If i change my sim card what happens

You may want to change your SIM card in your iPhone or iPad (cellular models) for various reasons. For example, if you are traveling to a different country, you may have to use a local SIM card at your destination to avoid expensive roaming fees or other international charges without buying a new device. Removing or switching the SIM card is very easy. However, you may wonder what exactly will happen when you do so. For example, you may ask yourself the following questions:

Table of Contents Show

What happens when you swap SIMs
Is your device unlocked?
Post navigation
What to Do Before Changing Sim Card
What Will Happen If I Put My SIM Card on Another Phone?
What to Backup Before Changing Sim Card to New Phone?
Bottom Line
Frequently Asked Questions And Their Answers
Will I lose anything if I switch SIM cards?
What does changing your SIM card do?

Will switching the SIM reset the Phone to iPad to the factory default settings?
Will you lose your data (photos, messages, contacts, notes, music or settings)?
Will your iPhone or iPad still work?
What will happen to WhatsApp messages?
What will happen to iMessage and FaceTime?
What will happen to your Apple ID?

The purpose of this article is to answer these questions.

What happens when you swap SIMs

These will occur if you change your SIM:

You will effectively start using a new phone number, that is if your device is unlocked, see the next section if your device is locked.
You will be able to continue using WhatsApp. Changing the SIM will not affect your WhatsApp account.
Your data (apps, contacts, music, etc) is not stored on your SIM card. In other words, SIM cards do not store user data. The only data on an iPhone / iPad SIM card is the account information. This means that you will not lose data. For example, you will be able to still access your address book or photos.
Your Apple ID won’t be affected.
Your settings won’t be affected.
You will still continue using FaceTime and iMessage but you may have to activate FaceTime and iMessage again. If you are having activation issues, do this:
- Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage and tap Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.
- Then restart your iPhone or iPad.
- Then go back to Settings Messages and FaceTime and turn them on.

If you run into issues, please ensure that you restart your iPhone or iPad after switching the card.

Is your device unlocked?

With an unlocked iPhone or iPad, you’re free to use the carrier of your choice. An unlocked device can be used on multiple networks. However, a locked device is restricted with a carrier-imposed lock code that prevents it from working on another cellular network. Your iPhone or iPad needs to be unlocked before you can start using a new SIM card. Please note these:

If you bought your device from Apple online or in an Apple Store, it is highly likely unlocked.
If you bought your device from a carrier, it is highly likely it is locked.

If you are not sure if your device is unlocked or not, you can easily check this. Simply go to Settings > General > About. Look for Carrier Lock. If it says “No SIM restrictions”, then this means that your iPhone is unlocked.

If your device is locked, you can try calling your carrier and ask them to unlock it. You may be eligible for unlocking as long as you’ve paid off the device.

Also note that you can use a SIM from the same carrier even if your device is locked.

What to Do Before Changing Sim Card

When you replace your SIM card in your phone, you lose access to any data on the old card. Photos, apps, and other documents that aren’t stored on the SIM aren’t affected by a card switch.

However, if you have data on your old SIM card and you haven’t transferred it to your phone or external storage, any phone numbers, addresses, or text messages that are on it will remain there.

To make sure you keep all of your data before swapping SIM cards:

1. Transfer all the contacts

Regardless of whether you have an Android device, iPhone, or a feature phone, the most important thing to do before changing SIM cards is to back up your contacts.

If all of your contacts are saved on your phone’s SIM card, you must move them to the phone’s memory, send them to your email account, or save them to the iCloud.

2. Update your information

If your old phone number is linked to your online accounts, you’ll have to update that information before you swap the SIM cards. This will make sure that you can log into your accounts if you use two-factor authentication and pay online and avoid the risk of losing any important data.

3. Make sure your phone is unlocked

When changing a phone SIM card, it’s important to ensure that your phone is not carrier-locked, especially if you’re changing providers.

A locked phone means that you can’t use any other SIM card than the one provided to you by your network carrier and you’ll have to unlock it to use a new SIM card.

You can check whether your phone is locked in Settings. An unlocked phone will say ‘No SIM restrictions’ next to ‘Carrier Lock’ under ‘About’ in ‘General’ on your iPhone.

What Will Happen If I Put My SIM Card on Another Phone?

If you put a SIM card in another phone, you will retain your number and be able to use it to make calls, send texts, and use cellular data, provided that the phone is unlocked.

What will happen with your contacts?

When you insert your SIM card into another device, you can access your phone contacts from that device but only if they’ve been saved on the SIM card.

Most phones nowadays are automatically set to save any type of data, regardless of whether it’s photos or contacts, to the phone’s memory. However, users have the option to sync their phones to their iCloud and OneDrive accounts and copy contacts from their device’s memory to the SIM card if necessary.

What to Backup Before Changing Sim Card to New Phone?

To avoid losing any important data, you should back up your photos, contacts, and any other information before changing a SIM card from one phone to another. This can be done by exporting your files to your computer, external storage like a memory stick or a hard drive, or cloud storage, like iCloud Google Drive, and OneDrive, among others.

If you want to transfer SIM card data to another SIM card, you’ll have to copy the data to your phone and then move it from your phone to the second SIM card.

Changing SIM card in iPhone without losing data

All iPhone users get access to Apple’s iCloud. If you haven’t used it so far, you might need to activate it to back up your files. Once you insert a new SIM card into your phone, you’ll need to log into your iCloud account with the same ID and copy any data that might have been lost in the process.

Since a SIM card usually stores contacts, you can copy your contacts from your SIM card to your phone or cloud before putting a new SIM card on your phone.

To transfer contacts from a SIM card to your phone:

Open the ‘Settings’ application.
Tap on ‘Contacts.’
Select ‘Import Contacts from SIM’ at the bottom of the menu.

Finally, you can make backups on your Mac via the Finder application or iTunes, but you’ll need to connect your iPhone with your computer via a USB cable.

Change SIM card without losing data on Android

Google, like Apple, allows users to synchronise their cloud storage but doesn’t require activation as long as you’re logged into your Google account on your device.

Google is more generous than Apple, providing users with up to 15GB of free storage, but if that’s not enough, you can always connect your phone to your PC via a USB cable and transfer all files there before inserting a new SIM card.

If you’re not sure whether the contacts in your phone are saved on your SIM card, it’s best to copy all of them to the phone’s memory.

To do so:

Open your ‘Contact’ application.
Select ‘App Options.’
Tap ‘Import/Export SIM card contacts.’

Bottom Line

Before you switch SIM cards, regardless of the type of phone you have, it’s important to copy SIM card information and save it to your phone, as well as back up all other data, files, and media you have on your phone in case something goes awry.

Frequently Asked Questions And Their Answers

What information is on a SIM card?

A SIM card is a small card that stores data like contacts, SMS messages, call logs, personal security keys, and network authorization data.

Does switching SIM cards transfer data?

Switching SIM cards will transfer data between devices if you have data saved on the SIM cards. If you want to avoid losing any data, it’s best to make a copy of it.

What to backup before changing a SIM card?

The most important thing to backup before a SIM card swap is your contacts. A SIM card doesn’t store media files, meaning you won’t lose your photos and videos when you insert a new SIM card into your phone.

Will I lose anything if I switch SIM cards?

Answer. No. SIM cards do not store data.

What does changing your SIM card do?

Changing your SIM card will help to ensure you get more 5G in more places when using a compatible device, such as indoors and in rural locations, and will make sure you're ready to take advantage of future network enhancement.