Many people rely on their voicemail due to the insane amount of robocalls and scams going on. Because of this, what many people are doing is not picking up the phone and waiting for the caller to leave a voicemail. Unfortunately, many iPhone users, especially Verizon customers and T-Mobile and AT&T on a smaller scale, are getting delayed voicemails. In some instances, weeks-old voicemails get delivered all at once. This is very bad for those who are expecting a call or a voicemail from a job or someone who’s going through a hard time.
Check Voicemail
First, we must check if this is a problem with the cell phone network or if it’s a problem with the phone’s visual voicemail app. In order to do this, we have to check our voicemail the old-fashioned way by tapping and holding 1 on the phone dial. This will connect you directly to your carrier’s voicemail service and bypass the visual voicemail system.
Using someone else’s device, call yourself and leave yourself a voicemail. Using the old-fashioned voicemail, check if your voicemail was delivered to your account on time. If it was delivered to your account on time/instantly but it doesn’t show up on the visual voicemail/phone app, this means that voicemails aren’t being forwarded to the visual voicemail app.
If newer voicemails arent even showing up when you call the voicemail service the old-fashioned way, then this is a problem that has to be fixed by a technician on customer service. With this type of problem, sometimes it’s hard to land your call with the right/knowledgeable technician that can fix the issue. The technician will have to remove and clean any old phone associated with your account on the back-end of the system and reset your voicemail account from the beginning.
Fix delayed voicemails on iPhone
In case you do not want to waste time calling customer support there are a few things you can try in order to fix this problem by yourself.
Solution 1: Reset network settings
- Remove the SIM card from your iPhone.
- Go to Settings> Transfer or Reset iPhone> Reset> Reset Network Settings. This will reset Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and VPN and APN settings.
- Once the phone reboots, insert your SIM card back.
Solution 2: Turn off WiFi Calling
It’s been widely suspected that WiFi Calling interferes with the voicemail system. You can turn off WiFi Calling by going to Settings> Cellular> WiFi Calling> WiFi Calling on This iPhone.
Keep in mind that this is not a good permanent solution. You will no longer be able to make or receive calls through WiFi connections if you turn off WiFi Calling. It’s good to have WiFi Calling turned on if you do have good reception in your home.
Solution 3: Turn off Voicemail to text
Another feature that interferes with voicemail is the Voicemail to text feature provided by some carriers. You can turn off Voicemail to text from your carrier’s account or by telling a representative to do it for you.
Solution 4: Get a new SIM
Although this solution might seem a bit extreme, there’s a chance that this problem will be fixed by replacing a new SIM card. I’d recommend doing this only if the other methods did not work, including calling a customer service technician.