SOLVED: iPhone 13 calls going straight to voicemail

iPhone 13 Pro Max -- iOS 15.1.1 and 15.2, AT&T

In most cases, online troubleshooting guides for this issue will probably work. But none of them did in this case.

TYPICAL SETTINGS/ACTIONS NO HELP

I tried all the typical settings:

• Do Not Disturb was off (and Focus/Driving was off)

• Silence Unknown Callers was off

• no Blocked Callers

• turning iPhone off and on didn't help (tried several times)

• Airplane mode on and off didn't help

• Volume and mute weren't issues because incoming calls didn't even ring once before going to voicemail (also, all incoming calls showed up in Recent call list after going to voicemail)

OTHER RECOMMENDED SETTINGS/ACTIONS NO HELP

Then I tried less-obvious recommended settings posted online:

• Announce Callers (off and on -- neither helped)

• no was Carrier Update available (Settings, General, About, tap if update offered)

• cellular voice settings Roaming off or on didn't help (and LTE v 5G, v Auto 5G -- didn't help)

• Reset Network Settings -- didn't help

• updating iOS didn't help ( iOS 15.1.1 to 15.2 didn't help)

SOLUTION

• Recorded a new Voicemail Greeting!!!

Just recording a new voicemail greeting fixed it.

• Some guy in the UK posted on a Vodaphone message board in January 2021 that recording a new greeting for his Vodaphone account fixed it, but he had to dial a bunch of odd sequences of numbers and symbols to do that for his account there.

• I thought I'd try it with the iPhone's normal Greeting feature: Phone app, Voicemail (where you see voicemail messages), upper-left corner "Greeting" then record a new greeting then click Save. This worked! Pretty nutty!