6 Ways to Fix Voicemail Not Working on iPhone

Quick Tips

• Enable Wi-Fi calling on your iPhone and ensure that call forwarding is disabled.
• Install carrier and software updates to see if that resolves the voicemail issue.
• If voicemail still doesn’t work after configuring everything, you may need to contact your carrier’s customer support.

Try Basic Fixes

• Check if voicemail is enabled: The first thing to do is ensure that voicemail is enabled on your iPhone, especially if you’ve switched carriers or cell plans recently. To determine if the voicemail service is active, head to Settings > Phone. If you see the Change Voicemail Password option at the bottom, it means your voicemail is active.
• Check your voicemail manually: Issues with your carrier’s server can sometimes cause visual voicemail to stop working. To avoid any confusion, try calling your voicemail directly by holding 1 on the dial pad.
• Empty your voicemail box: In some cases, the voicemail service may become unavailable on your iPhone if your mailbox is already full. You can try deleting a few of your voicemails to see if that helps.
• Install iOS updates: It is possible that the voicemail not working issue is due to a bug within iOS. So, installing pending software updates should help.

Fix 1: Enable Wi-Fi Calling

Poor network reception in your area could prevent your iPhone from downloading your voicemails. To get around this, enable Wi-Fi calling on your iPhone by following the steps below.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on Mobile Data.

Step 2: Select Wi-Fi Calling and enable the toggle for Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone.

Fix 2: Check the Voicemail Greeting

Another thing to do is check the set voicemail greeting on your iPhone. If you haven’t set your custom greeting properly, callers may fail to recognize it and won’t leave a message.

Step 1: Open the Phone app on your iPhone, switch to the Voicemail tab, and tap Greeting at the top left corner.

Step 2: Tap the Play button to preview your custom voicemail greeting. If you are not satisfied with it, tap the Record button to set a new voicemail greeting and hit Save.

Fix 3: Disable Call Forwarding

Have you enabled call forwarding on your iPhone? If so, you won’t get any voicemails, as your iPhone will divert all your incoming calls to the specified phone number.

To disable call forwarding on iPhone:

Step 1: Open the Settings app > scroll down to tap on Phone.

Step 2: Tap on Call Forwarding > turn off the toggle in the following menu.

Fix 4: Avoid Using Custom Adblock DNS Profile

Using a custom ad-blocking DNS server on your iPhone can potentially cause issues with services like voicemail and lead to voicemail delay. If you have any AdBlock DNS profiles active on your iPhone, use these steps to delete them and see if that helps.

Step 1: Open the Settings app and head over to General > VPN, DNS & Device Management.

Step 2: Tap on your DNS profile > select Remove Profile.

Fix 5: Install Carrier Updates

Cellular carriers tend to update their settings from time to time. Ideally, these updates are installed automatically in the background. But if for some reason, the update didn’t go through, install it manually using these steps:

Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your iPhone > tap on General > About.

Step 2: If there are any pending updates, you’ll see a pop-up. Tap on Update to proceed.

Fix 6: Reset Network Settings

If installing pending updates does not help, consider resetting network settings on your iPhone. This will reinstate all the network configurations to their default values, and the voicemail should work again on your iPhone.

Step 1: Open Settings on your iPhone and navigate to General. Scroll down to tap on Transfer or Reset iPhone.

Step 2: Tap on Reset at the bottom and choose Reset Network Settings from the resulting menu.

Step 3: It’ll ask you for the lock screen password. Once verified, select the Reset Network Settings confirmation option to begin the restoration process.