Did you recently get an EE SIM card and your EE SIM won’t activate? Didn’t your SIM activate in the allotted time? Well, don’t worry, we’ll do our best to guide you through the steps to activate your SIM.
We know it can be pretty frustrating when you don’t have a SIM card. You can’t make calls, connect to the internet, and in some cases, not even access your phone. In other words, without your SIM card you are technically disconnected from the world. We want to help you get your service back in order as soon as you can.
EE has been offering its service since the turn of the decade in the UK. Their 2G and 4G networks combined, cover over 99% of the UK. This makes them an ideal choice of service provider among first-time SIM choosers.
How long does it take for an EE SIM to activate?
If you have just received your EE SIM, you might want to wait a bit for it to come into service. According to EE’s official website, your EE sim will activate in under 24 hours.
Assuming 24 hours have not yet passed, it’s best to wait it out. Sometimes weak connections, server problems, processing overloads, and other minor factors can cause a delay in your EE SIM’s activation.
Why Is My New EE SIM Not Working?
There is a chance your SIM is active without you knowing. When EE activates your SIM card, they also send you an email confirmation. If you are waiting for that confirmation to put your SIM in your phone, don’t bother. The load on EE servers due to their large error coverage could delay the email you’re waiting for.
Chances are you may not get a confirmation email for quite some time after the SIM has activated, and it can take up to a couple of days. It’s best to check whether the SIM is activated by placing it in the SIM card tray of your device. If you see an EE logo or service bar, this means your SIM is already activated, negating the wait for a confirmation email.
What Do I Do If my EE SIM Won’t Activate?
There are a few simple steps you can take at your end therefore reducing the chance of your EE SIM not activating:
Restart Your Device
Sometimes the simplest solution is the one that works the best. Simply restarting your device can get rid of any bug or cache that might be interfering with your new EE SIM’s network.
Mount The SIM Card Correctly On The SIM Tray
We are all guilty of putting the SIM card the wrong way on the tray at least once in our life. Since SIMs have been getting smaller, it’s relatively easy to make this sort of mistake. Additionally, if you wrongly place your SIM card, either as upside-down or in the wrong corner, it may as well be outside your phone. In other words, an improperly placed SIM will not show up on your phone.
It’s best to eject your SIM tray and after that, re-fit it correctly. Some devices have different placement standards than others, and EE’s official websites make it easier for you to place a SIM card for your specific device correctly.
Clean SIM Tray to Activate
- Dust is the worst enemy for electronics after liquids.
- These tiny particles can gather anywhere, even the hardest to locate places.
- Dust particles can cause disconnections between electric components.
This happens because they physically produce a dust barrier and some data might be lost in the blocked areas where there is a larger accumulation of dust.
This can also happen to your SIM tray. As it is a mechanical part of your device, dust can quickly build up in it. If you are adding a new EE SIM to your device, clean the SIM tray with a soft microfiber cloth. Microfiber prevents any scratches, which can further complicate issues by permanently damaging your device’s tray.
Reset Network Settings
You should reset your device’s network settings if all the previous steps have failed. Additionally, resetting your network setting will not delete any apps or essential data. It will only delete things like saved connections, Wi-Fi passwords, and service connections.
Above all, this will give your devices an excellent fresh reset to network-related problems without rebooting or factory resetting the whole device. There’s no harm in giving this unorthodox solution a try.
Final Thoughts
We know it can be challenging when you can’t connect to the outside world or have difficulties like being unable to authorize websites using your phone’s authentication and OTP facility. Don’t hesitate to contact EE customer support if the above solutions didn’t work for you. We hope our guide helped you to activate your EE SIM.
We have easy fixes for other EE related issues like A Quick Fix for EE Error 38 and EE Mobile Data Not Working on Your Phone here.