Is your voicemail full? iPhone owners who get a lot of calls and send them to voicemail might notice this sometimes. If you get calls during your workday or when you’re off the clock and don’t want to answer, then you may have a full inbox before very long.
Having an inbox full of voicemail messages might be a temporary inconvenience, but iPhone users can usually get rid of those messages with a minimum of difficulty. We’ll talk about what you can do if you have a full voicemail box in the following article.
Listen to Your iPhone Voicemail and then Delete Each One You No Longer Need
First, let’s assume that your voicemail box is legitimately full. A little later in the article, we’ll talk about what you can do if you’re sure there’s room in your iPhone voicemail inbox but the phone is telling you there’s no space left.
If you have several people calling and leaving you messages in your iPhone voicemail inbox, there will come a time when the phone can’t store any more of them. iPhones have the capacity to store a great many voicemail messages, so this might not be a problem if you only have callers leaving you messages occasionally.
From your Home screen, tap the Phone app. You can also swipe left at your App Library if you have an iPhone model where you can’t open the Phone app from your Home screen.
Hit Voicemail. Tap the desired message and listen to it. If you don’t feel like you need to save that message, you can then get rid of it by hitting the trash can icon that appears inside the circle.
In your phone app, under the list of recorded voicemails, you will see where it says “Deleted Messages” and “Blocked Messages.” Once you delete a message, it goes into the Deleted Messages folder.
If you have set up any numbers not to get through to you, those will automatically end up in the Blocked Messages folder. Setting up blocked voicemails is easy to do, and you might feel like that’s the best option with some of your contacts.
Can You Still Listen to Messages in the Blocked or Deleted Messages Folders?
iOS device users should know, though, that you can still listen to an iPhone voicemail that is in either the blocked or deleted folder.
To do so, tap the folder that contains an iPhone voicemail that you’d like to listen to and tap that particular message. If you have set up your phone so that it requires a voicemail password before you can hear any of your messages, then type in that numerical code.
How About if You Want to Get Rid of Voicemails Permanently?
You might also decide that you want to completely delete voicemail messages that are in either your blocked or deleted messages folder. To do so, you’ll need to tap in your voicemail password if you set one up, then you can hit Clear All on the top right-hand side of the screen.
A message will come up on the bottom of the screen asking whether you want to Clear All or whether you’d like to cancel. If you are sure that you want permanently deleted voicemails, you can hit Clear All. You can also Cancel if you have changed your mind.
Should You Ever Permanently Delete Voicemails?
Whether or not each iPhone owner wants to permanently delete any of their voicemails is a personal decision. Maybe you have a voicemail from a blocked number, and that phone number belongs to a family member or a significant other with whom you have had a falling out.
You may be mad at them now, but in a couple of days, you might have calmed down enough that you want to listen to what they have to say. If you put in your voicemail password and then hit Clear All, followed by Clear All again to confirm, that will get rid of all the messages in either the blocked or deleted messages folders permanently.
There is no way to retrieve those deleted voicemails once you take this action. Since you can’t recover deleted voicemails that you permanently erased, consider carefully and do not make this move frivolously, particularly if some of the voicemails you erased are important or meaningful for one reason or another.
Now, let us talk about what you can do if your iPhone’s voice mailbox claims to be full, but you’re sure you still have some room in there.
Reset Network Settings
iPhones can have software or hardware issues that impede their functionalities. If your inbox says that it’s full when someone calls it, but you have no saved voicemail messages or very few, that’s probably due to a software-related issue.
Resetting your network settings is the first logical fix that you can try. If you are using an iPhone that is running iOS version 15 or later, you can tap Settings, then General, and then Transfer or Reset Device. Next, hit Reset, and then tap Reset Network Settings.
If you are using an iPhone that’s running iOS version 14 or earlier, then you will hit Settings, then General, then Reset, followed by Reset Network Settings.
Now, have someone call your iPhone and see whether they can leave you a voicemail message. If they’re still getting a notification that says voicemail is full, try this next fix.
Turn Airplane Mode Off and On a Few Times
Turning Airplane Mode on and off a few times might be what it takes to fix this issue with your voice messages. Pull up your Control Center by swiping down with your finger from the top right-hand side of your Home screen. Then, tap the Airplane Mode button, which looks like an airplane flying with its wings outstretched.
Turn Airplane Mode on and off a few times before leaving it in the off position. You will know it’s off if the button is clear rather than orange.
If your iPhone says voicemail is full after that, you know you must try something else. You might fix iPhone voicemail problems if you change your voicemail password.
Change Voicemail Password to Fix iPhone Voicemail Issues
If you change voicemail password functionality on your iPhone, that might help if the device still says voicemail is full when you know it isn’t. Do so by hitting Settings, then Phone. Next, tap Change Voicemail Password.
You will be prompted to type in a new 4,5, or 6-digit passcode. Do that, then hit Done. You will be prompted to enter the new passcode again. Do that, then hit Done a second time.
Now, see whether you have fully restored functionality to your voicemail app. If your iPhone says voicemail is full even after you’ve tried these fixes, it’s time to get some help from the pros.
Talk to an Apple Store Employee About Persistent iPhone Voicemail Full Messages
If your voicemail is empty or it has just a few messages, but your iPhone says voicemail is full, then the fixes we’ve recommended might help you. If people who try to call you keep getting that annoying iPhone voicemail full message, despite your best efforts, then you should take the device to an Apple Store with a Genius Bar.
The workers there might have some additional ideas to get rid of that iPhone voicemail full message. They will probably tinker with your device to try and determine what’s wrong with it.
They may have some questions for you about deleted voice messages. For instance, they might ask whether you’ve been able to delete voicemails like you normally would, or whether any of the other functionalities having to do with your messages and inbox have stopped working.
Will this Problem Cost Anything to Fix?
As we mentioned earlier, usually, a voicemail is full message that you can’t get rid of has something to do with your device’s software. Your warranty or an AppleCare+ plan doesn’t cover software problems. If that is what’s happening, then you might have to pay something out of pocket if the Geniuses determine that your voicemail-related issues are being caused by some software glitch.
Hopefully, that fix will not be too costly. If you are lucky, maybe the Apple Store employees can adjust one of your settings and fix the issue, and it will cost you nothing.
