topic Re: Reusing an old SIM card in Get Support

Reusing an old SIM card

orangeworx — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 21:12:50 GMT

Hey all,

I was trying to reuse a sim card I had in my Nexus 4 phone before I switched to my OP2 and this is what I get when I push the modification.

"Sorry, the SIM card number is invalid or already in use." I take it that means I can't revert to an older SIM and would have to order another one if I need to switch back to the N4.

Reason I was trying to do this in the first place is because I may need to send in the OP2 for repairs and my fall back phone would be the N4 for the time being.

Thanks

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

neilselden — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:28:56 GMT

Hi,

If all you are doing is putting your existing PM SIM card into another phone, it ought to work just like that.

Or, are you trying to re-activate your existing SIM card? You would not need to do that.

Cheers,

Neil

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

orangeworx — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:35:35 GMT

@neilselden it is the latter in fact. I'm trying to reactivate the SIM I had in the Nexus 4. I guess there's a limitation on swapping SIM cards, unless they're new/not activated, right?

Edit: I've always kept my old SIMs in the event, I scrap a phone and need to revert to an older one or need to check on the unlocked status of a phone

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

neilselden — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:41:59 GMT

Hi @orangeworx,

Let me make sure I understand:

You have a PM SIM card in your Nexus 4. The SIM card is tied to an active PM account.

Now you are taking that SIM card into a new phone and trying to re-activate it? Or is that existing SIM card from PM, but no longer tied to an active account?

Cheers,

Neil

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

orangeworx — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:53:29 GMT

@neilselden

Ok, I'm sorry for the confusion, I have 2 SIM cards of different size.

- Old non active PM SIM in Nexus

- Active PM SIM in Oneplus 2

I'm most likely to send out my OP2 for repair and I wanted to reuse old non active SIM so I've tried swapping the SIM # in my profile and I got the error message posted earlier

Hope this clarifies things

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

neilselden — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 14:59:25 GMT

Hi,

Oh I see! You're trying to re-use an incative SIM... yeah, that won't work. 🙂

What are the respective SIM sizes in each phone?

Perhaps you could just pop the OP2 SIM into the Nexus? I suppose you'll have to resize the SIM (a cell repair shop can do that for a few bucks) or use a SIM size adapter to fit it into the phone with the larger SIM...

Cheers,

Neil

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

orangeworx — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:11:54 GMT

Any reasons as to why this doesn't work?

The op2 has a nano sim, the nexus has a micro so an adapter would indeed work, except I don't like them as even the best ones tend to jam or get stuck.

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

neilselden — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:26:53 GMT

Hi,

I don't know the technical reasons why it would nto work, but I am certain that you cannot reuse a SIm card whose account has expired.

I use the SIM adapter that ships with a normal PM SIM, in my MotoG - it takes a micro SIM and I do not have any issues.

Hope this helps,

Neil

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

orangeworx — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:35:18 GMT

thanks for replying @neilselden

The old sim is not from an old/inactive account.. It was the sim I had before switching phones... I do not see why switching sims would render the old one useless...

thanks anyway... time to take out the adapters.

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

WearySky — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:09:41 GMT

@orangeworx Each line can only have a single sim associated with it at once. When you activated your new sim for your OnePlus phone, that deactivated the old sim from your N4. So yes, it's not from an old/inactive account, but it's still an inactive SIM. If activating the new sim on your line didn't deactive the old sim, you could theoretically be using both sims at the same time on the same line (which, obviously, can't be done).

Re: Reusing an old SIM card

Luddite — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 17:09:51 GMT

@orangeworx If the old SIM has been inactive for more than 90 days it is toast. If your current SIM replaced it in your account it is still toast.