Question No Visual Voicemail

[BalrogWing]

• What device you are using?
  iPhone 12
  
  
• What OS or Firmware is your device running on?
  iOS 16.5 latest beta
  
  
• What steps have you taken already to try to fix the issue?
  Turned off NextDNS and tried leaving a voicemail from another phone. Added exception to NextDNS to allow T-mobile voicemail. Restarted phone. Reset Voicemail passcode, unable to do so in Settings. I go to 'Change Voicemail Passcode' and it get stuck on 'Saving Password' before returning an error. The error is 'Voicemail Unavailable. Unable to connect. Try again later.' I have good connection over both cellular and Wi-Fi, I can call my voicemail and it works fine. I just all of a sudden stopped seeing visual voicemail for some reason.

I had the issue before so added vvm.mstore.msg.t-mobile.com to my exceptions list for NextDNS an that fixed it for a while but then all of a sudden it stopped showing up for me again. Turning off NextDNS to disable any blocking and then leaving a voicemail doesn't fix the problem, connecting to cellular directly doesn't make a difference. I have good signal where I'm at, I've tried turning Wi-Fi calling off because I saw someone recommend that on the Apple support forums for someone else having this problem. I've also made sure the carrier settings are up to date. Sorry if this has been asked before, feel free to remove it if so. I just figured maybe someone would have an idea of what to try.

 

[Ledsteplin]

You might want to check with your phone carrier.

 

[BalrogWing]

Thanks, it's T-Mobile and I will. It had worked up until this past week or two so I'm not sure why it stopped all of a sudden.

 

[Lee_Bo]

That’s strange. Mines been working fine (also Tmo) but the transcription needs work.

 

[Annie_M]

I really enjoy visual voicemail and would be so frustrated if it didn't work! Hopefully, your issue was just a glitch and a short-lived one at that.

 

[BalrogWing]

Yeah I do too. The last time it happened it was NextDNS blocking it but I added an exclusion to allow it to work and haven't made any other changes. Turning that off doesn't fix the issue either.

 

[EdwinG]

Yeah I do too. The last time it happened it was NextDNS blocking it but I added an exclusion to allow it to work and haven't made any other changes. Turning that off doesn't fix the issue either.

You did mention that it doesn't work over the mobile network, which would indicate that it could be an issue on T-Mobile's end.

Maybe something on the service/server-side…

 

[BalrogWing]

You did mention that it doesn't work over the mobile network, which would indicate that it could be an issue on T-Mobile's end.

Maybe something on the service/server-side…

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Definitely not NextDNS blocking it, or shouldn't be since it happens with it off too. So far, T-Mobile's told me to factory reset my phone. I can definitely try that since I obviously back it up regularly but wasn't my first choice to try.

 

[EdwinG]

You could try resetting your Network Settings first, since those influence your mobile services.
I will note that it will erase your saved wireless network settings, so you will need to fill those in again.

Return iPhone settings to their defaults

On iPhone, return settings to their defaults without erasing your content.

support.apple.com

 

[BalrogWing]

You could try resetting your Network Settings first, since those influence your mobile services.
I will note that it will erase your saved wireless network settings, so you will need to fill those in again.

Return iPhone settings to their defaults

On iPhone, return settings to their defaults without erasing your content.

support.apple.com

Thanks, I did try that yesterday before contacting support and that didn't seem to make a difference. Luckily, I don't have a ton of wifi networks stored and I have them all in 1Password saved so can log back into them when I need to.

 

[BalrogWing]

Did a full factory reset and still no go. Back to support

 

[Ledsteplin]

Did a full factory reset and still no go. Back to support

Does your phone carrier support visual voicemail? Have you discussed it with them? If so, what did they say?

 

[EdwinG]

Does your phone carrier support visual voicemail? Have you discussed it with them? If so, what did they say?

A subquestion to this: are you paying for the Visual Voicemail (iOS) add-on?

On some carriers, like mine, this is not included on the base plan and I have to pay separately for it.

 

[BalrogWing]

A subquestion to this: are you paying for the Visual Voicemail (iOS) add-on?

On some carriers, like mine, this is not included on the base plan and I have to pay separately for it.

I have T-Mobile and it had worked for the first 3-4 months that I had my phone. I don't think there's an add-on payment for it as I had Android with them for 5+ years and never had to pay for it on there either. It could also be the 16.5 beta causing it. I'm on there to test some apps for work that my university develops for students (I'm a DBA) so may just need to wait for the stable version to come out.

 

[Ledsteplin]

A subquestion to this: are you paying for the Visual Voicemail (iOS) add-on?

On some carriers, like mine, this is not included on the base plan and I have to pay separately for it.

Yeah, that's the kind that comes in as a text message in the massages app. That's more with Verizon. But just text form in the phone app is no charge.

 

[EdwinG]

Yeah, that's the kind that comes in as a text message in the massages app. That's more with Verizon. But just text form in the phone app is no charge.

Way back when I had regular voicemail service, the visual voicemail button would just automatically dial the mailbox. And when new messages would be present, I would get an unnumbered badge on the tab and Phone app.

No SMS messages from the carrier at all.