Is the Disable SIM feature for Dual-SIM phones ever coming back?

As noted in this topic 1.5 years ago, the Disable SIM option for a dual-SIM phone seems to have disappeared a couple of versions ago.

Before I (recently) re-flashed my dual-SIM Sony Xperia XA2 to /e/OS 1.1-r, I was running an old Oreo version of /e/, which had the very desirable disable SIM feature present (i.e., I would turn off work-number-related messaging during out of work hours: that’s one of the main points of having a dual-SIM phone, I’d say).

With the recent upgrade, however, I note that the only option to disable a SIM is to remove it, which is hardly user-friendly.

My question is: was this something that happened in Android and/or Lineage and so was brought over into /e/, or is it a “lapsed” or “missed” feature that has not been resurrected or saved?

I would think that this is a notable usability (and frankly sanity-preserving) issue, because since the pandemic, a lot of people have been struggling to keep work out of personal time. It has often enough encroached far too much, so this one bit of control would be a small step to reclaiming life from work.

Any progress on this since the above-cited post? I’d be quite keen to get this feature back.

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Hi JJ, It’s on the Oneplus 9 OK under Settings>Network and Internet>Mobile Network> then tap on the active sim to bring up another window for prefs or turn off.

Hmm, but on my Sony XA2, on that final window (which I had trawled through), the very bottom line (under Access point names) says:

To disable this SIM, remove the SIM card.

This is in contrast to what was possible under the older Oreo-based version of /e/, which allowed a click to disable a SIM (but not both at the same time, so one or other had to be on; that was OK).

Therefore, if this is this something that is available on the OnePlus, where did it go for the XA2?

Hopefully it will make a return with the new S-based eOS that is coming soon to a Sony XA2 near you!:crossed_fingers:

That is the question! The main difference between them is that XA2 pioneer H4133 is a variant lumped in with several others at least one of which is (mine) single sim; H3113.

Found a few bug reports on e/'s issues page with search term “dual sim” of which the latest one https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/1942 looks the most interesting as it was updated a week ago and someone has suggested a patch.

There were two others on the same issue:https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/4734 and https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/2398

I’ll add a comment about the OP9 to the first one.

PS I noticed I was going long way round to the sim page, so it’s Settings>Network and internet > then tap directly on one of the networks available to go directly to the same page.

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For me on ‘sake’ zenfone 8 toggle on/of with 2 Sims works.

I have the same problème
On moto G4 play
e_harpia-userdebug 10 QQ3A.200805.001 eng.root.20220629.201109 dev-keys,dev-release

Hello ! As of /e/OS 1.9, that functionality doesn’t seem to have been brought back, it’s still “To disable this SIM, remove the SIM card” :confused:

That’s a huge step back from previous versions of /e/OS, and seemingly contradicts /e/'s very own article about Dual SIMs → Manage Dual SIMs

I hope that the developpement team will take an updated look at this feature, that people have been asking for :green_heart:

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Any progress on this?

I have noticed some interesting behaviour with the new S/12 ROM. On reboot, it seems like the ROM will selectively ignore one or other SIM on each reboot in a series of reboots.

It’s almost like it cycles through the choices:

  • First SIM, not second
  • Second, not first,
  • Neither, just WiFi (if enabled)
  • Both.

So, it generally takes several cycles of booting to get both SIMs back working. In theory it seems like it would be possible to cycle the reboots until you had the SIM you wanted to be active, active, with the other inactive (or neither, in the WiFi-only case). But it would still be more convenient to do this via the Disable SIM feature that used to exist back on Oreo. (You also need to manually re-select “Ask every time” for Calls and SMS, since this gets shut off during the reboot sequence).

I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this behaviour.

Not quite sure if this is a feature or a bug :wink:

+1 for bringing this functionality back. Taking the second SIM card out on a Fairphone 3 means turning off the phone, taking the back cover off, removing the battery and taking out the SIM…

I’m no expert but why would this option be removed in the first place? The stock OS for FP3 has this, so I don’t see a hardware issue here, for what it’s worth.

@JJR I’m too on S but don’t have the issue you’re describing.

Might be a Sony thing… Anyway, I am now not on /e/ any more – for my phone, that is, I still have an /e/ tablet – unless and until an official build is produced for a Google Pixel 6a (bluejay), such that the bootloader is re-lockable.

It might well be the other way around, as in: It wasn’t deliberately removed from custom ROMs, it might well not be a part of base Android to begin with and effort was invested to add it to the stock ROM, probably in close connection to closed source chip vendor software components.
And then it’s not certain a custom ROM developer would just have to reserve time to do this and add it, things like this can be pretty complicated.

Just speculation on my part, though, based on my limited view on things.