iPhone 101: Recovering deleted voicemails

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its retrieving a deleted voice mail message.

One of the great features of the iPhone -- that is, one that is actually related to having phone conversations -- is Visual Voicemail. So long as your carrier (network provider) supports it, Visual Voicemail allows you to see your voicemail messages, similar to a list of text messages or emails. You can decide which messages you want to listen to, when you want to listen to them and scrub through the message to the important part you want to hear. In Apple's own words, "Visual Voicemail on iPhone is still the biggest breakthrough in voicemail since, well, voicemail."

It certainly has changed the way I use voicemail. Gone are the days of dialing in to a voicemail box and laboriously listening to all your messages in a row! But there's one unsung, often overlooked feature of Visual Voicemail: recovering deleted voicemails.

If you've deleted a voicemail message that you really wish you hadn't (say, the pin code for the alarm system at a guest house you're staying at), simply swipe down your row of messages, all the way to the bottom of the list, and tap on "Deleted Messages." So long as you haven't come here before and tapped "Clear All," all the messages you've ever deleted on your iPhone will be stored here. To recover your deleted voicemail, simply search for it in the list, select it and tap on "undelete." The voicemail will pop into your normal voicemail list ready for you to listen to again.

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iPhone 101

Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its retrieving a deleted voice mail...

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D-F-D

If you want to recover IPhone just click : www.d-f-d.com
Digital Forensic Data

January 31 2012 at 9:03 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

DukeOfWindsor

Doesn't saving all those voicemails add up to a significant chunk of iPhone's storage capacity?

September 19 2011 at 2:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

GSP

That's quite helpful to know.
Is there also some method which would allow one to export the message so that it can be stored, say, on a Mac, or to be e-mailed, or ___ ?

September 16 2011 at 2:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to GSP's comment

Dan Wilkerson

There's a program for OS X that does it. Decipher Voicemail.

September 16 2011 at 5:21 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

Bretterson

Another great aspect of Visual Voicemail is that once you have listened to the message, the phone keeps a local copy. This way it avoids having to reconnect and download the message should you want to listen again. As a result, the message also gets saved in the iPhone's backup.

This can be really handy. I had someone come to me who had somehow lost a voicemail from her grandmother. It was the last message she had from her and she wanted to save it as a record of her voice and such. It was completely gone. I ended up screen sharing with her to help her jailbreak her phone and recover a previous backup. After that I was able to get into the phones files and recover all of the voicemails stored in that backup. She had to listen through a bunch of them, but it was recovered and it's safe.

I since found that this could also be done without jailbreaking. These instructions I found were helpful for suggesting an application that could get the info straight from the backup and telling me where to look for the files: http://kevin.deldycke.com/2010/09/how-to-extract-data-trapped-iphone/

Awesome!!

September 16 2011 at 11:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Bretterson's comment

karrod6

I am in the same boat. I went to the ATT store yesterday with my Iphone 4. On there were messages from my Mom (she passed away suddenly on January 14th). The first thing I said was if I can not ensure 100% that these voicemail messages will transfer over I do not want to switch phones. The sales woman said they would absolutely move over, then they were all gone. Even when she put my sim card back in my original phone, she could not retrieve them. I had a complete breakdown in the store. These are the last of messages from my Mom, hearing her voice and hearing her say my name, including the Christmas message has been such a huge crutch for me during this time, to lose them is like losing her all over again. If there is anyway I can try to retrieve them, I will try anything. Please help if you can.

February 02 2012 at 1:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to karrod6's comment

kmfurr

Karrod, I'm in same boat you are. I hadn't even deleted the last few messages from my late mother; they were still on my voicemail list. But I upgraded to iOS 5 and they've disappeared. It looks like iOS 5 somehow just deleted older voice mail. The instructions given in this article only work for voicemails I've received since since I installed iOS 5. Everything prior to that is gone.

February 08 2012 at 3:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down