Please sign in to post.

Airalo e-sim not working in Italy

I had no trouble using my Airalo eSIM in Greece, but once I arrived in Italy, it no longer can activate cellular data. Anybody else have this problem and have the solution? I have tried everything that the Airalo bot has suggested. I’m on an iPhone 11.

Posted by
9709 posts

You have probably already tried this, but just in case……

Turn phone completely off and turn it on again.

Posted by
128 posts

No idea what the Airalo bot gave you as instructions.
What I know is that the iPhone 11 doesn’t support two esims turned on at the same time. And When you have the multi-country European eSIMs you have to switch phone off/on when crossing a border to have it reset itself for the new country.

  1. Restart Your iPhone: Turn your iPhone completely off and then back on. This simple step can often resolve connection issues by refreshing your phone's connection to networks.
  2. Toggle Airplane Mode: Turn Airplane Mode on for about 30 seconds, and then turn it off. This forces your device to disconnect from and reconnect to cellular networks.
  3. Select the Correct eSIM for Data: Go to Settings > Cellular. Tap on your eSIM profile. Make sure the option to Turn on this line is toggled on. Ensure that the Airalo eSIM is selected as the primary line for Cellular Data.

Network Settings & Roaming
Enable Data Roaming: In your Cellular settings, make sure Data Roaming is enabled for your Airalo eSIM.

Posted by
4 posts

Make sure data roaming is turned on for your Airalo eSIM in your Cellular settings. If it’s off, the network might not connect even though the eSIM profile is active. If everything worked out or you found another way, I recommend using this resource. I hope it will be useful.

Posted by
1715 posts

Also try switching from automatic to manual in provider settings and then try other providers. In Italy I found some providers work much better than others in certain towns. Although in a larger city I would expect any provider to work.

Good luck,
=Tod

Posted by
1535 posts

Did you buy the eSIM specifically for Greece or did you buy a regional/global eSIM? If your eSIM was for Greece only, it will not work for Italy.

Posted by
2 posts

Hello! Thank you all for your help. It is so frustrating when travelling solo and you get stuck with a problem. So nice to know that online there are helpful people ready to help.
On Airalo the network is set to automatic. I would think that met that the app would search for whatever network was best for where you were but that is not the case. What eventually worked for me was selecting “Network” and then tapping on “Automatic“ (had to wait a bit while the wheel spun around) and eventually a number of networks to choose from showed up. Vodafone was selected and I changed it to I TIM which worked.
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.💕

Posted by
29622 posts

For some single-country eSIMs, the Airalo instructions say to turn off the "Select network automatically" option and pick a specific network. And there's another setting that comes into play occasionally. The instructions definitely can vary from one country to the next. It's essential to read and follow them.