"Visual voicemail is currently unavailable".

[dwh1]

Hi. I've been on Public Mobile for about a week, after having been on Koodo for several years.  I had Visual Voicemail on Koodo for a while but turned it off to save money several months ago.  Everything is working well except for one thing.

On PM on my iPhone 14 Pro, the Voicemail screen says that Visual Voicemail is unavailable and offers me a button to call voicemail.  Now, I know PM doesn't offer Visual Voicemail, so this is odd. Worse is that if I am on cellular data with no wifi, the Voicemail tab in the phone app is simply blank other than the "Greeting" button - I can't call for voicemail from the app. Of course, I could create a favourite for the underlying phone number - but I'd prefer to have this work the way it is supposed to.

Note: my voicemail DOES work - the problem is just with the on-screen presentation and the lack of access via the screen when on LTE data.

Any ideas, or is this something that needs to go to CS?

[dwh1]

@softech  It wasn't as bad as I had expected - so much is cloud based these days - but I'm still finding little settings here and there that I don't have the way I want.  

On thing that did help was doing screen shots of my screen layouts and the contents of the app library so that I could be sure I didn't miss restoring apps I wanted. 

[softech]

@dwh1   thanks for the update

Yes, the backup still has all the settings, and definitely includes  the one you don't want , VVM enabled settings, hence restoring from backup should not be done.  And I do understand it is tough to re-setup everything without the backup  😞

[dwh1]

I'm going to follow up on my own question here.  I reached out to CS and yesterday had a 2nd level technician reach out to me.  We ended up on a  joint call with someone from Apple support, who had me try erasing my phone and setting it from scratch and then also restoring it from a backup.  The problem went away on a  fresh set up and returned when I restored from backup.  

It's clearly a software problem then - likely something having gotten "stuck" from previously having had Visual Voicemail on Koodo, even though I turned it off months before coming to PM.  I had a followup call with Apple support and asked for a ticket for engineering to look into it but that second support person was clearly less experienced than the first one, so I'm not sure if that report will actually go anywhere.  I then erased my phone one last time and spent several hours getting things set up from scratch.  All is working now.

TLDR: If your phone thinks you have Visual Voicemail here and so you have the wrong UI and no red dots on the Voicemail tab in the phone app, erase your phone and set it up from scratch.  Right now it seems to be the only way.

[dust2dust]

I agree. Absolute last resort. I do not wish that on anyone.

How about this - dial -

*5005*86*17785804001#

[dwh1]

I'll reach out to Apple, since a full non-restored reset is an absolute last resort.

[softech · Accepted solution]

@dwh1 so, you are down to a full reset of the phone, without restoring old settings, or try to call Apple for help

Usually, the carrier has to push the setting to turn off VVM, but PM does not have VVM features and unable to send the setting to disable it.   This is one of the most annoying Apple issue here  😞

[dwh1]

Good suggestion to try a network reset - it unfortunately made no difference.  Very odd. 

[Handy1]

@softech  Ty for that. I’ve never bought an add on or had VM . So certainly unaware . My apologies. As for Telus tier 1 Koodo 2 PM 3 

For my needs feels like PM 2 Koodo 3 

App / 5G services / included international text and not disguised as a perk . Still lots to love here at PM 

[Nezgar]

You might need to do some kind of network settings reset on the phone, as since Public Mobile doesn't have Visual Voicemail, your phone might still be showing Visual Voicemail stuff since you had it on your previous carrier. If the phone is reset starting out with Public Mobile, maybe that will get cleaned up.

In the mean time, the best I can suggest is dialling your own or the voicemail access number directly, or maybe holding "1" in the dialpad will also work.

[softech]

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@Handy1 wrote:

I’m mean if Koodo has it .why not PM 

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@Handy1 it's $5/month for VVM for both Koodo and Telus

as you know, PM does not have features add-on like this here, after all, it's a Tier 3 provider only

[dwh1]

@softech The funny thing is that I cancelled VM on Koodo months ago and the Voicemail screen looked fine there.

Yeah, I may need to go via Apple.

[softech]

@dwh1   

Yes, there is no VVM here.  Supposingly,  one have to cancel itbefore migrating to a new carrier that doesn't support Visual Voicemail and ensure that the normal voicemail works properly.  Of course it is too late now 😞

You can try to  Reset the phone to original factory specs losing everything and reinstalling everything from scratch, not restoring it.

Other suggest to call  Apple support at 1-800-263-3394 and they may be able to work through a fix.

[Handy1]

@dwh1  Sorry .you did mention your knew it wasn’t available. I cannot answer your question . But my best guess is it could be coming then possibly. I’m mean if Koodo has it .why not PM 

[dwh1]

@Handy1 As I stated.  So why is my phone saying is in unavailable instead of offering me the "normal" voicemail experience when VM isn't supported/enabled?

[Handy1]

@dwh1  PM does not support visual voicemail