Voicemails got deleted after updating to iOS 17.4 on iPhone

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.

Keep in mind that the master source for voicemails is your carrier’s email server. Most save up to 40 voicemails. Once that number is reached, either it will tell callers that the email server is full, or it will delete the oldest ones, depending on carrier. Voicemails were never intended to be kept forever; they are transient, and need to be saved to something more permanent if you want to keep them.

I had vm back to 2013 of my deceased Mom and my Grandson when he was little. I’ve transferred all of my info 4x since then to new iPhones and updated iPhones and never lost anything. Called Verizon and my vm and I had probably 15 vm’s saved and when I called my vm only 6 were there and only 5 showing on the screen. Went up levels and basically tech told me they are gone on their server and Apple’s newest iOS probably has something in the update to wipe out all vm’s. So why would only 6 still be there if you’re telling me the update wiped them out? Silence on the other side and then a I don’t know. I find this hard to believe and got no where with them. I tried all the fixes that everyone suggested and still only the 6 newest vms’s. Who’s ever fault this is I am amazed that the public was not informed that this could happen. I would have never updated my phone. I also never knew that I could send the vm to my files or email to save them. I saved the ones I have now but I will never get the ones back of my Mom and Grandson. Very upset.

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 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.

mtngrl17 wrote:

Me too. I’m in tears. Also angry, we pay plenty of money for device, carrier (Verizon in my case), it should be our decision to delete something from OUR PHONES!!

Contact Verizon. It's remotely possible that, if this happened within the last 30 days, the voicemails may still exist on their servers. Mind you, it's going to take a lot of time and effort on your part to get to someone who can give you an answer. You're going to need to be very persistent and keep escalating the call. Be polite. At least when I worked for them, Verizon employees were allowed to end calls with people they deemed to be abusive. And that gets recorded in your account. I'm not suggesting you are a bad or rude person, just that if emotions are running high, even the best of us can behave in ways that others may find distressing.

I'm not saying you'll get what you want, but if this is important to you, it may be worth trying.

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.

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

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.

Here's what I know... when I went to bed, I had 30+ voicemails, including 8 unread messages. When I woke up, there were only 4 messages left dating back to 2021, only ONE from this year, including messages I had previously deleted. There were NO "deleted" messages. My phone did not show that it had updated but I don't know if may have done it while I was sleeping. There was no message showing an update had happened.

Verizon said it only showed four messages on its server. When I called my own voicemail, there were four messages — although they were slightly different than the ones on my phone.

I tried restarting the phone, toggling airplane mode, and also updating to 17.5.1. But alas, everything is still gone. It's really strange to me that Verizon has no record or backup of messages that were there less than 24 hours ago, and also has no record of activity such as deleted voicemails.

What an absolute nightmare!

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.

That is EXACTLY what happened to me!!

It is a shame that the responsible update is doing this and APPLE refuses to fix the problem when we all know the problem is the update. I wish I had seen this before I allowed update . My deceased Mom's voice messages were deleted!!!! I am extremely upset about this!!

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.