Carrier No voicemail notifications on iPhone SE

[TomFromAndroid]

I have a new iPhone SE running the latest iOS 12.1.4. My problem is that calls that go to voicemail leave no indication that there's a message waiting...only that there was a missed call. The phone icon shows the red badge with a "1" but when I open the phone app there's no indication on the voicemail icon (far right, bottom) of any voicemail. Also, when I tap the VM icon, it always says "Visual Voicemail unavailable" or something like that. I've missed a half dozen or so VM messages because of this.

The phone is through TracFone (which may be part of the problem) and their tech support didn't seem to have any answer aside from rebooting the phone and re-setting the VM. The actual service is through Verizon (CDMA). Has anyone else experienced problems with iPhones and voicemail notification?

 

[chscag]

It could be a carrier problem but I would think that TracFone thru Verizon would be reliable. Have you tried resetting the phone, not just rebooting? Be sure to backup first before you do.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

It could be a carrier problem but I would think that TracFone thru Verizon would be reliable. Have you tried resetting the phone, not just rebooting? Be sure to backup first before you do.

I tried "Reset Network Settings", but not "Reset All Settings". That didn't make any difference.

What I've noticed though, is that turning on mobile data enables Visual Voicemail and the message waiting indicator. The notifications work properly then. With mobile data turned off, neither of those features work. I understand the part about VVM requiring a mobile data connection...but I don't really care about VVM; all I want is to have the red badge show on the phone and VM icons, showing if there are messages waiting and how many, so that I can then call VM and listen to the messages. Or is that how this phone is supposed to work, IOW you have to leave mobile data on all the time in order to receive VM notifications? (I hope not!)

 

[chscag]

Or is that how this phone is supposed to work, IOW you have to leave mobile data on all the time in order to receive VM notifications? (I hope not!)

Yeah, unfortunately that's true otherwise it doesn't work as it's supposed to. To be honest, I have really never noticed the difference because I have unlimited data with T-Mobile. I always leave mine on.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

Yeah, unfortunately that's true otherwise it doesn't work as it's supposed to. To be honest, I have really never noticed the difference because I have unlimited data with T-Mobile. I always leave mine on.

Thanks. I don't have unlimited data so I'm not planning to leave the mobile data on all the time. I guess I'll just have to get in the habit of turning it on periodically to see if there's anything showing in the Visual VM, or else calling VM whenever there's a missed call. A bit of a pain.

It's not really a dealbreaker, but I would have expected an iPhone to have a message notification system at least as sophisticated as what I had in my previous Android phones.