Long delay receiving voicemail

[DaveM]

I've always had some problems with voicemail not showing up immediately. It's not unusual for it to take 5 or 10 minutes after a missed call for the voicemail (and the notification) to show up. I've lived with it because usually it's not a major issue for me. Yesterday I missed a call around 4:00 in the afternoon. No voicemail. Around 11:15 p.m that night all of a sudden I got a notification of the voicemail which the person had actually left over 7 hours earlier! Any thoughts or insights as to why this might happen, and what to do about it? I'm in a Verizon populated area with excellent coverage, so it's not a case of not having a cell signal or something like that.

 

[scifan57]

Have you noticed if the voicemail ever appears before the notification or does the voicemail itself not appear until the notification is received?

 

[DaveM]

Good question. In yesterday's case I saw that I had missed the call and called the person back (a client) within about 5 minutes. She asked if I had listed to her voicemail and I told her that I hadn't received a voicemail, but actually mentioned to her that sometimes it takes a few minutes for them to show up. After we talked I did go in and looked for the voicemail. It wasn't there. That would have been at least 15 minutes after she had left it. I didn't check again until I got the notification late in the evening.

 

[DaveM]

After searching (Google) on this problem it would seem that it's not related to one specific carrier, but the problem has been around for a long time (years). Some say to have your carrier do a reset on the voicemail from their end. Other say that they've solved the issue by doing a "Reset Network Settings" on their phone. I've done neither, but last night I tried sending myself a voicemail using my wife's phone and it showed up within less than a minute. Don't know what to think.

 

[scifan57]

Does your wife ever have the same problem when people leave voicemails on her iPhone?

 

[DaveM]

She doesn’t get many, but I just ran a test and it didn’t take more than 10 seconds to show up, including a notification.
Interestingly, just after that last post I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize so I let it go to voicemail. A few minutes later I checked for a voicemail and there was one there, but I didn’t get a notification.

 

[scifan57]

There's the possibility that there may be something in your iPhone that's causing the delay if other iPhones such as your wife's are receiving the notifications as normal. Have you thought about a Genius Bar appointment at an Apple Store for a free diagnostic.
Which iPhone do you use and is it still under warranty? If it is, and if there is a hardware fault, it should be covered under the standard warranty and AppleCare+ if you have it.

 

[DaveM]

I have a 6s (see my avatar), out of warranty for a year now. The nearest Apple store is 80 miles away. Seems odd that it would happen sometimes but not others, but I won’t rule out an intermittent problem. If it persists I may need to make a trip. But I’d probably try a Verizon voicemail reset first. Easiest to do. Thanks.

 

[scifan57]

I have a 6s (see my avatar), out of warranty for a year now. The nearest Apple store is 80 miles away. Seems odd that it would happen sometimes but not others, but I won’t rule out an intermittent problem. If it persists I may need to make a trip. But I’d probably try a Verizon voicemail reset first. Easiest to do. Thanks.

It's always best to exhaust all other choices before taking it in for a possible service.

 

[xrayeyes]

I've had some issues with receiving VM's lately and I have Verizon also. But, this did start after I bought my new iPhone 8. A voicemail came the next day just last week. I did get a carrier update a few days ago, so I'll see if it continues to be a problem. I have always thought it was a carrier issue and not a phone issue, but I could be wrong