you need to sync your phone to the car again using your bluetooth. When you do this it will prompt you to activate your ESIM and should take you through the process. Took me a bit to figure it out but it's been working great since I did this. Good luck.

Mine appears stuck on "Setting up eSIM....". I've opened a ticket with the BMW app team. They said to give them a few days. I'll probably go by the dealer as well, and see if they have anything to contribute.

[chris3g]

Originally Posted by loudsnorelax

Mine appears stuck on "Setting up eSIM....". I've opened a ticket with the BMW app team. They said to give them a few days. I'll probably go by the dealer as well, and see if they have anything to contribute.

did you get it working?

[loudsnorelax]

I did not. Neither the dealer or my bmw app support fixed this.

Called Verizon yesterday and cancelled the line.

[chris3g]

Originally Posted by loudsnorelax

I did not. Neither the dealer or my bmw app support fixed this.

Called Verizon yesterday and cancelled the line.

really frustrating, of course verizon doesn't have a clue either. they say they can't see the device added on the account.

[chris3g]

amazingly, mine actually got fixed after 4 days. tickets were oped with both bmw assist and verizon, not sure which of them did something or neither, but a new device appeared in my verizon account and then the car went to connected status.

[rjabend]

What is the monthly ESIM cost? Thanks.

[bradythedog12]

It depends on your wireless plan options for adding a device. We have AT&T and pay a whopping [sic] $10/mo extra for the car wireless.

[Sentz72]

Hey guys a couple things to keep in mind when setting up your ESIM that could be causing issues. Once you get your provider to activate the ESIM in your MyBMW app I have found it really helpful to then delete your phone from the car. When you go to sync it via bluetooth again it seems to recognize the ESIM setup process and complete it just fine. If you don't do this I find it seems to just hang on "setting up ESIM". Second thing I found out is that the ESIM is specifically associated with your profile. So... as in my case this is my wife's car and she drives it most of the time. Therefore I setup the ESIM under her account/profie figuring that would make the most sense. Well... we happen to drive about 300 miles to a vacation home during the summer and I typically am always the one to drive and of course use my profile when I drive. Well I found out this weekend the ESIM will "not" work when the car is logged into my profile. So as I was all excited for my son to be able to use the car wifi for his iPad it was a no go. Totally sucked. From what I can find there is no work around to this other than having ESIM setup on both profiles. My ESIM is through Verizon and they charge $20/month for ESIM which seems steep to start with and now I would need two accounts to make it simple between our two profiles in the car. This really seems like an oversight on BMW's part, why in the world would the ESIM need to be associated with a specific profile rather than simply activated in the car for any profile. $40/month for wifi in my car is a no go. I just need to figure out if it's worth keeping it on one or our profiles or if I should ditch it all together and go back to letting my son hook to my hotspot on my phone for free. Really bummed, this seems so awesome but at $40/month I have better things to spend my money on. Hope some of this info helps.

[bradythedog12]

Some clarity on this would really be helpful!!! Because, while I believe you, that sounds crazy!! But it would explain why I don’t think the esim/wifi seems to working when my wife is driving, as I’m sure I set it up on my profile.

Anyone have a definitive thought on this? I know there are folks on this forum way smarter than me. :-)

[Sentz72]

I can assure you the ESIM is attached to each profile via the myBMW app. That's why you are required to activate through the app and cannot simply do it in the car. Additionally, I currently have both of my phones activated for ESIM through Verizon and can confirm wifi is available through both of our profiles. That being said, I had to activate them individually through the app on both of our phones. Happy for someone else to chime in but I'd be surprised if I am not correct here.

[cm81]

Originally Posted by Sentz72

I can assure you the ESIM is attached to each profile via the myBMW app. That's why you are required to activate through the app and cannot simply do it in the car. Additionally, I currently have both of my phones activated for ESIM through Verizon and can confirm wifi is available through both of our profiles. That being said, I had to activate them individually through the app on both of our phones. Happy for someone else to chime in but I'd be surprised if I am not correct here.

Only way that I’ve been able to consistently keep eSIM active on my ‘24 40i is by turning off Apple CarPlay. Otherwise stays stuck on the “installing” screen and exclamation mark doesn’t go away. I guess the reason was explained in previous posts. I don’t particularly care for CarPlay and would rather have the 5G hotspot for all the iPads in the back…