Does the iPhone APN SIM Swap Trick Still Work with iOS 7.1?

A reader Tom asks

The att.mvno profile works for me for data but when I delete that and do the sim swap and enter the fields it is not working. I made sure to make sure they were right before backing out of Cellular Data twice. I am wondering if it is changing right as I hit Cellular to back out of if I just need to try a different proxy. The settings look the same as what worked for me doing the sim swap before I had IOS 7 so I feel like I am doing something wrong.

Hi Tom,
I don’t know.

All of my Straight Talk Wireless accounts use the tfdata APN and my internet, data, and MMS picture messages, and group texts just work without installing an APN profile or the sim swap. I have had a number of readers with Straight Talk accounts that use the att.mvno APN comment that they had problems with the SIM swap too but I can’t say that it does not work at all.

It sounds like you are experienced with the SIM swap and are doing it correctly. Here is what I’d recommend.

1. Double check your APN Settings at the Straight Talk web site.
Straight Talk has a habiit of updating APN settings on customers. Many customers had their APN changed from att.mvno to tfdata. You can check at
http://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/support/apn
Use Android 4.0 & 4.1 as your phone type.

I doubt this is the case for you, since your data works with att.mvno, but it only takes a minute to check.

2. Change your APN from att.mvno to tfdata
Most new Straight Talk Wireless accounts use the tdfata APN rather than att.mvno. If your APN is updated to tdata your data and mms might just work without installing APN profiles or SIM swapping.

There are two ways you can update your APN. The first is to call or online chat with Straight Talk and ask them to change it for you. Just tell them your phone is working, ask them what APN settings to use, and they may just update them for you. Tell them the tfdata APN profile did not work for you. You should be able to force your APN yo change to tfdata by transferring your service to a new SIM. You can do it from the Straight Talk web site, its fast and easy. When you update your SIM, the APN should change to tfdata. If you are using the iPhone 5, you might see better LTE performance with a new SIM.

I think this is the best option and its what I would do. My only reservation would be, like everything else with Straight Talk, you can also run into a problem whenever there is a change.

3. Keep trying the SIM Swap

  1. Try the SIM swap a few more times and see if you can get data working.
  2. remove your APN profile
  3. SIM swap
  4. set only the Cellular Data APN to att.mvno
  5. save. Restart your phone and test data.

If data doesn’t work, I’d say the SIM swap isn’t going to work for you. Id data works, then it’s possible the SIM swap may work.

If you decide to sim swap, try adding the MMS UA Prof URL and the Max Message Size and see if that fixes the problem. If not, well then you might want to to try some alternatives for your MMS Proxy and MMSC values. Before iOS 7.1 was released, this seemed to work for many people. See the comments on I Can’t Receive MMS Picture Messages Using Straight Talk or Net10 on My iPhone Using iOS 7.0.4

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