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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.

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...
 

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Todd

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.

June 22 2009 at 1:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bryan T

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.

June 22 2009 at 12:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zack kitzmiller

Like has been said before, all you have to do is wait. It will eventually ask for the password.

June 22 2009 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

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.

June 22 2009 at 6:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
welchb

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.

June 21 2009 at 11:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
happenstobe

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.

June 21 2009 at 10:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Barry

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.

June 21 2009 at 7:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
milkmage

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?

June 21 2009 at 4:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
designr

I left myself a message and the notification got it working again.

June 21 2009 at 3:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matthew

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.

June 21 2009 at 3:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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