How do I recover missing voicemails on my iPhone after iOS 26 update

Hi everyone! Along with most of us, I upgraded to iOS 26 this past week. Before I did, I had some voicemails in my mailbox from my grandma who passed away (just as a fun memory). I opened up my voicemail today and realized they're gone after the update! And they're not in the recently deleted folder either. Any ideas on how I might be able to recover those? Or if they're just lost?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Missing Voicemail in iOS 26

iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 24, 2025 10:35 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 5, 2025 1:52 PM

The following worked for me. I’m not sure if both steps were needed. I had no voicemails showing and I use AT&T.


I turned on Airplane Mode for 10 secs, then turned it off. Waiting for cellular to reconnect.


I went to Phone app, Recents tab, clicked top-right “triangle lines” menu. Switched from Classic to Unified view, then back to Classic (which I prefer, either way try going back and forth from your current setting). Then all my voicemails reappeared.


In my case, when the vmails were missing, I didn’t even have a Deleted Messages folder, if that’s any indication.

13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 5, 2025 1:52 PM in response to nomadicnate

The following worked for me. I’m not sure if both steps were needed. I had no voicemails showing and I use AT&T.


I turned on Airplane Mode for 10 secs, then turned it off. Waiting for cellular to reconnect.


I went to Phone app, Recents tab, clicked top-right “triangle lines” menu. Switched from Classic to Unified view, then back to Classic (which I prefer, either way try going back and forth from your current setting). Then all my voicemails reappeared.


In my case, when the vmails were missing, I didn’t even have a Deleted Messages folder, if that’s any indication.

Nov 3, 2025 7:38 AM in response to Klemm2

See this older response to saving voicemails. Saving Voice Mail Message to Voice Memos … - Apple Community


When you tap on Share, you can save them to the Files app as an audio file, just change the name to something that describes the message, or you can tap on Voice Memo as indicated in the above link, and again, change the same you save it as. And as indicated in Jeff Donald's response check with your carrier. They can also delete your voicemail, so if you ever have something you find important to save, always use this method to archive the voicemail.

Dec 2, 2025 2:01 PM in response to nomadicnate

I too upgraded and the voicemails from my late spouse disappeared. It was escalated to a senior technician but they were not hopeful. Never had voicemails disappear before so I never thought I needed to save them as an audio file—I was used to Apple’s excellent services so never thought I needed to second guess Apple or do their job. Perhaps I should print all emails just in case an update impacts emails. Not pleased and I see similar messages from other iPhone users. Losing the last and maybe only audio recordings of a late spouse is enough to permanently switch back to Android. At least with Android, I knew I needed to do everything myself.

How do I recover missing voicemails on my iPhone after iOS 26 update

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