Bali eSIM Setup on Samsung Galaxy Phones
Installing a Bali eSIM on a Galaxy phone: locating SIM manager inside One UI, the model-and-region check worth doing first, and the settings to flip on arrival.
Updated August 24, 2026
Three things to know before you start
It connects only at your destination
Install at home, but expect “No Service” or “Activating…” until you land — that is normal. The plan wakes up when the line first finds a network at your destination.
Your QR code works exactly once
Seeing “invalid QR” after a scan almost always means the eSIM is already on your phone. Don’t rescan — open your SIM list and just switch the line on.
No internet after landing? Check Data Roaming
Turn the travel line on, set it as your mobile data line, and switch Data Roaming ON for it. This one toggle causes most “it doesn’t work” messages.
Installation steps
-
Step 1
Check that your Galaxy actually takes an eSIM
Support is not a straight line down the model list — some regional variants of otherwise-supporting Galaxy models ship without eSIM. Dial *#06#: if an EID appears beside the IMEI, the hardware is there.
-
Step 2
Buy your plan in the Bali eSIM app
Pick the plan that matches your stay — it covers all of Indonesia, so a Lombok week or a Jakarta stopover needs no second purchase. Your QR code and manual SM-DP+ details stay saved under your order, so you can reinstall later if you ever reset the phone.
-
Step 3
Get on Wi-Fi before you head to the airport
Installing needs a connection, and the one place it should not happen is the arrivals hall after a red-eye. Five minutes at a desk at home replaces the queue, the form and the airport Wi-Fi hunt.
-
Step 4
Open Settings, Connections, SIM manager
Settings Connections SIM manager
On One UI, mobile settings live under Connections rather than a top-level Network entry, with SIM manager inside it. Older versions call that screen SIM card manager or Dual SIM settings. If your build differs, type SIM into the Settings search box and let it find the screen.
-
Step 5
Choose Add eSIM and scan the code
SIM manager Add eSIM
Tap Add eSIM, then the QR code option — if the phone offers to search for operator plans first, skip past it. With only one device to hand, pick manual entry and copy the SM-DP+ address and activation code from the app.
-
Step 6
Name the line and leave it switched off
SIM manager eSIM 1
Label it Bali or Travel in SIM manager, then switch the line off until you land. Validity begins the first time the eSIM registers on a network in Indonesia, so an early install does not eat into your plan.
-
Step 7
On landing, enable the line and set it for mobile data
Back in SIM manager, switch the Bali eSIM line on. Under preferred SIM or Mobile data, choose it as the line that carries data, and leave calls and messages pointed at your usual SIM.
-
Step 8
Turn Data roaming on for that line, and only that line
Mobile networks Data roaming
Open Connections, Mobile networks, and enable Data roaming for the Bali eSIM. This is how Android permits a line to use a visited network; it adds nothing to a prepaid local plan. Keep it off on your home SIM. If nothing registers, pick a network manually — Telkomsel, Indosat or XL Axiata — until one accepts.
If you are taking a Galaxy to Bali for a few weeks of remote work, the question is not whether it will find a signal in Canggu — it will, and so will every other laptop-toting phone in the café. The real costs are quieter: the roaming rate your home operator applies to weeks of maps, calls and tethering, and the first hour of the trip spent at an arrivals counter with your passport out, registering a local SIM you will throw away at the end.
A prepaid data eSIM answers both. Buy a plan in the Bali eSIM app, install a second line before you fly, and step off the plane at Denpasar already online with your usual number still ringing. When the café Wi-Fi sags under the afternoon crowd, the same plan carries the video call over your hotspot. And because it is an Indonesia-wide plan rather than anything Bali-specific, it rides along to Lombok, the Gilis and Jakarta without a new SIM at each harbour. Pricing lists the current plans, and what is an eSIM covers the basics.
Galaxy phones get their own guide for one reason: Samsung is the manufacturer where checking before you buy actually matters. One UI reshuffles menus between versions, and whether eSIM is on board depends on the exact model, region and carrier variant — identical box, different hardware. So the steps below open with that check instead of assuming it. Set up something else instead? iPhone, Pixel and other Android phones each get their own walkthrough.
One expectation worth setting: no SIM, local or travel, changes where the towers are. Signal is dense across south Bali and Ubud, thinner on remote coasts and mid-strait on a boat. Buy the eSIM for the price you can see in advance and the hour you get back at the airport — not for coverage a local SIM would not also have. The rest of the common questions are on the FAQ.
Troubleshooting
My Galaxy has no Add eSIM option anywhere.
Dial *#06# first. No EID means the handset has no eSIM chip, and no update will add one — a physical SIM is the alternative. If an EID is listed but the menu is missing, the phone is almost certainly carrier-locked or running operator firmware with the feature stripped out. Your home operator can usually unlock it.
Which Galaxy models support eSIM?
Broadly, recent flagship S and Z series and much of the newer A range — but we will not publish a model list we cannot verify for every market. Samsung ships different variants of the same model name in different regions, and eSIM is one of the things that varies. The *#06# check beats any list, including ours.
I have no signal after landing in Bali.
Confirm the line is switched on in SIM manager, selected for mobile data, and has Data roaming enabled. Then flip Airplane mode on and off. If it is still blank, open Mobile networks, Network operators, turn off Select automatically and try Telkomsel, Indosat — some phones show it as IOH or IM3 — and XL Axiata in turn.
Will Data roaming cost me anything?
No. Your Bali eSIM plan is prepaid for use on Indonesian networks, so no home operator is metering it; the toggle only tells the phone this line may register somewhere it does not belong to. Keep the same toggle off for your regular SIM, which is the line that would generate a bill.
Does the eSIM keep working if I leave Bali for Lombok or Java?
Yes — it is an Indonesia plan, so Lombok, the Gili Islands, Nusa Penida, Java and the rest of the country are covered on the same eSIM with nothing to change. What it does not cover is other countries: a Singapore or Kuala Lumpur stopover needs its own plan from the app.
The QR code says invalid, already used, or the install fails on a second try.
An activation code is single-use, so this error almost always means the first scan already worked and the eSIM is on the phone. Do not keep rescanning. Open the phone's SIM list (the cellular or SIM manager screen) or My eSIMs in the Bali eSIM app: if the line is listed, the install is done — turn the line on, give it mobile data and enable Data Roaming instead of installing again.
Do I have to scan the QR code at all?
No. In the Bali eSIM app, open My eSIMs, tap your plan and tap Install — the profile installs on the same phone with no camera involved. The QR route exists for installing from a second screen; both end in the identical profile, and the steps after the install are the same either way.