Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, iPhone
Visual Voicemail hosed after an upgrade? Here's the likely solution
This happened to me last time I upgraded from my original iPhone to the 3G. I went to check messages, and instead of seeing the list of people who called, the phone simply dialed the voicemail number. The solution this time is the same as last time.Go to the AT&T web site, log in, and under Phone, Device Support you'll see an option to 'Reset Voicemail Password.' Go ahead and do that, and AT&T will send you a text message with a temporary password. Go to your iPhone, set up Visual Voicemail again as if your phone was new, and put your old password back in.
It seems like AT&T could handle all this automatically, and it clearly works for some, but a quick check of friends who upgraded found quite a few with the problem. All this logging in and re-setting passwords is not the most elegant solution, but apparently it is the only solution.
Hope this helps some of you.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Travis said 3:17PM on 6-21-2009
ha, thank you! i had noticed missed calls but was wondering why i wasn't getting voicemails... checked my voicemail because of this post and it wasn't set up! re-activated it and all is well.
Reply
Mike said 3:19PM on 6-21-2009
Actually I solved it by continually pressing voicemail. After about 3 times or so it says voicemail password incorrect. Typed in passcode and it worked again
Reply
totoro said 4:15PM on 6-21-2009
Yes, same here..I just figured their voicemail system gets overloaded whenever a new iPhone is released...trying a couple times cleared it up on its own.
TGunz said 3:18PM on 6-21-2009
i just checked my voicemail and then surfed the menus for a few seconds and then hung up. Then the phone asked for my PW and I put it in. Done.
Reply
DAvid P. said 3:21PM on 6-21-2009
That's also what enabled visual voicemail on my 3gs.
Isaac said 4:20PM on 6-21-2009
That's exactly what I did...this was also the solution for voicemail problems on the last iPhone. For some reason they haven't figured it out yet...
amb@mobile said 6:01PM on 6-21-2009
same here
Bill said 3:20PM on 6-21-2009
when the voicemail dials, just listen to the whole message. Press 2, then hang up. Go back to voicemail, it will dial out again but this time it will ask for your password, enter your password and then hang up.
Now go back to voicemail, and visual voicemail should work. No need to go to the ATT website.
Reply
Les said 3:25PM on 6-21-2009
I had the same problem. My iPhone 3gs dialed up my vm rather than giving me the visual voicemail screen. However a few minutes after my first attempt to check my voicemail, a message popped up indicating that I had the wrong password for voicemail. I entered the same password I'd been using for voicemail and everything worked great after that.
Reply
Joachim Bean said 3:28PM on 6-21-2009
Reinstalling the carrier settings (.ipcc) file can also make visual voicemail work again
Reply
moshe said 3:37PM on 6-21-2009
Happened to me last night, and I reset it pretty easily by calling 611 and following the prompts...completely automated, and took less than a minute.
Reply
Cronick said 3:46PM on 6-21-2009
I left myself a message and the notification got it working again.
Reply
milkmage said 4:19PM on 6-21-2009
same thing happened to me when I initially checked VM upon upgrading.. i thought they were gone. I forgot about it until I saw this post, but when I checked again, they were there.. didn't have to do anything special.
maybe there was some kind of lag, the messages are stored locally, no?
Reply
Barry said 8:02PM on 6-21-2009
Thanks. It WAS missing. Did exactly as you said, got a text message from AT&T telling me what my new PW was, got an instant screen to enter it, and they all came back. You guys are great, love your stuff.
Reply
happenstobe said 10:08PM on 6-21-2009
I had the same problem when I first got mine activated. My solution was different actually. I just went home, plugged my new iPhone 3GS into my iMac and restored the last backup I made from my old iPhone onto it, and it carried the password right in for me.
Reply
welchb said 11:21PM on 6-21-2009
Well, to be precise, that isn't the *only* solution. heh.
What I did was call 611, go to voicemail help, and one of the options is "reset voicemail password." Which does the same thing as above - just another way of doing it if you don't happen to be in front of your computer, etc.
Reply
Scott said 6:04AM on 6-22-2009
I had my new 3GS have the same issue with voicemail early Friday morning (my phone was activated by my local apple store around 7:30am).
Two things to note:
- Switching the phone off and then on returned my visual voicemail. It prompted me onscreen for my v/m password, and upon entering it, my visual voicemail was back.
- Also, my back-up restore returned my voicemails from my previous 3G. I was under the impression they get wiped when upgrading.
Reply
zackisamazing said 11:26AM on 6-22-2009
Like has been said before, all you have to do is wait. It will eventually ask for the password.
Reply
Bryan T said 12:25PM on 6-22-2009
Even easier:
Dial 1 on the keypad, hold it for just a second to dial. Go through the menus to voicemail, and reset password, and put a new password in. Did that and VV worked in a matter of seconds.
Reply
Todd said 1:13PM on 6-22-2009
I had this problem and the guy @ the AT&T store had me do this:
Go to Visual Voicemail and let it dial in. Hang up.
Place a phone call to your own number which will go to voice mail. Hang up.
Return to Visual Voicemail and you'll be asked for your password. Type it in and away you go.
Reply