Voicemails got deleted after updating to iOS 17.4 on iPhone

Thank you kindly for all suggestions from community. I just tried all the suggestions listed to retrieve my deceased mothers voicemails and none worked. I will continue to reach out to Apple & Verizon my carrier.💔

I'm the so-called tech-guru of the family, and I take care of backing up and updating my wife's devices. I upgraded her phone to 17.4, and it only took a day for her to discover - to her shock and sorrow - that her deceased mother's voicemail messages, along with a recently-deceased and much beloved older friend, were gone. Please, Apple, figure out a way to restore these old VMs! I feel personally responsible for my wife's VM loss now. :-(

I lost my husband and my best friends voicemail due to this up. I do have a 11 iPhone which is bend on updates so I have them .how do I transfer these to something to save. Grief is very difficult some days to cope this disaster

My husband suggested this to me and I was able to hear unheard messages (from telemarketers) but not sure how to hear old messages. Of which I have a lot. Fortunately I had previously saved my last voicemail from a deceased friend. Sorry to everyone suffering from this.

I too had my Mom’s voicemails deleted. These were the last times I heard her voice before she passed away- the last time I heard her wish me a happy birthday & Merry Christmas. I am so heartbroken. I can’t believe I may never hear her voice again.

I never do updates immediately, nor do I use "auto-update"! Yesterday I couldn't get my hot-spot to work so I updated the software on both Apple products. All my precious memories are gone too!! I need new phone anyway, F/O APPLE, THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE!!

LatteChic wrote:

I never do updates immediately, nor do I use "auto-update"! Yesterday I couldn't get my hot-spot to work so I updated the software on both Apple products. All my precious memories are gone too!! I need new phone anyway, F/O APPLE, THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE!!

As always, you and only you are responsible for backing up anything you consider precious.

There are multiple people saying they backed up their phones and the voicemails are still gone. Shes correct this is so unforgivable and soo unfortunate. If you have nothing helpful to contribute to the thread then don’t comment at all. People are literally hurting because of this it’s like grieving their loss fresh as it was when it happened so kindly kick rocks

AllysaRae wrote:

There are multiple people saying they backed up their phones and the voicemails are still gone. Shes correct this is so unforgivable and soo unfortunate. If you have nothing helpful to contribute to the thread then don’t comment at all. People are literally hurting because of this it’s like grieving their loss fresh as it was when it happened so kindly kick rocks

The fact that people are upset is unfortunate but not something anyone here in this user-to-user forum can do anything about. They are upset because they lost something that they didn't take sufficient care to preserve. It's a hard lesson but an important one.

Voicemails that are important should be saved outside of the Phone app and archived appropriately.

SteveLilley wrote:

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. :-)

Don't just include them in a backup. Save them to files that can be transferred to an external drive or burned to a disc, that are independent of your iPhone. Lawrence Finch explained how early in this thread.

Hi everyone! This happened to me as well with the 17.4 update. I did she there was a 17.4.1 but have been scared to do it and make things worse or ruin my chances of ever getting my voicemails back. The 17.4.1 is the one that fixed it for everyone?? This thread has been very informative thanks to everyone for you tips and tricks

I just did this, and the voice mail said they were there. However, they're not showing up on the phone. Thinking about trying the 17.4.1 update but scared to - probably will try to record the voicemails somehow on another device (even old school tape recorder) before I do this. Sorry to everyone who lost sentimental voicemails - it just sucks

Now that you’ve got them back, save them to a safer area than the voicemail app. Tap on a voicemail, then tap on the Share icon (square with an up arrow) and either save it to Files or some other secure location (such as emailing it to yourself).

I am LIVID!!! I had voicemails from specific surgeons, my fiancé has a lot of health issues and those voicemails were saved for a reason, along with other extremely important voicemails that I had saved for a very specific reason weather it contained instructions or information I needed to keep. They BETTER fix this I’m livid.