Voicemail - No Personal Greeting Fix iPhone 15

[DonW1]

Thought I'd share a fix for a problem I had setting up a personal voicemail greeting on my new iPhone 15 pro, in case others have a  similar problem.  After setting up voicemail in the normal manner and recording a personal greeting, callers  to my phone could only receive the automated system greeting - the electronic lady!  I could not get my personal greetings to answer even though they were recorded and active.  Several calls to Telus support yielded no solution. BUT after searching I found that I had to turn off/ disable the "Live Voicemail" setting under the Phone app in Settings.  Once done my personal greeting immediately became active.  I don't use Live Voicemail anyway, but I suppose it would be a problem for someone who wanted both personal greetings on voicemail and Live Voicemail.  There you go.

[Nighthawk]

The Live Voicemail is a feature Apple announced with iOS 17 and it's completely separate from the carrier voicemail. Considering carrier based Visual Voicemail is an additional cost, Apple's free alternative is useful for some users.

Live Voicemail details and instructions on turning off: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT213877

[DonW1 · Accepted solution]

Yes Nighthawk thanks for your post.  I just don't want people to miss my central point "If you're having trouble getting personal voicemail greeting to work instead of the system greeting, try turning off the "Live Voicemail" setting on your iPhone 15".

[madeleineb]

Just want to say THANK YOU so much for your helpful post here - was literally the only way I was able to figure out why all of a sudden there's a British lady as my voicemail greeting. I also called Telus who had no clue how to help me. Anyway I appreciate you taking the time to write this post to help others.... you are doing the lord's work!

[jtabirao]

I had this issue for all IOS 17 users, Telus needs to fix this between the new update live voice and their voice mail to work at the same time.

[Nighthawk]

The way the new voicemail in iOS 17 works is that it goes to Apple by default. It's not something Telus is able to fix as Apple is redirecting calls to their voicemail before they go to carrier voicemail.

Apple's voicemail will not work with carrier voicemail so users would need to decide on which voicemail service they prefer to use. The Apple one, or the voicemail from the cell service providers. 

[jtabirao]

It's possible to work at the same time, stop blaming the apple and face the challenge.

[Nighthawk]

Once the calls go to Apple's live voicemail, they stay there. They do not redirect to the carrier voicemail after iOS intercepts the calls. No individual carrier can change the way that Apple chooses to design their operating system or the features included.

As Apple states on their site:

If your iPhone is turned off or out of your carrier network's range, calls go to carrier voicemail. Otherwise, the call goes to Live Voicemail.

[paulori]

Thanks all for this "conversation". It identified and sort of solved my ( same) problem. I am using Koodo ( and therefore also Telus). But interestingly my wife's iPhone 12 has no issues using  Live Voicemail ( she can record a greeting and that is the greeting heard) but my iPhone 14 Pro doesn't give me that option. I have to resort to turning Live Voicemail off to enable a personal greeting to be heard.  In saying that I just noticed that her phone updated overnight to 17.2.1 but mine didn't ( still 17.1.2). I am hoping that is the necessary bug fix. About to find out 🙂

[LylaGill]

I can tell you what worked for me, what i did was this disabled voicemail on an iPhone depends on your carrier and whether you want a permanent or temporary solution. Here are the two options:-

1. Contact your mobile carrier:-

• This is the most reliable way to completely disable voicemail. Your carrier can deactivate it on their end for your account.

2. Use a voicemail deactivation code (temporary):-

• This method isn't available for all carriers, especially pre-paid plans.
• Dial the code #404# from the iPhone's phone app and tap Call.
• This code works for some GSM providers worldwide, but it's not guaranteed.

More details instruction below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La5RE1T15OY&ab_channel=TheGeekPage