what to know
- To retrieve, open the Phone app > Voicemail > Deleted Messages > Tap Voicemail > Undelete > Voicemail .
- To delete permanently, select Phone > Voicemail > Trash > Clear All > Clear All .
This article explains how to retrieve and permanently delete voicemails on iPhone. Instructions apply to iPhones running iOS 10 and above.
If you have deleted your voicemail and now want to recover it, follow these steps:
Tap the Phone app to open it.
Click Voicemail in the lower right corner.
Click Deleted Messages at the bottom of the voicemail queue to view voicemails that have been deleted but are still on your phone.
If you don't have any voicemails to retrieve, you won't see the Trash option.
Click on the voicemail you want to recover.
Click Undelete below the selected voicemail. On some versions of iOS, tap the red trash can icon with a line through it.
Click Voicemail in the upper left corner to return to the main visual voicemail screen. The voicemail you just retrieved will be there waiting for you.
Although it is easy to recover voicemails on iPhone, there are some situations where you will not be able to save old voicemails.
The Trash section of the phone app is like the Trash or Recycle Bin on your desktop computer: files stay there until they are emptied.
Although there is no "Clear" button on iPhone, deleted voicemails will be cleared from memory when you sync iPhone with your computer.
They can also be permanently deleted (see next section), and your phone company may often purge deleted messages automatically.
As long as your phone hasn't been synced since the last time you marked a voicemail for deletion, you should be able to recover it. However, if the voicemail doesn't appear in the Trash section, it may be gone forever.
To permanently clear deleted voicemails immediately, follow these steps:
Click on the Phone app.
Click on Voicemail .
Select Trash .
Select Clear All in the upper right corner.
Click Clear All on the confirmation screen that pops up.
Your Deleted Voicemails folder is now empty, and you cannot recover anything it contains.
In most cases, you need to contact your mobile operator to recover deleted Android voicemails. However, if you use an alternative program instead of the built-in Phone app, you may be able to find them in the Trash or Deleted Items folder.
Unfortunately, once you delete your voicemails on Google Voice, you cannot recover them. If you think you may need a voicemail, archive it by selecting Voicemail > Click Options (three-dot icon) > Archive . You can access your archive via the menu icon in the upper left corner of the app.
