Voicemail messages won't delete on 7.0.2

Thanks SnackyApple. This worked for me :)

Hi guys,

Been having the same issue and can't believe that Apple is keeping quiet about this. Cleary we are not! 🙂

I think I might have found a way to 'workaround' this issue. Here are the steps that I took:

1. Clear your call history

2. Quit the phone app

3. Switch Airplane mode ON and then back to OFF

4. Open phone app

5. Go to VM -> Deleted folder and click CLEAR ALL

Hope it helps!

Have you called your carrier? If you cannot delete voicemail, its a carrier issue, not an Apple issue.

Again, Apple is not keeping quiet about anything. Your voicemail is the carrier's responsibility, not Apple's.

Just an FYI.. I got my issue resolved by calling my carrier (AT&T) and having them reset my voicemail.. You may want to try pressing and holding 1 to manually dial your voicemail.. and its option 7 to delete the message. Once they're cleared on the server, you can delete them from your device.

my option to clear all came back, and I deleted them from my device just fine after this. So far no voicemails have come back.

Hopefully this solves my issue with my 'phantom voicemail' sound too.

Are others still having this issue? I can not see how this is a carrier issue when it's happening with Verison and AT&T.

I can delete them by "calling" my voice mail but what is the point of having "visual" voice mail if you have to do that every time.

I hear ya..

For me, I only had to call voicemail once, then it fixed. I called voicemail.. Deleted EVERYTHING.. Saved messages.. All of them.

I then went on the phone, and deleted everything off the phone. Then went onto deleted messages and cleared those.

Mine worked fine after this.

Now, I will tell you that I did call AT&T and my init request was that they completely rebuild my voicemail.. (They can do this). But the lady walked me through manually deleting and fortunately it worked.

Hopefully you aren't one of the folks who needs to keep voicemails.. But I think the key was that I deleted them all, and that resolved it.

And I can see your perception on this being a phone issue.. I could explain why it's not the phone but that's a lengthy post. Not meaning to come across snarky..But I'm pretty confident in my knowledge of iOS hardware and software. That's all I can say about that.

I know this issue is a pain.. I just hoped I could help someone, that's all. My issue was actually the voicemail sound , and had been driving me batty!! I had taken to the discussion boards looking for other reports (and hopefully a workaround). I'm happy to say both have been fixed.

It's not an Apple but carrier issue?

I never had this issue until 7. Not once

However, my workaround was Galaxy Note 3.

Steve, you're missed more than you could've ever imagined

If you have no issues until you upgrade he software it IS an apple issue. The visual voicemail is developed to work properly with each specific carrier. There is an obvious flaw in the software that is causing customers to do all this hocus pocus workaround crap when it should JUST WORK. I've tried deleting everything, calling the voicemail, deleting all messages manually, restarting and the messages still randomly appear! There was a period where I couldn't even listen to or access/change my voice message. It started to magically work again one day. This update and the new visual voicemail look and functionality is just plain awful. There is no reason a phone that retails for $600 should need pampers and a babysitter to get it to work properly. The next step is to trash the iphone and try an android.

I'm sorry to hear that removing the messages didn't work. It sounds like there is something more to your issue than what I have experienced. Trust me I completely understand the frustration, I am not 100% that the issue has fully resolved on my own phone.

So a quick explaination on visual voicemail:

Voicemail on the iphone works very similar to how your email application works on the phone. A voicemail is recorded, it is stored on the server, and a 'message' (with the sound file attached) is pushed to your phone. The files are still on the server until you permanently delete the message.

The only thing Apple can do is walk you through deleting the messages but if the server is still saying.. 'Heey you have a new voicemail!' that is something that your carrier needs to resolve.

It would be just the same if you were having trouble deleting an email from your computer (or iphone).. Yes it could be the software you are using on those devices but the only person who can clear that server is going to be the one who owns it. And that would be carrier.

So this was the intent behind my first post. Just a 'hey check with your carrier too'. I have not attempted to tell anyone they are wrong.. or say that it isn't software related at all. I was simply trying to share my knowledge of the iOS software to help out frustrated people. Good luck with your attempts to start a flame war on this thread. I'm sure that is going to be super helpful for you.

Have a good one.

THIS WORKED FOR ME! Dial into voicemail the old school way (like it is the 90's). Delete all of the stuck voicemails from there. Then go back to the device and delete them. They will stay deleted! YAY!

SnackyApple,

Thanks for posting the suggestion to dial in (AT&T carrier) to my voicemail to delete voice messages, then turn on airplane mode and delete visual voicemail while in airplane mode. I did this ten minutes ago and so far so good. The deleted voicemails have not returned.

This is crap! We shouldn't have to do any work arounds for this issue. What a pain in the ***! What I've been doing and has been working fine is:

-Listen to your messages by pressing and holding 1

-Delete them by pressing 7 (also make sure there isn't any "Saved" messages)

-Disconect from Voice Mail

-Delete visual vm on phone

-Delete deleted messages

Done deal. No need to go into AirPlane mode (at least with my phone).

I thought the whole point of visual vm was to not have to call into your phone and listen. Back to the 90's I guess.

This continues to be totally unacceptable. I can't tell you how much time I spend trying to delete these vmails every which way. Nothing seems to work. I am at a loss. Apple needs to fix this!

I have had this problem since I got my new iPhone 5S. It is very frustrating. I can understand how it could be a carrier issue, but it seems many different carriers are involved. I use AT&T. I've seen mentions of Verizon in this discussion as well. Seems to me that Apple needs to get on top of this rather annoying problem. For now I'm really regretting that I did not switch to an android os phone like my husband.