Why are my husband and I receiving each other’s voicemails?
After the last update 17 on our iPhone 14 we have been receiving each other’s voicemails. Call forwarding is off and live voicemail is off on both phones.
[Edited by Moderator]
iPhone 14
We’ve shared an Apple ID for more than a decade with no problems - this started after doing the latest update
Tom73NM wrote:
Mr Finch: personal question. Numerous times on here I have been told that you all are just users, same as me. But you telling Apple what to put on their web pages sounds like you are more than just a user. Are you Apple staff, paid or volunteer, working with Apple authority? Just curious.
Lawrence may not have seen your question, so I'll answer you. When you spend years on this forum, like Lawrence and many others of us have and you reach level 6 from users awarding you points for being helpful to them (the only way we get points here), you are invited to an inner forum where we have access to the team who run the forum. We can communicate with them directly to ask for help, such as me asking the team to get the document about sharing Apple ID's updated to include phone calls/voicemail messages.
You are welcome to venture out of this particular thread and see if you can help other users, who award points for your help and increase your level to the level which also would give you access to this inner forum. We welcome people who enjoy helping other people.
To confirm however, we are ALL users just like you. We don't work for Apple. We aren't compensated in any way, shape or form by Apple. We just enjoy participating in the forum, helping users with their technical issues.
There is NO resolution to be had on this forum. As has been said it is just users, not Apple staff. You need to report it directly to Apple. If enough report a bug then we may get some action.
DO YOUR PART, REPORT A BUG!
Report this to Apple...
Do your Part: Provide Apple with feedback on this, letting them know about this issue. Apple may not get back to you directly, but the more feedback they receive on this, the more they will know what is occurring, and what bug fixes to include in updates to come. Apple will know nothing of this, if you don't report it to them.
What is sad is you refusing to use your iPhones as they were designed to be used, but you expect that using your phones in ways that violate Apple’s intended usage should somehow work. Apple IDs are personal; they shouldn’t be shared any more than you would share a toothbrush. If you share an Apple ID with someone else many bad things will happen. Each user should have their own Apple ID, then you can create Family Sharing→What is Family Sharing? - Apple Support. That way you can share what you want to share and not share what you don’t want to share.
It is OK to share an Apple ID among devices used by one person, such as an iPhone, an iPad and a Mac; in fact, it is a very useful thing to do. But not between devices used by different people.
Here is Apple’s FAQ: https://appleid.apple.com/faq/#!&page=faq. See the 4th bullet item.
And here is Apple's expansion of what I've posted→Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support
diddy224 wrote:
My husband and I are getting each others voice mails and caller records How do I stop this without getting separate user ids
That will happen with the same Apple ID. That is why Apple recommends each family member have their own Apple ID. This document cannot be ignored.
Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support
There's one and only one solution to this. Stop sharing an Apple ID. Apple specifically says two people should have their own unique Apple ID. Then you can use family sharing to share content, such as photos, storage, etc.
If you don't want to separate your Apple ID's, your call logs and messages will be shared between the two of you as Apple sees the two phones as one phone.
See the following articles:
Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support
isweetie wrote:
I need to stop getting my husbands voicemails on my phone. I have done all of the “fixes” and nothing is changing. I don’t want to get his voicemails anymore. Stop them from coming!!!
You tried all the “fixes” except for the correct one. Stop sharing an ID.
thexsmom wrote:
Full stop Apple is grossly overstepping with this and they need to fix this. It’s a privacy violation on so many levels and why my husband and I have separate phone numbers so stop with the whole stop sharing an Apple ID nonsense because that’s what it is.
You have it backwards. Sharing an Apple ID is a privacy violation. NOT sharing protects your privacy. Sharing means you absolutely no secrets from the person you are sharing with. While ideally this shouldn’t be a problem, in the real world everyone has secrets from their significant other, be it surprise gifts or activities or sites you visit you might not want them to know about. And it becomes a really serious problem if people split up.
JeffCJC wrote:
Apple has discouraged sharing recently, many of us were sharing upon inception of Apple products and it was common and accepted to have one family ID.
I understand the evolution, you don’t appreciate the history or legacy.
this is how it is now, this isn’t how it was.
Not Recently; starting about 10 years ago, when Family Sharing was first introduced in 2014. All Apple guidance since then has said don’t share an Apple ID. Since then they have gradually added features that assumed that people followed this guidance.
Tom73NM wrote:
Lawrence Finch wrote:
“And as long as you use your Apple devices the way Apple’s designers intended them to be used you won’t have any problems. Staring in 2014, 10 years ago, Apple made the design decision that an Apple ID should be used by one person only, and publicized that in all of their support literature. Over those 10 years they have advanced with each version to implement additional features of this design.“ (have not learned how to quote in this forum)
I have to disagree, do not believe that it is a design feature. The programmers messed up and are now trying to pass it off as a design feature. Everything works as it did prior to 17 except for voice mail and recent calls. Voice mail should work the same as text messages and FaceTime. For those you go to (for text) Settings —>Messages —>Send & Receive and then select the phone number you want to receive text messages from. For FaceTime you go to Settings —>FaceTime and select the number you “can be reached by FaceTime at”. We just need the same functionality under Phone. For Phone you can go to Settings —>Phone and then you can enter “My Number”. Also why does Apple allow you to login and use another number for these other features?
Allowing you to select from multiple numbers for FaceTime and messages but not Phone is a programing error and not a feature.
No mater how many times it is repeated that it is a feature will not make it one. It is a programing error.
You can disagree all you want. You can also tell Apple they wrote their own Support Article about this incorrectly, but that won't get you anywhere. This was quite intentional from Apple and they even recently updated this article to include phone calls and voicemail --> Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support
You can tell Apple how wrong they are here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple
theorizer wrote:
It’s a bs way to get people to not share apps. My wife and I use the same apps, and some have subscriptions - she does the accounting on the app I bill with, among other stuff. Syncing comment is nonsense, as it is a new phenomenon.
Well, THAT’s BS. You can have different Apple IDs and still share apps with Family Sharing.
No one here on this user to user only forum can fix anything. You and your husband need to stop sharing the same Apple ID as that is the ONLY way to fix this. Apple has maintained for years that two people should NEVER share the same Apple ID. Either undo that or accept that your call logs and voicemail messages will now be merged.
Read this from Apple --> Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support
You can then use Family Sharing to share apps, storage, photos, etc. --> Family Sharing - Apple
Lnewsome1975 wrote:
Product Feedback - Apple
click on this link. Send the feedback. Obviously nothing should share unless you choose for it to.
That's somewhat incorrect; from Apple's point of view, every device signed into the same AppleID is the same user, so data is not being shared, it is being synced.
diddy224 wrote:
How do I stop this without getting separate user ids
You don't.
See here for information on how to unshare your Apple IDs with the least amount of disruption:
How to “unshare” an Apple ID - Apple Community
You don't. You either accept merged call lists/voicemails or you finally do what Apple has recommended for more than a decade now and separate the two IDs.
Here is a simple and excellent support article written by one of the top members of this forum on how to do that --> How to “unshare” an Apple ID - Apple Community
If this seems daunting to you, schedule an appointment at your closest Apple Store and they can help you at no charge to you.
After iOS 17 update we are receiving each other’s voicemails on our iPhone
