Voicemails got deleted after updating to iOS 17.4 on iPhone

IOS 17.4 and IOS 17.4.1 Update. Today, on 3/22/24 an empathetic Apple Rep. assisted in resolving my deceased mother’s lost voicemails which immediately were gone when I updated to IOS 17.4. Today an Apple Rep. guided me to update to the newly released IOS 17.4.1 and every single precious saved voicemail of my deceased mother repopulated into my saved voicemails. I am so happy and thankful Apple released this 17.4.1. Now I am saving each vmail into a file. Thank you to the community for sharing your suggestions. I am in tons of gratitude for 17.4.1 release.

Yes! I got my voicemails back too, after installing iOS update 17.4.1. Phew!

I am taking the advice given in this thread and saving my sentimental voicemails as files. You can do this by clicking the share icon when you have a voicemail selected. You can scroll down and Save to Files, click Airdrop, text them to yourself, or use another option. If you want to preserve the person's name and the date, you'll have to rename the file as you save it (at least I did Airdropping them to my mac). Otherwise, you'll lose that information. Now that they're on my phone again, I'll leave them there too, but it's nice knowing they're backed up somewhere else now.

It's worth noting that my carrier is Verizon, and while the voice messages were not accessible on my phone after updating to 17.4, I could still access them by dialing into my voicemail over the phone.

I am on the phone with support now and he had me call my number like the old days- All my voicemails are there they just aren't showing up on my voicemail screen, which is a relief.. we are still working on the problem but at the very least I can play the through calling my number to get to my mailbox and record them. I was initially devastated.

I just did the 17.4.1 update and after about 5 minutes, all of the missing voicemails appeared - going back to 2012. So to anyone who lost them - try calling your phone and putting in your password (like WorkAnywhere above suggested) and you can hear those old ones. That didn't restore them for me, but I was able to play them on speaker & record to my PC. Then I did the update, and they're all back, so whew. Still ticked at Apple for stressing all of us out, but glad there seems to be a fix.

Just got off the phone with an Apple tech and he explained everything to me. Your carrier only keeps the vm’s on their servers for a specific length of time. After that even if they are showing on your phone, they aren’t on the carriers server anymore but on your phone. He stated that if your vm’s were restored it was because they were still on your carriers server and that’s why only 6 of mine were there. He also said it was a glitch on Apples side and the 17.4 iOS update wiped them off your phone and they cannot be retrieved. He said if you have any older vm’s on your phone saved them to your files or a backup device so you don’t lose them. I am in the same boat as all of you that lost your precious vm’s and I am as heartbroken as you are.

17.4.1 brought back the missing voicemails on my wife's 2020 iPhone SE. Such a relief! Thanks to Josh (and Brian) at Apple who worked on getting this resolved so quickly!

Now that I know how important those VMs are from my wife's deceased mother, I'll be sure to back them up from now on. You never know how important something is to people until you think you've lost it. :-)

OMG, thank you all my vm’s are back. I did the iOS update 17.4.1 and they are all there. Saving them as we speak!

I did the iOS 17.4 update a few weeks back and noticed immediately that my voice messages where gone. I turned off live voice mail on the phone and turned my phone on and off, which didn't fix the issue. I just got off the phone with AT&T and they had me reset my network settings and restart my phone. It'll delete some things related to wi-fi, bluetooth, etc. I had to reconnect to my wi-fi and turn wi-fi calling back on. But - it did resolve the voice mail issue and all my voice mails repopulated.

iOS 17.4.1 was released today (3/21). It sounds like the VMs are probably still there, just the option to access them was broken.

I just had the same issue after updating to OS 17.51 - all old voice mails disappeared.

Contacted Apple tech support, and here's what they recommended:

"Let's try to reset network settings on your device so please Tap Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

Resetting network settings resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, as well as cellular and VPN settings that the customer has used before."

This restored my old VM's that were previously missing. Hard reset my phone 2x, that did not help (prior to contacting Apple support).

Verizon is our carrier and they do not allow you to see/view/hear voice messages. My phone was also backed up via iCloud, bit VM's not stored there.

Good luck.

I had the same issue after updating to OS 17.51 - all old voice mails disappeared.

Contacted Apple tech support, and here's what they recommended:

"Let's try to reset network settings on your device so please Tap Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

Resetting network settings resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, as well as cellular and VPN settings that the customer has used before."

This restored my old VM's that were previously missing. Hard reset my phone 2x, that did not help (prior to contacting Apple).

Verizon is our carrier and they do not allow you to see/view/hear voice messages. My phone was also backed up via iCloud, bit VM's not stored there.

Good luck.

I had the same issue after updating to OS 17.51 - all old voice mails disappeared.

Contacted Apple tech support, and here's what they recommended:

"Let's try to reset network settings on your device so please Tap Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

Resetting network settings resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, as well as cellular and VPN settings that the customer has used before."

This restored my old VM's that were previously missing. Hard reset my phone 2x, that did not help (prior to contacting Apple).

Verizon is our carrier and they do not allow you to see/view/hear voice messages. My phone was also backed up via iCloud, but VM's not stored there.

Good luck.

There has been one suggestion that works for some users; call your phone from another phone, and leave a voicemail message. Some people say this restores all of the voicemails.

Also, log in to your carrier’s voicemail server and see if the messages are still there. Follow Verizon’s guidance on how to do that, or call your own number from your iPhone and follow the instructions.

AZ3018 wrote:

Me too. Just wholesale deleted all of them.

There’s a lot of discussion on this subject, so you can learn something by reading the rest of the thread you posted to and also this thread→All Voicemails Missing after iOS 17.4 upd… - Apple Community and also this thread→“No Voicemail” after iOS 17 Update - Apple Community

But the most useful thing you can do is contact Apple support. Apple’s formal support can be reached several ways:

• You can provide feedback to Apple at→ Product Feedback - Apple where your issue or suggestion will be recorded, but you will not get a reply

For personalized support:

• Click on “Support” at the top or bottom of this page
• Go to Contact Official Apple Support

Note that both of the above have options to receive a callback or chat

• Install the Apple Support app on your iPhone or iPad - you can contact support directly from the app, and the tech will have (with your permission) access to diagnostic data on your phone
• Call Apple Support; the phone numbers are in this link→Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support
• Make a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple Store→Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple
• Find an Apple store or Apple partner service provider→Find Locations

About the only communications method not used by Apple support is inbound email, probably because the volume would be overwhelming, and separating the wheat from the chaff (or, to us engineers, a poor signal to noise ratio) would be almost impossible.