All Voicemails Missing after iOS 17.4 update

Hi all- this happened to me as well as I spent 2 weeks running between Apple and AT&T trying to fix it. I literally did everything from restoring network settings to turning off live voicemail so many restarts and resets and weird hacks. Nothing worked. Here's what finally worked thanks to someone who worked at T Mobile commenting on one of these threads:

• I took my phone to the Genius Bar at Apple but imagine you can do it at your provider too
• I restored my phone from a back up from BEFORE I updated, I'm not sure ultimately if this was part of the solution but included here in case
• We took out my sim card and put it in another phone that also was running on 17.4 - when we did this we were able to see some deleted voicemails but none of my saved ones
• We put the sim card back in my phone and VOILA - all the voicemails were there again

I literally cried of happiness being able to get the voicemails back from my grandmother who had passed. I really hope these directions help people restore their loved ones voices.

After my very long post a few days ago, two phone calls from an Apple tech support agent directly to me [from someone in the US of A (thank you)] on the subsequent days (which I think was prompted by this thread/post), and another visit (today) to the Apple store (for a 'battery drain' issue), my vm's are back. (!!!)

I will try to make this short:

I visited the Apple store today to investigate my battery draining after 5 hours of being fully charged. They tried to send me away telling me they had no Genius appts AND were trying to get me to go to another store (trying to make me an appt elsewhere, after I had already paid to park!). But I held ground and said, No Way Jose! I am staying put until a "genius" person can help me. Thirty minutes later I was assigned a "genius" associate (see, Squeaky wheel for the win!). They (Apple) once again did diagnostics on my phone with regard to the battery issue, only to resolve (once again) to do a reset/reinstall of the latest OS [which btw now has a new update (as of last night) to 17.4.1]. This was not a "restore to factory settings" only a "reset" (which they had done for me last Friday 3/15/24). After I left the Apple store and started to monitor the next cycle of my battery usage -- just for kicks -- I decided to check out the Voicemail Tab of my Phone App and to my surprise my vm's WERE BACK! Holy sh*t!

So while I am SUPER happy, I am still super bugged that Apple continues to relay that "voicemail is a carrier issue". My rebuttal is no. it. is. not! Because these (now retrieved, formerly in the, idk, black hole?) sentimental voicemails that live inside and populate the Voicemail Tab of my Phone App (on my iPhone) are NOT available when I call my T-Mobile voicemail (which I do by pressing "1" on my iPhone) to retrieve my voicemail messages. The voicemail 'counts' are different. They DO NOT reflect the same information. Which tells me that the voicemails that I can see in the Voicemail Tab on my phone live somewhere in the Apple ecosystem. Yet, when I ask the direct question to an Apple Genius or Sales person the answer always seems to be it "is a carrier issue" or (from the Apple Tech on the phone) the answer is long-winded and convoluted.

So my question STILL IS, where do these Voicemails live?

If they are indeed in the Apple iCloud ecosystem (which they appear to be)(since they magically showed up upon the latest OS update)(and since I can find them no where in the "eco-sphere" of my carrier), please please please INFORM your Apple sales and "genius" folks at the Apple Stores AND have them kindly relay this information to their customers. Because this has been a very traumatic time for many.

I hope this helps all of you!

All my voicemails disappeared 3/12/24 after installing iOS 17.4 on my iPhone 14 Pro. AT&T is my carrier. Hours and hours with ATT and Apple. Installed iOS 17.4.1 and the messages are back!

During this process, I learned how to back up messages and will do so. The nightmare is over.

I can only share my experience. Which is that I have lost all my voicemails. And they are gone forever.

My carrier is T-Mobile. (And has been since the beginning of time). I have an iPhone 13 mini. I had voicemails going back to 2017. I have updated the OS on previous iPhones (from prior versions of OS’s), as well as on my newer current phone. I have never lost voicemails. That is until now.

I, too, recently updated from OS 16 to OS 17.4. That update wiped all my voicemails.

Here is the truth:

Apple does not back up voicemails. Not on your device. And not to the iCloud. Basically the “Phone” app on your iPhone is accessing the voicemails that are saved in your carrier’s database. (Think of it as a “portal” to your carriers’s database). In my case the carrier is T-Mobile.

Here is the problem:

Apple does not play well with T-Mobile. This is an ongoing technology problem (per T-Mobile). And because of these two technology platforms not working seamlessly together, this latest OS software from Apple produces a “glitch” when communicating with T-Mobile’s voicemail databases.

In my case it was MY voicemail database. The OS 17.4 update produced a glitch that affected, and then subsequently wiped the voicemails that had been stored in my T-Mobile account voicemail database on the TM servers.

This was NOT done by T-Mobile:

This was something that was caused by the (Apple) OS 17.4 software update “glitch”. T-Mobile explained to me (because I did visit their store and I did speak to tech support) because this is a glitch and because it does not happen on every account, they have no control over If or when it will happen. And, that this is not a new problem. But an ongoing problem. And, that Apple will not work with them (or with other carriers) to better address (or prevent) these types of problems.

Apple only wants to work within “their ecosystem” and will not do anything to help prevent this from happening in the future. Apple is not actively trying to resolve the issue. And because this does not happen *every time* or with *every account* Apple is not taking responsibility. Basically, Apple does not give two shites!

And furthermore this is not just a problem at T-Mobile. But other mobile phone carriers are having similar issues with Apple.

If Apple tells you that the voicemails are saved to the iCloud they are lying (misinformed).

Also, if Apple says that a reboot from a previous iCloud backup/version-of-software (if you happen to catch this early enough) is going to retrieve the voicemails, don’t believe them. Restoring/rebooting is not guaranteed to repopulate your voicemails. Because if they have been wiped (at your carrier) from you permitting the install of 17.4 in the first place, the vm’s are gone.

In my case I did visit the Apple Store. And the tech did this (reboot/restore) for me. And the it did absolutely nothing. Neither did calling my voicemail. Or toggling on/off the “Live Voicemail” option under Settings.

Since this is a “glitch” and does not happen every time on every phone, you can consider yourself lucky (or as having dodged a bullet) if you have not been affected by this as of yet. But!!! you could be in the future. So be sure to save those voicemails to your Voice Memos app (provided your Voice Memos app is ticked on as part of your iCloud backup). Or save them to DropBox. Or elsewhere.

I hope my two days of visiting both T-Mobile and the Apple Store helps you to better understand this situation.

And if you somehow managed to get your voicemails back, Hallelujah! You are super lucky. But don’t forget to save them elsewhere before you go on celebrating.

I tried one of the suggestions above and after a few heart stopping moments my saved phone messages reappeared.

I called my own number, gave my password, and several messages replayed.

After I hung up, my entire message list was restored.

Actually, everyone who lost voicemails with 17.4 and who has updated to 17.4.1 so far has reported that their voicemails came back.

sumr1969 wrote:

Hi Lawrence, I too am trying to get my voicemails back that include my deceased mother. I do have a VPN and removed the profile, cellular data is enabled, no voicemails on server (AT&T), empty list for voicemails and no carrier update.

Any guidance is appareciated.

I don’t have an answer, but some suggestions; this is a widely reported issue, so it isn’t just you, and it isn’t any one specific carrier. But it is also not everyone, or even a large number of users.

First, see if the voicemails still exist on your carrier’s voicemail server. That is the master copy of all voicemails; your phone syncs to that and (should) download the messages to your phone. Log in to your carrier’s server; each carrier has a different way to do that, but one that works for most is to call your own number from your phone, or hold the “1” button on your phone’s keypad. If they are there you should be able to get them to resync to your phone.

Two suggestions from other users:

• Call your phone number from another phone, and leave a new voicemail. Make sure you have Cellular Data turned on when you do this. I’ve seen a couple of reports that this allows all voicemails to be downloaded to the phone.
• 2 users said the voicemails came back spontaneously.

Probably most important: Contact Apple Support to create an “official” problem report. Everyone should do this, so Apple can determine the magnitude of the problem and look for its cause.

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. This is worth doing, but will not result in immediate action.

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

They’re back!!! All of my precious voicemails were gone after 17.4 update and I was Told by T-mobile and Apple that they were gone forever, all old backups gone too.

However, the voicemails came back with 17.4.1 !!!!!

Now I will save the precious ones to my VoiceMemos app and then somehow to my external hard drive.

What an emotional roller coaster!

this just happened to me last night when I went to 17.5.1 by calling my own number and entering one to access voicemail they showed up. So that worked for me.

I’ve seen several similar issues reported, and I’m trying to look for something in common among them. As a start, who is your cellular provider?

Then, here is some troubleshooting to try:

• If you have VPN installed, remove the VPN profile - it’s in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN
• Make sure Cellular Data is enabled (Visual Voicemail cannot use Wi-Fi)
• Check if voicemails are on the carrier’s voicemail server - use your carrier’s instructions to do this, or call your own number from your phone
• Go to Phone/Voicemail and see if there is an empty list, as opposed to a button to call voicemail
• Go to Settings/General/About and see if there is a carrier settings update

Get the new update. Fixed the problem!!!!!

If you lost voicemail on your Iphone after updating iOS, simply reset network settings.

If you lost voicemail on your Iphone after updating iOS, simply reset network settings.

srd005 wrote:

They were there immediately. I'm not sure if it was restoring my phone from a backup or the fact the other phone was also on 17.4 but after 2 weeks of trying literally everything they reappeared. Hope it works for you.

I’ll make a suggestion: SAVE or back up the voicemails to a “safer” place than the carrier’s voicemail server. Open Phone/Voicemail, tap on a voicemail, then the Share icon (the box with an up-arrow) and you can either save the audio to Files, text it, email it, or essentially put it anywhere you want.