How to Recover a Deleted Voicemail on Your iPhone

iPhone voicemail features let you view the data associated with each voicemail to keep track of important dates, and you can even share a voicemail with another person via text or email. However, some users may accidentally delete a voicemail – like accidentally deleting photos – or find their voicemails missing after a carrier or iOS update.

Accidentally deleting data is more common than you might think. Many experience this when clearing out their voicemail inbox, only to find out later that they removed something that matters. The good news is that if you’re running iOS 16 or newer, deleted voicemails are moved to a “Recently Deleted” folder and can be recovered within a 30-day window. If you’re on iOS 15 or older, deletion is immediate and permanent. It’s also worth knowing that voicemails are stored on your carrier’s server and are not included in standard iPhone or iCloud backups unless you’ve manually saved them to your device or cloud storage. If you’ve found yourself in a panic after deleting a voicemail, keep reading – we’ll talk about the available recovery methods and some tips and tricks you might not have known about your iPhone’s voicemail feature.

Can You Recover Deleted iPhone Voicemails?

Yes, you can recover deleted iPhone voicemails if you accidentally delete a message you want to keep. There are many reasons for the deletion of a voicemail, like:

You accidentally deleted it
Your system upgrade has failed
Your device is damaged
You did a factory reset on your device without a backup

If you’re running iOS 16 or newer, deleted voicemails are automatically moved to a “Recently Deleted” folder inside the Phone app, and it gives you up to 30 days to recover them before they’re permanently gone. If you’re on iOS 15 or older, sadly there’s no such safety net – deletion is instant and permanent.

It’s also worth knowing that voicemail messages are not included in standard iPhone or iCloud backups unless you’ve manually transferred them to local or iCloud storage, which means you usually can’t use a backup to get a deleted voicemail back. Your best bet is always the “Recently Deleted” folder, and when you restore a voicemail from there, it reappears on your device within a few seconds.

If the 30-day window has already passed, it’s worth contacting your mobile carrier directly, as some carriers may store voicemails on their end for a limited time. However, this varies by carrier and is not guaranteed.

When You Can’t Undelete Voicemails on Your iPhone

There are a few important limitations to keep in mind when recovering deleted voicemails on your iPhone. First, your ability to recover a deleted voicemail depends heavily on which version of iOS your device is running. On iOS 16 and newer, deleted voicemails are moved to a “Recently Deleted” folder within the Phone app, giving you a 30-day window to recover them. However, if your iPhone is running iOS 15 or older, deletion is instant and permanent – there’s no Recently Deleted folder to fall back on.

Once that 30-day window has passed on iOS 16 or newer, the voicemail is gone for good. There is no way to extend this period or retrieve it afterward, so it’s important to act faster if you’ve deleted a voicemail by mistake.

It’s also worth knowing that voicemail messages are not included in standard iPhone or iCloud backups unless you have manually transferred them from your carrier’s voicemail server to your device’s local or iCloud storage – it means that restoring your iPhone from a backup will not bring back a deleted voicemail in most cases. If you were counting on a backup to save you, sadly that path is unlikely to work. If you’re running an older iOS version, you may want to review common iOS 16 problems and how to fix them before upgrading.

How to Recover Deleted iPhone Voicemails

If you’re looking for a particular voicemail with no luck, you might have accidentally deleted it. The good news is that if you’re running iOS 16 or newer, deleted voicemails are held in a “Recently Deleted” folder for up to 30 days before being permanently removed, providing an easy recovery window. Remember that if your iPhone is running iOS 15 or older, deletion is instant and permanent, so the manual strategy below will not apply.

To recover your deleted voicemail on your iPhone manually (iOS 16 or newer), do the following:

Open your phone to the home screen and tap the Phone app icon.
At the bottom right of the screen, tap on Voicemail.
Scroll to the bottom of your voicemail list and tap Deleted Messages.
Under Deleted, you will see a list of recently deleted messages. Browse through and locate the one you’d like to recover. Keep in mind that voicemails are only recoverable within 30 days of deletion.
Tap on the deleted message to open it.
Tap the Undelete button (which may appear as a red trash can icon in some versions of iOS). The message will be restored to your regular voicemail inbox within seconds.

If you can’t find the voicemail using the strategy above, it’s worth knowing that voicemail messages are not included in standard iPhone or iCloud backups unless you have manually transferred them from your carrier’s voicemail server to local or iCloud storage. This means that restoring your iPhone from an iCloud or iTunes/Finder backup is unlikely to recover a lost voicemail in most cases, and it’s usually not recommended as a voicemail recovery strategy — especially since restoring from a backup means erasing your latest device data.

If you believe you did manually save or export a voicemail and want to attempt a backup restore as a last resort, here’s what you’ll need to know before proceeding:

Back up your current data to another device, such as a MacBook, before taking any further steps, as restoring from a backup will erase your existing content.
To restore from iCloud: Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings, then follow the setup prompts and choose Restore from iCloud Backup. Sign in with your Apple ID and select the relevant backup.
To restore from your computer: Connect your iPhone via USB, open Finder (macOS Catalina or later) or iTunes (Windows or older macOS), select your device, and choose Restore Backup. Select the backup most likely to contain your saved voicemail and wait for the process to complete.

If your voicemail has been deleted for more than 30 days and was never manually saved, recovery is sadly not possible through any standard strategy. In that case, your best option may be to contact your carrier directly, as some carriers retain voicemail data on their servers for a limited period and may be able to help.

FAQs About Voicemail on iPhone

Now that you know how to recover deleted messages on your iPhone, you might have other questions about how to use your voicemail and what other features users can benefit from. Here are some frequently asked questions about voicemail on your iPhone:

How Do I Check My Voicemail?

If you’re a new iPhone owner and aren’t sure how to check your voicemail, it’s not as tough as it might feel. You’ll find your voicemail messages on all iPhones through the green Phone app icon – this will bring you to the Visual Voicemail, which will show you a list of your messages – like the:

Caller
Time and date
Length of the message
Location of the caller if they’re not in your contacts

This feature is great for staying away from spam callers or telemarketers, so you don’t have to pick up your phone every time you get a call from an unknown number. If the message is legitimate or important, they will probably leave a voicemail, and you can decide if you want to call back from there. As with any other iPhone app, the Voicemail icon produces a red notification in the right corner of the Phone icon to let you know you have unheard messages.

This feature also lets you choose which ones to play or delete, and you can even delete a voicemail without listening to it. You can also use Voicemail transcription, which shows your messages transcribed into text that you can read – a feature available across the latest iOS versions.

How Do I Set up a Voicemail Password or Greeting on My iPhone?

When you first get an iPhone, you can set up a password to improve security and prevent unauthorized access to your voicemail messages from your phone or when trying to access your mailbox from another device.

Follow these steps to set up your voicemail password:

Open the green Phone app and tap Voicemail.
Click Set Up Now.
Create a Voicemail password using numbers to make a unique code, then click Done.
Enter the password again to confirm it’s correct, then select Done once more.

You can also set up your voicemail with a custom greeting to let family and other callers know you’ll get back to them or give them an alternate number to call when they reach your voicemail. You can also create a custom greeting for temporary purposes, like if you’re out of town for vacation or work. Let’s look at how to set it up:

Open the green Phone app icon and click on the Voicemail tab in the bottom right corner.
On the top left, locate the Greeting button and tap it once to pull up the menu.
You should see the Default and Custom options. Select Custom.
Record your personalized message.
Play it back to confirm you can hear it clearly, then click Save.

How Do You Send Calls Straight to Voicemail?

When you’re grocery shopping, in a meeting, or busy with other important tasks, it’s not always possible to take every call that pops up on your phone. On the iPhone, you can use the Focus feature in Settings to send all incoming calls straight to your voicemail. Let’s look at how to do it:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Focus, then select Do Not Disturb or create a custom Focus mode.
Tap People.
Here, you can add any emergency contacts or immediate family you would like to be able to bypass your settings to call you.
If not, click Also Allow Calls From and choose No One.
In case of a dire situation, you can turn on the Allow Repeated Calls option, which allows a second call from a person within three minutes to notify you as a regular call rather than going straight to voicemail.

How Do You Play or Share a Voicemail?

You can play or share your voicemail messages as many times as you want. If you aren’t sure how to play your messages or send them to another contact, you can always ask Siri for directions or follow these steps manually:

Go into Voicemail in the Phone app and tap the message you want to hear.
Tap the play button and hold it up to your ear to hear the message.
Alternatively, you can press the speakerphone icon to hear the message on speaker.
To share the message, tap the square box with the arrow next to the caller’s name.
Next, you will see a menu that gives you options to email, text, or AirDrop the voicemail to another person.

Can You Change Your Voicemail Settings?

Yes, you can change your voicemail settings – like your greeting and password – if you need to adjust them.

To change your greeting:

Open your Voicemail tab in the Phone app and tap Greeting.
Record a new message and select Save.

To change your voicemail password:

Go to Settings.
Select Phone.
Scroll down and tap Change Voicemail Password.
Enter a new passcode of at least four numbers and tap Done.

How Do You Permanently Remove Deleted Voicemails?

If you want to clear out old voicemails you no longer need to free up some storage, you can permanently delete them from your iPhone in just a few short steps. Remember that on iOS 16 and newer, deleted voicemails move to a Recently Deleted folder and are held there for as long as 30 days before being permanently removed. If you want to clear them out sooner, follow these steps:

Go into your Voicemail tab in the Phone app.
Scroll to the bottom of your Voicemail inbox and tap Deleted Messages.
Once you’re in the folder, tap Clear All in the top right corner.
Select Clear All again to confirm you want to remove all deleted messages permanently.

Can You Change Your Voicemail Notification Sound?

As with a text, email, or call notification, you can change your voicemail sound just as you would a ringtone. Here are the steps:

Open the Settings app and choose Sounds & Haptics.
Select New Voicemail.
Tap to select a sound you like or upload your own ringtone.

Can I Access My Voicemail From Another Device?

Yes, you can. While this might sound a bit unusual, you might need to access your voicemail from another person’s phone if you lose or damage your device – it’s worth mentioning that voicemail messages are not included in standard iPhone or iCloud backups unless you have manually transferred them – they live on your carrier’s voicemail server. That means calling in remotely is usually the most reliable way to hear messages when you don’t have access to your iPhone. You may also want to consider setting up call forwarding on your iPhone as an added layer of accessibility when you’re without your device.

Here are the steps:

Call the mobile number for your iPhone.
Bypass the greeting by pressing pound (#) or star (*) – this will depend on your carrier.
Enter your voicemail password.
Listen to the directions and proceed.

Browse Gazelle for More iPhone Tips

Voicemails can be important messages to save for many reasons. Whether you’re trying to preserve a cherished memory from a loved one or remember directions left by a friend or co-worker, voicemail messages are a great way to listen back or share recordings. If you accidentally delete a voicemail message or find it missing, you now have some security that it can be recovered – as long as you’re running iOS 16 or newer and act within 30 days of deletion.

At Gazelle, we love to help customers learn about functions on their devices- like:

Whether you want to learn how to take care of your device, fix common problems on your iPhone or buy a pre-owned smartphone, Gazelle has everything you need. Browse our How-To section to learn about how to care for your iPhone, or check out our Apple News tab for the latest information for Apple devices.

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