This code is no longer valid: what happened to your eSIM QR code

The QR code is a ticket, not a copy of the eSIM

An eSIM QR code does not contain the eSIM. Under the GSMA specification it holds a short activation code: the address of the provider's server, called SM-DP+, and a matching ID that points to one profile waiting on that server. The phone presents that ID, the server checks it, and the profile is downloaded and installed.

The server keeps track of where each profile is: released and waiting, downloaded, installed. The same specification lets it refuse a matching ID, reject a download order that has expired and stop one that has gone past its maximum number of attempts. Once the profile is installed somewhere, the ticket has nothing left to hand out. That is why the same code fails on a second phone, and why a screenshot of the QR is not a backup of the eSIM.

Look for the eSIM in your settings first

The most common story is a first scan that worked, a moment of doubt and a second scan that produced this message. Before anything else, check whether there is a line you did not have before.

On an iPhone it is in Settings, Cellular (Mobile Data in some regions). On a Pixel, Settings, Network and internet, SIMs. On a Samsung Galaxy, Settings, Connections, SIM manager (SIM card manager on some models). If a new line is listed, the eSIM is installed and the error was only about the code. Give the line a name you will recognise, as in our guide to renaming SIM lines, and leave it alone until the trip. If you need to compare it with what the seller sent, the ICCID of each line is explained in EID, ICCID and IMEI.

Scanned elsewhere, or deleted

If the line is not on your phone, think about where the code has been. A QR code opened on a partner's phone to show it to you, or scanned by someone testing whether it worked, installs the profile on that phone. Our note on keeping the QR code private exists because of exactly this.

The other possibility is a profile that was installed and later deleted, for example while tidying up the lines or after resetting the phone. A Snoozim eSIM stays on the phone where it was installed, and once deleted it cannot be installed again with the same code. The details are in what happens if you delete an eSIM. In both cases the seller can see on the server whether the profile was downloaded, and to which EID.

Codes that expire or run out of tries

When the code was never used, the refusal comes from the order itself. The GSMA specification gives download orders a time to live, after which the server reports that the order has expired, and it requires the server to cap the number of download attempts. Each failed attempt counts towards that cap.

An interrupted download is not always fatal. The specification treats a postponed download or a timeout differently from other cancellations: in those two cases the order stays available for another try. But a code that failed several times in a row on bad Wi-Fi may have used up its attempts. That is the reason to stop after one more try on a working connection rather than scanning it ten times.

What to send the seller

• The email address you used for the order.
• Your phone model and system version.
• Whether a new line appears in Settings, yes or no.
• A screenshot of the message.
• Your EID, from Settings, General, About on iPhone or Settings, About phone on Android.

With that, the seller can look up the profile and tell you whether it is already installed on your phone, installed somewhere else or blocked on the server. If the fault is on the service side, Snoozim fixes it or replaces the eSIM.