Restore voicemails to the Phone app which was "blanked" on update to iOS 17?

[danev375]

Unlike with previous whole-number updates, after 16 to 17.4, Phone-app Voicemail showed "No Voicemail"

Comparable troubles were found described on the web, but no coherent answers.

The very recent could still be heard by "dial-in", but most were long-gone from carrier-voicemail servers, and so only remaining on the iPhone and Apple's servers.

New voicemails received by the carrier were visually displayed and act as expected on the iPhone, as were "Live" (Apple-intercepted) Voicemails.

Cycled power, toggled many related settings, including the new Live Voicemail, tried to tickle the system with test voicemails, etc.

Would prefer something less severe than erase/restore from backup, and not as irritating as resetting Network Settings. (Presume neither would be a guaranteed fix.)

Thank you.
PS Would like to have them back on the iPhone, but do realize commercial applications exist to extract them from local/iTunes backups.

 

[maccidents]

I updated to iOS 17.4 and now my Phone app shows 'No Voicemail.' I've tried checking settings, resetting network settings, and contacting my carrier for help. If those don't work, I'll look into restoring from iCloud backup or contacting Apple Support.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Not a solution for you, but advice going forward… voicemails are ephemeral. If you want to keep one, use the Share button to export it as a Voice Memo.

 

[jetsam]

Not a solution for you, but advice going forward… voicemails are ephemeral. If you want to keep one, use the Share button to export it as a Voice Memo.

This +100. My important voice mails are saved to my Raid 1 NAS Box, and backed up nightly to Amazon S3. If I lose an important voice mail, the world has ended (in which case I don't need voice mails!)

 

[danev375]

> ...advice going forward… voicemails are ephemeral...use the Share button to export it as a Voice Memo.
Great point and suggestion for preserving important Voicemails. (In this case nothing was critical.)

> ...my Raid 1 NAS Box...
I'd never argue against multiple backups!

> I updated to iOS 17.4 and now my Phone app shows 'No Voicemail.' I've tried... I'll look into...
Suppose it could be a coincidence that this effect seems to have been reported more often with iOS 17 which installed a brand new type of (Live) Voicemail. It did appear either unaware or disingenuous for the Apple CS rep to say Apple has no control over *anything* to do with voicemail, when the type of information in question here is not kept with the carrier, but with the iPhone/iCloud. (Still curious whether an erase/and restore could be a possible remedy.)
My online troubleshooting search results for iPhone Voicemail problems seem, over a long period of time, to often show a finger-pointing exercise between Apple and Carriers. But now that (as I understand it) - when phone is on and networked - "Live Voicemails" are automatically *answered* voice calls which are live-transcribed and saved on the iPhone/Apple-servers. Can't see how any responsibility for that type of Voicemail could be ascribed to the carrier. (In a way to me, it's reminiscent of an "answering machine" sitting next to your landline phone...)

 

[mlx52]

Unlike with previous whole-number updates, after 16 to 17.4, Phone-app Voicemail showed "No Voicemail"

Comparable troubles were found described on the web, but no coherent answers.

The very recent could still be heard by "dial-in", but most were long-gone from carrier-voicemail servers, and so only remaining on the iPhone and Apple's servers.

New voicemails received by the carrier were visually displayed and act as expected on the iPhone, as were "Live" (Apple-intercepted) Voicemails.

Cycled power, toggled many related settings, including the new Live Voicemail, tried to tickle the system with test voicemails, etc.

Would prefer something less severe than erase/restore from backup, and not as irritating as resetting Network Settings. (Presume neither would be a guaranteed fix.)

Thank you.
PS Would like to have them back on the iPhone, but do realize commercial applications exist to extract them from local/iTunes backups.

Did you ever find a solution to this. My Mom's iPhone updated overnight and did exactly the same thing.

 

[danev375]

Did you ever find a solution to this. My Mom's iPhone updated overnight and did exactly the same thing.

I tried many of the less-involved suggestions from the many postings about similar problems (except physical ones like moving the SIM to another phone and back again). None succeeded.

I guess it depends what kind of solution each person is looking for.

I'm not sure about resetting Network Settings, but presume there is a chance that an erase/restore from a pre-update backup would repopulate the Voicemails onto the iPhone. Chose not to, as did not want to take time/effort/risk for what were non-critical Voicemails.

Despite the "Voicemail-Is-All-The-Carrier" which Apple Support and the Apple Discussion Community appear to push, the Voicemails - once on the phone - are absolutely backed up by at least one standard Apple method. I was able to locate (and listen to) all of the (lost to the phone) audio files from inside of the last local backup. (And presume most paid/commercial apps would make it trivial to extract them from a local Mac/PC backup, and even transfer them back onto the iPhone.)

Skimmed online Apple Support docs on iOS backups and they seem to just skip over the mention of both Voicemail and Voice Memos (while listing others) - as if they won't "guarantee" them. A couple of Apple Community Discussions declared "Visual Voicemails that are on your iPhone" are backed up to iCloud as well. And I couldn't find a complaint that Visual Voicemails didn't return after an iPhone was erased and restored from iCloud due to an unrelated problem.

(Things may be even more complex when Phone and Voice Memo apps are toggled-on in "Apps that Use iCloud" - seeing reports now that iOS 17 is "merging" voicemails and voice memos from multiple iPhones which use the same Apple ID.)

 

[mlx52]

17.4.1 restored all the voicemails without needing to do anything, hopefully that's true for others.

 

[danev375]

17.4.1 restored all the voicemails without needing to do anything, hopefully that's true for others.

Thanks for the heads-up! Inspired me to allow the update (I usually wait a few days after the first notice.)
And yes the older voicemails again became visible and available.