no visual voice mail or notification appears on the iPhone5

Hey Jim S-2,

Thanks for the question. There are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot voicemail issues on your device as outlined below. If you have followed all these steps but still do not have access to visual voicemail, you may need to contact your carrier.

iPhone: Troubleshooting voicemail

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4430

Follow these steps to troubleshoot voicemail issues on your iPhone:

1. Restart your iPhone.

2. Check for a carrier settings update.

3. Update your iPhone to the latest version of iOS.

4. Make sure that your voice mailbox is set up properly. You can verify this by dialing your phone number from your iPhone.

5. Make sure that you have a good cellular network connection. You can verify this by seeing whether you can make an outgoing call.

6. Call your iPhone from another phone and try to leave yourself a voicemail.

7. Reset your network settings by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

8. Contact your carrier and make sure your iPhone is properly configured with the voicemail feature on your plan.

Thanks,

Matt M.

Hey Jim S-2,

Thanks for the follow up! I’m glad to hear that the information helped resolve your issue. Have a great day!

- Matt M.

I have an iphone 5 with Straight Talk using Verizon. I have had no problems with the phone or the service but I too lost my visual voice mail and must use the manual method to check for messages. Never had any issues with it previously until I upgraded to 8.1. I am current at 8.1.2 and with the several upgrades since then have not been able to get it back. I see the last post on this issue was a few months back has any progress been made on a repeatable fix to get it working again? I have gone through the 8 suggested things to try plus others with no success.

I have an iPhone 5S with Sprint and encounter the same problem - no voice messages appear unless I restart my phone. This did not occur until the iOS was updated to 8.1.3 . I have noticed in similar threads that this problem also occurs with other network providers. Therefore, I assume this is a software issue. I realize Apple support is distinct from the community support threads but it would be nice if Apple would look into this.

I have tried all of the steps delineated above and no luck.

griffnet wrote:

I realize Apple support is distinct from the community support threads but it would be nice if Apple would look into this.

If you want them to do that, you should contact them directly, either by making an appointment at the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store or by using the Contact Us link at the bottom right of every page.

Best of luck.

I spent about two hours via Apple online chat to trouble shoot this issue. The last attempt was to backup the iPhone, wipe and erase the iPhone, and reinstall the iOS and download the back up. The problem still exists.

I now will be approaching Sprint PCS on this issue.

I have noticed this issue has been around for a while and various solutions have mixed results e.g.Visual voicemail not working - iphone 5

I have also reset my voicemail password and reset network settings. The only way I get voicemail is if I power down the phone and power it back up...

I have spent over two solid days attempting to address this issue, to no avail. I realize any issue involving telephone performance can be linked to a wide range of sources: user error, voice mail capacity, phone hardware and software, network connectivity, network software, and network carriers. However, after analyzing various permutations of variables associated with iPhone visual voicemail, I am coming to a conclusion or hypothesis that it is an iOS software issue associated with the iPhone 5s. This problem did not occur for me until the iOS was updated to 8.1.2. I currently must either use the manual method to check for voice messages via my network carrier or power down and power up the iPhone. If I check my voice mail by directly calling through Sprint protocol (holding down thenumber 1) and then also receive a visual voice mail after I listen to the message via Sprint.

I have gone through all of the 8 steps delineated at Get help with visual voicemail on your iPhone - Apple Support. They do not solve the problem.

I can indicate for everyone else who has encountered this problem with what I have thus far attempted (below).

I have worked with two online Apple support technicians, two Sprint network technicians, an Apple store technician, and a Sprint store network technician. What is very puzzling is my wife has an iPhone 5c with iOS 8.1.3 and the same network connectivity (e.g. Sprint network connectivity) and she does not encounter this problem. Please note that this problem exists outside of the geographic area I live. I recently went out of state to ski and the problem existed there as well.

Through online Apple support and also visiting an Apple store, I have

• wiped and reinstalled the latest iOS three times on the old iPhone 5s;
• reset network settings
• deleted old voice mail to ensure I have sufficient storage capacity
• replaced the hardware (iPhone) with a new phone at the Apple store and tested the new phone first without downloading from the iCloud my configurations and data and then testing after downloading data and personal configurations. At the store we also cleared network settings and reset network settings.
• updated the iOS on the new hardware.

No success, I receive notifications of phone calls but new voice mail messages do not appear unless the device is powered down and then powered up.

I then worked with two online technicians from my network provider to determine if the issue is related to network provider software or connectivity. In the context of Sprint network protocol, I updated network settings (##update#) and also cleared network settings (##clear#). No success. I was then referred to a Sprint technician at a local Sprint location. The technician concluded that it is an iOS issue. He alleges that iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 software to not automatically download visual voicemail. I find this assessment to be dubious. Through controlling various variables, settings, and conditions, the only thing I see different if I were to compare my situation with my wife's situation is that she has a 5c and a unique voicemail box / account.

This is an update to my issue. My son also has an iPhone 5s and Sprint network service. He currently had iOS 8.1.2 and did not yet update his operating software. This, from my perspective provided an excellent experimental design, holding various variables constant and modify one condition to see if the problem I am having would occur if he upgraded to the iOs 8.1.3 software.

He upgraded his software to 8.1.3 and still is able to receive voice mail messages on this iPhone.

This leads me to believe that my problem is related to Spring network services, their related server based software or specifically to the settings associated with my individual account. Since my son's account works well and this issue is not universally pervasive for all Spring network users using iPhone 5s phones, this issue appears to be associated with my individual account setting in Sprint.

If anyone else can shed light on this issue, I would look forward to hearing from them.

For the benefit of iPhone 5s users who experience similar issues, ultimately I needed to contact my network provider and create a customer service ticket with the Sprint network techncians to rebuild my voice mail box on the network end. This requires removing all saved voice mail but the rebuild of the voice mail box solved the problem. The problem was a corrupt mail box configuration associated with my account.

I have Straight Talk, using AT&T as my carrier and I have the same problem. I have the iPhone 5C. I get a solid red dot when a message is left, if I'm lucky enough to see it. Because it eventually goes away. If I do see it and drill down to my v-mail icon, I click on it and it tells me there is no voicemail. yet I call the v-mail number directly and sure enough, I have messages that I was not aware were there. One time the indicator lit up a week after the messages were left. this time I knew a friend left a message 4 days ago. I turned my phone off overnight and back on, last night, no indicator still. I called my v-mail number and there was her message. If you have StraightTalk and don't know you direct v-mail number, call *#61# from your phone and write down the number. If this is an Apple problem, I sure hope they patch it soon. Does seem like it happened when I upgraded to the latest software.