Deleted voice mails keep reappearing

Unable to delete visual voicemail messages. When I tap [Delete] the phone app crashes and returns me to the home screen. I called my number and deleted each message using touch tone commands. This allowed me to delete the visual voicemail messages - moving each message to the 'Deleted Messages' folder. Now if I attempt to permanently delete messages individually or tap the [Clear All] command, the phone app crashes and and again returns me to the home screen. The only way I have been able to clear all the visual voicemail messages is by restoring the software on the phone and selecting the option to set up as a new phone, rather than restoring from a backup. Obviously I can't continue to restore the software each time I wish to delete voicemail messages from my iPhone.

Are the visual voicemail messages stored locally on the iPhone or hosted on a remote server. I am able to permanently delete each message through the carrier's service but can not permanently delete messages from the iPhone without performing a complete factory restore of the iPhone software/firmware.

iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3.5

I figured out a potential solution for this problem. It worked for me and it might for you. I deleted the "reapearing" voicmail which placed it in the iPhone's Visual Voicmail "Deleted Messeges" folder. I went into the deleted messeges folder and selected the problem voicmail messeage and then selcter the grey "Undelete" botton. This put the message back into the voicmail inbox. I then redeleted the problem messege, went back into the deleted messeges folder and then hit the "Clear All" button. This finaly deleted the messege that kept coming back. I guess reinstating the message circumvented the glitch in the OS.

That seems like a whole lot of work to remove deleted voicemails.

I have been battling this problem for a long time also and tried to see a pattern as to when this was happening.

It seems that I have this problem after my phone picks up other towers or other company's towers. When I talked to tech support, they told me that if I reset the network setting or reboot the phone, the phone will pick up on the correct "local" tower and allow me to delete the messages only once.

I've tried to pay attention when this happens and so far, it seems correct. When I travel along the city jumping from tower to tower, I can delete messages and they may or may not come back. When I shut my phone off and delete messages, they don't come back because the phone is supposedly on the closest tower.

Not sure if your mileage will vary but it might be something to keep in mind.

I read your message because I had the same problem. I had just one message, that no matter how many times I deleted it, it would reappear. In fact, if I tried to delete it, it would disappear for five seconds into the deleted items folder and then pop right back up into the active voicemail folder. I have an iphone 4 on the Verizon network. I read the other responses, but none of them worked for me.

This is how I fixed the problem:

1) I put the phone in airplane mode and deleted ALL the messages in my voicemail. Then, I made sure that all of them, including the one zombie message that would keep coming back to life, was also in the deleted items foldder. If for some reason I could not delete the message by hitting the delete button, I would swipe the message field of the message I wanted to delete to the right and then press the red delete button that would appear.

2) With the phone still in airplane mode, I then went to the deleted voicemail folder and selected Clear All. If for some reason the zombie message won't disappear, use the swipe right technique to delete it.

3) Then, go back to the regular voicemail foler to ensure it is totally clear of all messages. Then doublecheck the deleted voicemail folder and make sure it also is totally empty. You may not be able to get to the deleted voicemail folder if it is totally empty but that is the quality check that it truly is empty.

4) Then, with the phone still in Airplane mode, shut off the phone by pressing the on/off button on the top right hand side and then turn off the phone.

5) When the phone is shut down, turn it on again.

6) Make sure that when the phone turns back on that it still is in Airplane mode. Double check the voicmail folder to ensure that it is still empty. Now, do a reset of the phone by holding down the on/off button and the home key until the apple logo appears on the screen.

7) When the phone powers back up, wait until you see a SOLID red dot above the voicemail icon. Once that appears, you are good to go.

8) Go back to settings and turn off Airplane mode.

9) This should fix the issue as it worked for me

Hope this works for you too and GOOD LUCK!!

THANK YOU VERICK!!! simple to follow and this solved the problem of reappearing deleted voicemails.

also, i have IOS 5.1 on a Verizon iphone. the symptom of undeletable voicemails is not related to a specific carrier or to a specific version of IOS..

Hey desertbrat, glad to hear that the fix worked for you (even with the few typos in my original message!) 😉 I have been helped by advice on this community in the past by others and was glad that I could be the one offering advice this time.

I think you are right about it being an issue that relates to the iphone itself as opposed to an individual carrier or IOS. I have a friend who has an iphone 4 on AT&T and another who has an iphone 4s on Verizon and it worked for both of them too. Sometimes you just have to experiment with a few possible solves before you get it right (it took me a few days of trial and error to come up with this fix).

I have not had this problem recur since so the fix seems to be permanent as well.

I had the same issue.

Set the phone to flight mode. Delete voicemail and delete again from the deleted folder. Seems to have resolved my issue!

Hope that helps.

I was able to delete my voicemails on my iPhone 5S by following these steps:

1) Delete only (ONLY ONE) voicemail. System may hang for awhile but it should work.

2) Click DONE at top of Voicemail page

3) Scroll to bottom and click on 'Deleted Messages'

4) Click 'Clear All'

5) Go back to voicemail list and repeat steps 1-4.

6) After you clear out 5-10 voicemails the OS seems to respond faster so you can try deleting multiple messages at once until you're cleared out.

Good luck!

I too am having this same issue on my 5s running the latest updates on iOS 7. marksi31 - your suggestion works, but I have dozens of voicemails. It's ridiculoous that the OS, visual VM or whereever the point of failure is would require us to go through one at a time.

Apple - please fix!

Yes Apple Please fix asap, though it appears to be going on for years now.

I too am having issues with deleting voicemail via the visual voicemail on iphone 5s. My VM is continually full because I can't delete messages. Seems odd when one pays nearly $500 and signs a two year agreement, a simple task such as deleting voicemails is so difficult and on going....

Switching to Airplane mode - allows the messages to be permentanly deleted - Aplenty needs to fix this issue -

Once I visited the Apple Store and discussed the deleting voice messages problem they suggested changing my voice mail password. I changes it and now deleting unwanted voicemail messages works correctly. A very easy fix.

I have the Iphone 5S and have had this issue since I purchased the phone, about a week after it was first released. I changed my voicemail password which did nothing. This seems to be something wrong with the communication method Apple uses with their visual voicemail and ATT.

My issue is so bad that I can actually have the same voicemail in the voicemail folder and the deleted messages folder.

I can delete it, then go into the deleted messages folder to clear it and it plays the new voicemail sound before I clear it. So I clear it and it takes me back to the voicemail folder and look I have a new voicemail! It is the one I just deleted! LOL come on!

I receive a lot of voicemail messages for my work, so it is very frustrating having to delete the same voicemail messages over and over to make sure my voicemail does not fill up. And I am not exaggerating when I say I have to attempt to delete the same messages sometimes 10 or more times! Sometimes it will even say they are gone and I succeeded. I will then go to my voicemail folder and it will have all the messages it said I had deleted hours ago. This is the most I have been frustrated with an Apple product ever.

I called ATT and they were unable to solve the issue. They just say, "Do not use the Visual Voicemail if it is not working." Ah well, just venting so maybe someone at Apple will see this and escalate the issue to fix it.