iOS 17 screwed up my voicemail

Hello, I have a huge problem and I need help fixing it. I've never used voicemail because I'm Deaf. I had my carrier disable the voicemail service about 15 years ago and it's still ongoing. I have a iPhone 13 Pro and I never set up voicemail on it because I'm Deaf. Then iOS 17 happened. Turns out there's a very bad thing called "Live Voicemail" that was turned on by default! Why they did that, I don't know! That should have been turned off and let customers decide if they want to use it or not! I didn't and don't! I spent the whole day yesterday troubleshooting with my carrier trying to figure out why I got a red circle with the number 1 in it on the voicemail tab of my phone icon on my iPhone. I updated my iPhone to iOS 17 six days ago and got only one phone call since then. I'm Deaf. I can't answer the phone because I can't hear. But I was shocked and confused as to why/how I got a voicemail message. I couldn't figure out why I had a voicemail message. I spent the entire day yesterday with my carrier trying to figure out what had happened and my carrier verified that my voicemail service was disabled on their side and when they went into their voicemail system, they told me they couldn't find anything in my voicemail box. It's empty. I went online to find out what happened and discovered that Apple released "Live Voicemail". It's Apple's new voicemail service! How do I turn it off?! I already turned off "Live Voicemail" in Settings>Phone>Live Voicemail---OFF! But when I found out that I had to create a password in order to go into the voicemail tab to find out what the voicemail message was all about, I was told that I had to create a greeting. What?! I don't want a greeting! I want zero voicemail! No matter who the carrier/service provider is. I don't want voicemail of any kind, ever. So I'm sitting here, freaking out, because I'm Deaf and I'm struggling trying to figure out how to deal with this voicemail stuff. Help!!! Please!!! How do I get rid of the greeting/recording? How do I permanently turn off the Apple voicemail service? I don't want any voicemail greeting on my iPhone. I want it so that whenever someone calls, my phone rings until the caller hangs up. I don't know why Apple got involved in this. They screwed it up, big time! Please help!!!!!!!

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 4:05 PM

Top-ranking reply

saynotobadtech Author

Level 1

19 points

Posted on Oct 17, 2023 2:58 PM

Update 10/17/2023: I've been in contact with Apple Support and my conversations with them confirm my suspicisons: there is a bug (either accidental or intentional) in iOS 17 that affects only users who previously had their voicemail service turned off. My voicemail service was previously turned off per my request by my carrier about 14 years ago. As a result, I had no voicemail service on my phone. When iOS 17 came on with "LiveVoicemail", iOS 17 turned on my voicemail service by default. When iOS 17 turned on my voicemail in my iPhone, it also turned on the voicemail recording/greeting/message. Since I didn't have any previous "custom" greeting, iOS 17 chose the default greeting by default. This did not affect customers who had current voicemail service on their phones. It only affected those who didn't. Why? In order to "shock and awe" the world with the AI-assisted "LiveVoicemail" feature, Apple forced that feature onto everyone, including those who had their voicemail service turned off. In order to make this PR campaign for LiveVoicemail to work, Apple told those phones to turn on their voicemail services even if the voicemail service was off before the update! Ironically, while I was trying to clean up Apple's mess, I got a sampling of their "LiveVoicemail". It was from a medical office. Oh my god. It was terrible! Errors, omissions, misspellings, etc. That's equivalent to medical malpractice. Anyway, the only way you can fix this is to: disable LiveVoicemail and contact your carrier to "reset" your entire voicemail service to ensure that everything stays off. This was a bleep for me to fix and I shouldn't have had to do it in the first place! I'm not a fan of AI. Just watch YouTube videos or even regular television programming with closed-captioning and you'll see why. Folks don't understand that closed-captioning has been around since the late 1970's and it's still not 100% today!!! And folks think that AI can do a better job? LiveVoicemail is a joke. I'm not using that function, ever. This topic is closed as far as I am concerned because it's "split milk". It's done. I'm just glad I was able to fix it and disable the LiveVoicemail feature for good.

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43 replies

Oct 2, 2023 12:06 PM in response to saynotobadtech

I am having same issue. Carrier and Apple pointing fingers at each other.

Oct 2, 2023 1:31 PM in response to JoeBuddha1976

Update on this. I called Apple and there is no fix. So now the phone just rings endlessly until it says the user is busy and disconnects the call.

Oct 18, 2023 4:07 AM in response to TheLittles

I have the same issue with an iPhone 13pro and IOS17.02 (latest version). Already submitted two complaints, no answer so far. Hope they resolve the issue soon, as it is a great nuisance !!!1

Oct 24, 2023 11:43 AM in response to TheLittles

My voicemail isn’t working after the last update

Oct 24, 2023 11:44 AM in response to Xyzabcxyzabc

I keep getting notifications that I have voicemails but I am not able to retrieve the messages

Dec 4, 2023 4:47 PM in response to Jaredhead31

It’s the carrier finally figured it out the changed the voicemail format and this is the result of what they did. Was on the phone with Verizon for hours today had to get someone to fix the problem.

TheLittles

Level 10

202,901 points

Oct 18, 2023 6:56 AM in response to richardfromcangas de morrazo

richardfromcangas de morrazo Said:

“I have the same issue with an iPhone 13pro and IOS17.02 (latest version). Already submitted two complaints, no answer so far. Hope they resolve the issue soon, as it is a great nuisance !!!1”

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Waiting this Out

Apple is working on it, for certain. Having provided feedback twice, they’ll know more about this. Call it silly, but I have not yet upgraded to iOS17. I always wait a couple of days period to installing a system update, whatever the device, just to be certain there are no known bugs. Note that iOS cannot be downgraded —a pure reason as to why I waited. So, next time an update is available, consider giving it a few days.

Oct 22, 2023 12:15 PM in response to saynotobadtech

Update 10/22/2023:

Check your phone bills! I got charged for Live Voicemail! I couldn't figure out why I had a higher bill this month so I went into my bill details and I was shocked to discover a charge for INCOMING call through Live Voicemail. And the joke was that when I called my carrier to find out what was going on, they had me do a *86 for them so they could hear into the audio message to see who the sender was (I'm Deaf!!! What part of that doesn't Apple understand?), I got charged again. So, Live Voicemail cost me $0.50. Granted, it's nothing, but Apple needs to realize that Deaf people use discounted Deaf plans through their carriers. My discounted Deaf plan with my carrier gives me 2 GB of data plus unlimited text plus $0.25 per minute. I'm Deaf so I can't use the "call/voice/minutes" part of a normal regular smartphone bill, so carriers offer Deaf customers discounted Deaf plans which takes out the "call/voice/minutes" part of the bill, but the trade-off is you have to pay something if you use the call part. My trade-off is $0.25 per minute. Thank God I turned off Live Voicemail right after that first call! Thank God!!! But, y'all need to check your phone bills and make sure that you're not being dinged for INCOMING calls because Apple turned on your voicemails on by default!!! Someone at Apple had a brain-dead moment when it comes to Deaf users. This is really bad!!! Check your phone bills!!!

Oct 27, 2023 8:17 AM in response to saynotobadtech

thank you for this - I did this along with a few other recommendations and while a system still answers my phone and prompts the user to enter a number for voicemail, it doesn't appear that anyone can leave a message anymore. I also submitted my feedback to apple so hopefully they work out this bug!

Oct 27, 2023 11:58 AM in response to scannon98

scannon98 wrote:

thank you for this - I did this along with a few other recommendations and while a system still answers my phone and prompts the user to enter a number for voicemail, it doesn't appear that anyone can leave a message anymore. I also submitted my feedback to apple so hopefully they work out this bug!

That is a problem on your carrier's end. You need to contact them to get it straightened out. Apple can't fix that.

Oct 27, 2023 12:25 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

I understand that. I was merely commenting on the fact that iOS 17 did turn on my voicemail - I have never had voicemail activated on my cell phone in 20+ years. Since I installed iOS 17 Despite the fact that my carrier shows it is not activated for my account It suddenly was there. I have troubleshoot it more than once with my carrier.. This problem did originate with Apple.

Nov 27, 2023 7:49 AM in response to first21

Same here! I hate to have numbers on my phone for anything. Now I have 3 all because Apple took it upon itself to allow this. I have never set up voicemail on any of my phones so customers don’t leave messages on my personal cell phone. It seems to me Apple is trying not to give the people that pay for their products an option on what they want and don’t want. Apple might need a reality check soon. Left complaints already.

Djhfbv

Level 1

8 points

Nov 30, 2023 2:16 AM in response to saynotobadtech

I also had my carrier turn off my voicemail, and when I updated my iPhone to 17, it automatically started receiving voicemails

Apple needs to fix their mistake

they took it upon themselves to decide if I wanted voicemail or not

I would like to leave them a few voicemails but I’m sure there’s are turned off

roll1234

Level 1

20 points

Dec 5, 2023 6:40 PM in response to saynotobadtech

You write " This did not affect customers who had current voicemail service on their phones. It only affected those who didn't." but that's not true. I had my voicemail set up with my carrier and yet the update screwed up all voicemail settings, displays number of voicemails received but none are there.

Apple sure f---ed this one up!

Dec 6, 2023 7:01 AM in response to Disgruntaledappleuser

Disgruntaledappleuser wrote:

every day I find out more it’s both of them Verizon changed the format on voicemail it will only ring 5 or 6 times .

That was the case when I worked for Verizon and I have worked for them in almost ten years.

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iOS 17 screwed up my voicemail