iPhone "Cannot Connect to Voicemail"
My wife's iPhone 4 came new out of the box at the telecom store. Neither of us have visual voice mail, in which case the voice mail button should just display a list with voice messages. It works on my phone, but it did not on my wife's. Instead, it displayed an error:
It simply asked to contact Telus Mobility for assistance. I did. At first they wanted to sell me their visual voicemail feature at $7/mo. When I explained that it works on my phone, they just made me Google it. Wow. Then they had me reset her voicemail password, which some folks reported as the solution in various forums, but that didn't work for us.
What did work is the following:
From the keypad, type *5005*86*-----------# where the dashes represent your 11-digit voice mail number (typically starting with 1). Then tap call. The screen will flash, ever so briefly, and after that it looks like nothing happened. (It doesn't actually make an outbound call.) Clear the number off the screen (switch to favorites and back or something) and press and hold the 1 key. It dialed voice mail! From then on, the voice mail button also started working.
Mind you, I know that we dial our own number to access voicemail. If your service provider has a fixed number (as many do) you would have to enter that number. This option seems to reprogram the voice mail number to what you enter.
The code *#5005*86# displays the currently active number.
Disclaimer: This worked for me. It may not work for you. If in doubt, please contact your service provider. As always with anything you find on the internet, use at your own risk.
This is still valid for the iPhone 7.
Comments
It worked for me except now when I hit the "voicemail" button, it automatically calls my voicemail. How do I get the screen that shows what voicemails I have, which ones I've listened to and which ones are new? I don't have that screen anymore :-(
It worked for me except now when I hit the "voicemail" button, it automatically calls my voicemail. How do I get the screen that shows what voicemails I have, which ones I've listened to and which ones are new? I don't have that screen anymore :-(
The feature you are probably referring to is Visual Voicemail and at least with Telus that's not free, it's optional. Without Visual Voicemail (as I stated in the original post) it simply dials the voicemail number. You don't see how many voicemails.
I would contact your service provider and ask them to check with you whether that feature is enabled or not.
Worked for me on iPhone 4S, I'm on 2 Degrees network in New Zealand. Cheers!
Excellent!
I don't know how you figured this out, but thank you! Both Koodo and Telus customer service weren't able to resolve the problem. Nor could the guy at the Koodo store. This worked on the first try. My voicemail button now works as it's supposed to!
Worked for me, too. Thanks! The problem cropped up 7 months after I got the iPhone. Odd.
Good to hear it worked.
Thank you so much the same thing happened to me and this worked.
Really appreciate it!
Glad it worked for you.
Worked great and saved time having to call into TELUS support...which I generally find pretty helpful.
Telus Mobility isn't bad. Except in this case for me. :)
I was having the same problem and this worked for me, thanks!
Glad to hear it helped you.
Settings -> Phone -> My Number. Restart, and it was fixed for me.
The * codes are a holdover from pre-smartphone days but are still required to be included. I remember unlocking my old Nokia phone with one many years ago.
Good to hear your solution worked for you but I had tried that, it wasn't that simple. You really need to send that code to the phone to reprogram the sim.
Thank you for the tips! It works for me.
Good to hear!
Worked on my iphone 4s after vm just stopped working. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Thanks!!! It definitely works!
It does. :)
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! I was trying to figure this out for over 2 hrs. I couldnt figure it out. I used your tip and BAM! Problem = solved.
Good to hear it worked for you.
Thank you! Had this problem since the day I got the phone, 10 months ago! Rarely get voicemails so just dialed my number whenever I actually had to retrieve one. Finally decided to do a google search and found your post. Thanks so much!
You're welcome, glad it helped you.
Worked like a char. Amazing what you can find help with by seaching.Telus couldn't help me when I phoned for assistance. It didn't work the first time I tried because I missed pressing the # sign after putting in my 11 digit phone number. Thank you very much. Will remember this fix if it happens again.
Yeah, I had a similar experience with Telus.
Thanks! My voicemail was working fine until today when I could no longer connect to my voicemail for some unknown reason. I found your advise via google on how to resolve it, and it worked! Woohoo, better than having to call the service provider!
Interesting that it worked and then stopped working.
I work for one of the cellular providers in North America; this is and has been an iPhone issue which has been occurring for months and is likely to persist. The reality is that you will experience this issue on multiple occasions, performing the above will resolve the issue, however, once the above has been performed, powercycling your device (off and on) will typically fix it should it occur more than once. You can also perform a reset network settings, which also corrects a number of other wifi/cellular issues with the iPhone.
Thanks for the comment. I assume the reset is intended for comment #99, where the voice mail issue occurs on a phone that was working before. (We have never experienced this issue since entering the code as per the original post.)
In order to perform a reset of the network data proceed to
Settings/General/Reset. This takes you to a screen with several reset options, one of which isReset Network Settings.Please be advised that this also wipes out all your remembered WiFi networks!
Yes!!!! Worked for me thanks! Been trying to fix that since I got my phone a year ago
That's a long time. :)
Amazing thanks
You're welcome.
Awesome! Thank you for the post! Worked like a charm! (o:
Glad it worked for you!
I had posted previously, I'm the individual who works with one of NA's cellular providers. Just wanted to let everyone know that the same issues are occurring with the iPhone5 and the issue can be resolved in the same way as noted above.
Thanks for the update.
stplanken, many thanks. Had this issue out of the box on a brand new iPhone 5 on Telus. Your solution worked perfectly. Would you be able to explain what this actually does? I had tried resetting network settings before finding your method, so I don't think it's simply doing that?
I believe this interacts with the sim.
I'm on 8ta in South Africa and it worked for me too, thanks:)
Good to hear!
#85 worked on my Iphone 5
That's great!
I was struggling for a while.. I had googled it.. Found this article,, and it worked like a charm on my first attempt.. Thank u very very much
You're welcome, glad it helped.
Thanks!!
Thanks - genius. My provider Orange in the UK just changed my PIna nd were no help
Good to hear it worked.
That fixed the problem for my Telus 4S - Thx !
Any idea how I can add a 6 char vmail PIN to the string so I don't have to key it in each time I connect to my vmail :)
Good to hear. As for the second part, I'm not sure you would be able to do that with this.
BINGO. Worked for me.
Thanks it worked for me on iPhone 5, but only after I did a network reset after. I too would love to know how to add the PIN code automatically (4 digit). Or eliminate the pin code entirely. Thank you for sharing!
Well, another one to add to the list. Just did a search, your page popped up and it's fixed. Thanks for the solution. It's appreciated!
You're welcome!
Thanks, it works on my new iphone5! Before that, I can only access my voice mail by dialing my own number.
Nice that that hasn't changed for the iPhone 5.
Worked like a charm! (Darned iPhones, never had this issue with my BB)
Not sure if this could never happen on any other phone.
Thanks!! You're awesome for figuring this out and sharing it!! Worked on my phone on Rogers.
Glad you have it working.
Thanks worked on my iphone 5
Glad you have it working!
not working for me. :s!
Just got the iphone 5 with telus as my provider
If I do the code *#5005*86# and push CALL - I see the "blip" but then your instructions say to press 1 - and it doesnt call.
I also dont know where to punch in my number - - - if I do it in the first sequence you posted all together - - and push call - it just says "error dismiss message"
HELP!
Tap the phone icon and ensure the keypad is selected. Then type the code
*#5005*86#and tap "call". It will display the number that it is currently using (if a number was programmed). This sequence just displays the currently programmed number, this doesn't do the programming.To set up a number, clear the keypad (so no old numbers still visible) and type
*5005*86*-----------#where the dashes represent your number. For example:*5005*86*15551234567#. Then tap "call".Then the voice mail button should work.
If that doesn't work, I don't really know what to tell you.
Worked!!
Thanks soooo much bro
You're welcome, glad it helped.
Wow!!! it works perfectly! Thanks, without this post, I will loose a lot of time trying to fix that.
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