How to Install an eSIM Without Scanning a QR Code

The QR code is not the eSIM. It holds two short strings — the address of a provisioning server and an activation code — and typing them in by hand runs exactly the same installation as pointing a camera at the square. Nothing is lost by skipping the scan.

That makes manual entry the fix for a whole family of problems: a code emailed to the only phone you own, a printed code that will not focus, a scanner that refuses a screenshot, a cracked lens. If you can read the characters, you can install the plan.

Decoded, a typical eSIM QR code is one line beginning with LPA:1$, followed by two or three fields:

• The SM-DP+ address — the server that holds a profile prepared for your phone. It looks like a domain name.
• The activation code — a long alphanumeric string identifying which profile to hand over.
• Occasionally a confirmation code, a short separate PIN the provider supplies alongside.

The format is not a provider’s invention — it comes from the GSMA’s SGP.22 provisioning specification, which is why the same two fields work on any phone. One detail there is worth carrying with you: the LPA: prefix belongs to the QR form only, and a code you type starts at the format digit. Providers who support manual entry publish the parts directly, usually next to the QR image in the order email or the app.

On both platforms the option sits on the screen that adds a plan, alongside the scanner rather than behind it, so the camera never has to come into it.

iPhone

1. 1Settings → Cellular → Add Cellular Plan.
2. 2Tap Enter Details Manually at the bottom of the screen. Apple lists this as a route in its own right, not something buried behind the camera, so you do not need to open the scanner first.
3. 3Paste the SM-DP+ address and activation code into their fields, plus the confirmation code if you were given one.
4. 4Label the line something you will recognise at an airport gate — "Japan", not "SIM 2".

Android

1. 1Settings → Network & internet → SIMs → Add SIM → Set up an eSIM, which is the current Pixel wording. Other makes call the same screen SIM manager.
2. 2Choose Need help? or Enter it manually, depending on the manufacturer’s wording.
3. 3Enter the activation code — many Android builds want the whole activation string in one field rather than split fields.
4. 4Confirm, and wait for the download to finish before switching networks.

Some issue only an image. Two things usually get you past it:

1. 1Ask support directly for the SM-DP+ address and activation code. They exist for every profile; whether the interface exposes them is a product decision, not a technical limit.
2. 2Failing that, display the code on a second screen — a laptop, a tablet, a printout — and scan it from there. It is the same code, just not on the phone doing the installing.

If the details are accepted and the profile still will not work, the installation was never the issue. In rough order of likelihood:

• Data roaming is off for the travel line. A travel eSIM always needs it on — see roaming on for one line, off for the other.
• The phone is carrier-locked, in which case the profile installs and then never registers. Check the lock status.
• The code was already used, or has expired — many are valid for a limited window after purchase.

Providers differ in whether they publish manual details at all, which is worth knowing before you are standing in an airport with a code that will not scan. Install it before you fly and there is time to ask. Plans by destination, ranked on price per GB.