How to Fix a Full Voicemail Box on an iPhone

Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team

1. Introduction

There's always a chance that when you update your iPhone there will be a bug. One such bug often reported after an update involves your voicemail. If you're absolutely sure you have space in your voicemail but the iPhone is giving you a message that voicemail is full, you most likely have this bug.

Your voicemail essentially lives in two places. One place is with your iPhone, downloaded on the phone itself or in iCloud. The second place is your carrier. The bug occurs when those two places do not communicate properly so your iPhone may show your voicemail is empty, but your carrier actually has them all still saved.

There are a few ways to fix this error.

Tools You'll Need:

  • A paperclip
  • iPhone charging cable
  • Access to a computer with iTunes installed
  • Any other non-consumable tools needed
  • Comment out tools section if no tools are necessary

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Supplies You'll Need:

  • Zip ties
  • Any other consumable supplies
  • Comment out supplies section if no supplies are necessary

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Before You Begin:

  • You must have access to a computer with iTunes installed.
  • You must have that thing for the other thing so you can do the thing.

You must have this thing before you whatever.

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Voicemail full

2. Make Sure Voicemails are Deleted

Let's start by making sure your voicemails are completely deleted off your phone. iPhones will keep your deleted voicemails for 30 days before deleting them permanently. You can delete them yourself by accessing Deleted Voicemails. We're going to do both methods here.

Delete Read and Unread Voicemails

  1. Tap the Phone.
Phone
  1. Tap Voicemail.
Voicemail on the iphone
  1. Tap Edit.
Edit for iphone voicemail
  1. Select the Voicemails you want to delete.
Selecting voicemails
  1. Tap Delete.
Deleting voicemails

Clear Deleted Voicemails

  1. From your main Voicemail list, tap Deleted Messages.
Deleted messages
  1. Tap Clear All.
Clearing messages
  1. Tap Clear All again to erase saved messages.
Erasing deleted messages

3. Delete Voicemails in Airplane Mode

If just making sure your voicemails are all deleted didn't work then you're still having issues with the communication between your phone and the carrier. To try and fix this, we're going to use Airplane mode.

Turning Airplane Mode On

  1. Open Settings on your phone or tablet.
iOS Settings.
  1. Tap the toggle switch to the right of Airplane Mode to turn it on.
Airplane Mode toggle switch highlighted in iOS settings.
  1. With Airplane Mode turned On, all the wireless communication radios will be turned off.
Airplane Mode turned on in iOS settings.

Delete Read and Unread Voicemails

  1. Tap the Phone.
Phone
  1. Tap Voicemail.
Voicemail on the iphone
  1. Tap Edit.
Edit for iphone voicemail
  1. Select the Voicemails you want to delete.
Selecting voicemails
  1. Tap Delete.
Deleting voicemails

Clear Deleted Voicemails

  1. From your main Voicemail list, tap Deleted Messages.
Deleted messages
  1. Tap Clear All.
Clearing messages
  1. Tap Clear All again to erase saved messages.
Erasing deleted messages

Turn Airplane Mode Off

  1. Open Settings on your phone or tablet.
iOS Settings.
  1. Tap the toggle switch to the right of Airplane Mode to turn it off.
Airplane Mode toggle switch highlighted in iOS settings.
  1. With Airplane Mode turned Off, all the wireless communication radios will be turned on.
Airplane Mode turned on in iOS settings.
  1. Now that Airplane mode is off and your communication radios are on, your carrier should get an update from your phone.

4. Check for a Carrier Settings Update

If none of the above worked, you may need to update your carrier settings. Let's go ahead and check if you have an update waiting.

To ensure that your device is able to check for and perform this update, make sure your iOS device is connected to Wi-Fi before proceeding.

  1. Tap Settings.
iOS Settings icon.
  1. Tap General.
iOS settings menu with general highlighted
  1. Tap About.
iOS general settings with about highlighted
  1. If a carrier settings update is available, you'll be prompted to update. Select Update to perform the update.
iOS carrier update prompt
  1. If there is no update or the update didn't take care of your voicemail issue you'll need to contact your cellular network provider (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc) as they have control of your saved voicemails. They should be able to fix the issue.