Voicemail Not Working on iPhone? Try These 10 Fixes
How can you fix the visual voicemail problem on your iPhone? Voicemails and voicemail transcripts do not appear in your voicemails.
This is a commonly reported problem. Your voicemails may also disappear suddenly. Your voicemails may appear on your phone but not play.
You may experience voicemail not working after updating your iOS device. Read on to learn how to fix the issue.
You may try the following tips to troubleshoot voicemail problems on your iPhone.
If your carrier supports visual voicemail, you can use it. In the USA, most, if not all, carriers offer this feature.
Would it be possible for someone to leave a voicemail message if they called you? Please make sure you have your voicemail setup (Phone > Voicemail).
A second problem is that your voicemail inbox may be full and sometimes appear full. Some voicemails may need to be deleted.
What’s Wrong With My iPhone? Should I Call My Carrier?
For now, we don’t know why your iPhone isn’t playing voicemails. Your iPhone’s visual voicemail lets you listen to voicemails inside the Phone app, which uses little audio files similar to those inside the Music app to download your voicemail from your carrier.
People assume that when voicemail stops working on their iPhone, their wireless carrier is at fault, so they call Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, or another carrier’s customer service hotline. However, often, the root cause of the problem is a software issue on the iPhone itself.
Setting up voicemail on your iPhone
North American phone companies support visual voicemail in most cases. You are covered if you use any major carrier, Apple provides a complete list of carriers and what they support.
Follow these steps to set up voicemail on your iPhone:
Your iPhone’s Phone app is found at the bottom of the home screen.
There is an icon for Voicemail in the right corner of the phone window at the bottom. You can access your voicemail by selecting it.
In the center of the voicemail screen there should be a button to Set up now. Click on this button.
You can now sign in to your old voicemails if you have previously used iPhone’s voicemail service and have previously signed in.
Visual voicemail requires that you create a password if you have never used it before. Select Done when you are finished.
Greetings will now appear on your iPhone. To skip this step, select Default and then Done if you are not concerned about the greeting. Record your greeting, then play it back if you want it personalized.
If you are satisfied with it, select Done.
Now that your iPhone voicemail is set up, you can begin using it. Alternatively, you can also visit this site for more information on how to move voicemails around Apple services.
Voicemails can be shared via AirDrop, emailed, saved as audio memos, and more. By tapping the share button, you can save the voicemail message.
Set up a visual voicemail transcript
You can now view your visual voicemail and a text transcript of the message since iOS 10 was released, which is compatible with iPhone models dating back to the iPhone 6S.
Transcripts of Voicemail are created by running audio files through Apple’s servers and using machine learning to convert the audio to text. The results are either listenable or readable.
Both can be viewed if you have Siri enabled via Settings > Siri & Search > and Language English (U.S.) or English (Canada). Once it is set up, you can tap on an existing or previous message, and a text transcription will be started.
Common iPhone Voicemail Not Working Problems
Prior to addressing the solutions, let’s take a look at some of the most frequent iPhone voicemail issues.
Thus, a solution to your specific problem can be more easily determined. Below are some examples:
- The voicemail messages on your iPhone do not appear or download.
- After iOS 15 update, voicemail can’t be set up.
- Voicemails are not notified or alerted to you.
- Voicemail messages cannot be left by callers.
- Voicemail is not accessible or is unavailable at the moment.
- There is a duplicate or multiple copy of your voicemail message.
- Voicemail messages cannot be heard or listened to.
- Deleted voicemail messages can’t be recovered.
Way 1: Close and Re-run the Phone App
If you are experiencing visual voicemail issues on your iPhone or even if you are experiencing iPhone 5 voicemail issues, the first thing you should do is close and reopen the phone app.
Often, the simplest solutions lead to faster and easier resolutions. At first, close and reopen your voicemail application to see if the problem persists. If you are still facing the problem then proceed to the next way.
Way 2: Reboot your iPhone
You might be able to solve this issue by restarting your iPhone if visual voicemail is currently unavailable.
Follow these steps to reboot your iPhone:
If you have an iPhone 6 or older, you need to press and hold both the “Home” button and “Volume Down” button (the Power button if you have an iPhone 6) until you see the Apple logo.
You can restart your iPhone 7/7Plus by pressing and holding the Power (On/Off) button and Volume Down button together.
During this process, you will need to press the volume up and down buttons on your iPhone 8/8 Plus/X/XS/XS Max/XR. The device will restart when you long press the side button.
Way 3: See If You Have Set up Voicemail Properly
Your handset configuration can sometimes be changed by an update. In order to fix iPhone visual voicemail not working, you need to verify if voicemail was set up correctly. Follow these steps.
- Choose Voicemail from your phone app.
- Tap the “Set Up Now” button.
- Tap “Done” to confirm your new voicemail password.
- If you want a custom greeting, you can record it yourself or choose the default greeting
- Save it by tapping “Done”.
Way 4: Put Your Phone on Airplane Mode And Turn Off
It has been reported that some iPhone users were able to fix the voicemail not showing up issue simply by turning their Airplane mode on and off.
Simply go to the “Settings” menu and select “Airplane mode”. After 30 seconds, turn off the Airplane mode.
Way 5: Reset The Password of Voicemail
Log In To Your Wireless Carrier Account And Change Your Voicemail Password:
As a security precaution, some carriers require you to reset your voicemail password when you upgrade to a new iPhone.
You can sometimes restore your iPhone’s connection to the voicemail server by updating it manually or by calling customer support.
But I Thought iPhone Voicemail Didn’t Have A Password?
iPhones do have voicemail passwords, but you only need to set them up once, and many new iPhones do so automatically.
To download your voicemails, your iPhone and your carrier will need to authenticate each other. You still have your voicemail password, even if you don’t see it.
How To Change Your Voicemail Password If Verizon Is Your Carrier?
You can change your phone’s voicemail password by calling (800)-922-0204. To change your voicemail password, you’ll reach an automated customer service menu.
How To Change Your Voicemail Password If AT&T Is Your Carrier?
From your iPhone, call (800)-331-0500 to change your voicemail password. Upon entering your phone number and billing zip code, you will reach AT&T’s automated customer service menu.
Your iPhone will display the message “Password Incorrect – Enter Voicemail Password” a few seconds later. Your voicemail password can be changed by entering the last seven digits of your cellphone number.
How To Change Your Voicemail Password If T-Mobile Is You Carrier?
You can reach us by calling 1-805-637-7249 or by dialing 123. Select Password Security by pressing 5. To change your voicemail password, press 1.
Way 6: Update the Carrier Settings
Cellular service updates are sometimes pushed by your carrier. You can fix this issue by updating the carrier settings.
Choose “General” under “Settings” and then “About”.
A pop-up will appear if an update needs to be installed.
Way 7: Toggle Cellular Service
You can also resolve the problem of visual voicemail not working by switching the cellular service on and off. See below for instructions.
- Select “Cellular” from the “Settings” menu.
- To turn off cellular data, tap on “Cellular Data”.
- Once you’ve waited a few seconds, tap again on the switch to turn cellular data on.
- Lastly, you can restart your iPhone and check if visual voicemail works
Way 8. Recover Voicemails Not Showing Up on iPhone
A data recovery tool like FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery can help you get your voicemails back if they have been accidentally deleted.
Regardless of whether you have a backup of your voicemail messages, this program can help you recover them.
In addition to recovering voicemail, it also helps you retrieve deleted contacts, text messages, photos, videos, notes, WhatsApp, Viber, voice memos, Safari history, and more data from iPhone/iPad/Pod.
Install the iPhone Recovery software on your computer and then follow these simple steps to recover the lost voicemail messages:
Connect the iPhone to your computer using a USB cable and run the iPhone Voicemail Recovery software. For more information, choose “Recover Data from iOS Devices” from the main screen.
The program should detect the drive and show all the types of data you are able to recover. You can also select other data you want to recover, such as Voicemail, and then click “Scan”.
You will begin to see deleted voicemail messages once the program has begun scanning. Connect the device during the scanning process. During the scanning process, if you see the information you are looking for, click “Pause.”.
By the time the scan is complete, all recoverable data should be listed by category. On the left side, select the files you wish to recover by selecting the data type and then previewing.
To recover voicemail messages, click “Recover to PC.”.
Way 9. Turn Siri Off and On
The “Transcription not available” message can be resolved by disabling and enabling “Listen for Siri”.
You can fix “Transcription not available” by following the steps below:
1. Launch the “Settings” app.
2. Tap on “Siri & Search” in the bottom left corner.
3. Make sure “Hey Siri” is not enabled.
4. Restart your iOS device to complete the process.
5. Restart your iPhone and enable “Listen for “Hey Siri”” under “Siri & Search” settings.
Way 10. Set Date and Time Automatically
Set your time and date automatically if you can. You might experience a lot of issues if you have the time or date wrong.
You can set the time and date automatically by following these steps:
1. Click on “Settings”.
2. Go to the “General” settings.
3. Click on the “Date & Time” option.
4. Select “Set Automatically” by tapping the slider.
Bonus Downgrade iOS 11 to iOS 10.3.3
Last but not least, you can downgrade iOS 11 to iOS 10 if none of the methods above solve the problem.
Furthermore, if you didn’t make a backup of your iPhone, you will lose all your data if you downgrade. You need to backup and transfer all the data stored on your iPhone 6 or 7 to the PC or laptop to keep it safe.
We highly recommend EaseUS MobiMover Free, which is a free program for transferring iPhone data.
The MobiMover Free program allows you to easily transfer data from your iPhone to your computer, including contacts, messages, notes, calendars, voicemails, books, Safari bookmarks and history, photos, videos, and audios.
Moreover, after you have downgraded to iOS 10, MobiMover Free can be used to retrieve the exported files from your iPhone. You can download MobiMover Free now.
Bonus: Recover Voicemails Not Showing Up on iPhone
A data recovery tool like FoneGeek iPhone Data Recovery can help you get your voicemails back if they have been accidentally deleted.
Whether you have a backup or not, you can still retrieve voicemail messages with this program.
In addition to voicemail, it is also capable of retrieving contacts, text messages, photos, videos, notes, WhatsApp, Viber, voice memos, Safari history, and more from iPhone/iPad/Pod.
You can restore the missing voicemail messages from your iPhone by downloading and installing the iPhone Recovery software. Follow these steps to do so:
Connect the iPhone to your computer using a USB cable and run the iPhone Voicemail Recovery software. Select “Recover Data from iOS Devices” to continue.
The program will detect the device and display all types of data it can recover. Please click “Scan” after selecting “Voicemail” as well as other data to be recovered.
You will begin to see deleted voicemail messages once the program has begun scanning. The device should remain connected throughout the scanning process. When the scanning process is complete, you will be able to click “Pause” if you find the data you were looking for.
You should see all the recoverable data listed by category once the scan is complete. By clicking on the type of data, you will be able to preview, then you will be able to select the files you want to recover. To recover your voicemail messages, click “Recover to PC”.
Why do lots of users face this problem that Voicemail is unavailable on My iPhone?
In recent times, so many iOS users have run into such problems, regardless of if you have an old version like iPhone 5 or a newer version like iPhone 11.
The following are some possible reasons why many people have reported Apple problems.
1. Firstly, the iPhone’s settings are to blame.
2. Your carrier may restrict the number of voicemail boxes you can have.
3. Most likely, you have a full voicemail box.
4. New iOS update causes software glitches on your iPhone.
Contact Apple Support
The last resort is Apple Support. They can be contacted online or by making an appointment at an Apple Store.The solutions listed above may help you fix your iPhone voicemail not working.
There can be many reasons why voicemail stops working properly.
You might have been able to resolve your issue by using one of these solutions. Got a question? Let us know in the comments.
Conclusion:
There might be various issues with your voicemail not working. But, you need to try these solutions to troubleshoot the problems.
Most of the time, chances are that the carrier is facing the outage. In that case, you can try to change your voicemail password, update yoir IOS, reset your network settings, or restart the phone.
