New iphone - can I get my voicemail back?

[Anonymous]

So DH decided as a surprise to get me a verizon iphone for Valentine's Day, and he had it set up and my phone number switched to it without my knowing. The issue is that now I cannot access my old voicemail - which I have had saved on my verizon cellphone for years. The messages are extremely important to me, as there are several from my mother, who died two years ago, and these are all I have of her voice. I am completely panicked, as I just googled and it says "Save your voicemail before you switch to the iphone." DH did not do this, and now I am so afraid that I have lost the messages from my mother. Talk about a Valentine's day present gone awry. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions as to how I might get my messages back?

Thanks very much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So DH decided as a surprise to get me a verizon iphone for Valentine's Day, and he had it set up and my phone number switched to it without my knowing. The issue is that now I cannot access my old voicemail - which I have had saved on my verizon cellphone for years. The messages are extremely important to me, as there are several from my mother, who died two years ago, and these are all I have of her voice. I am completely panicked, as I just googled and it says "Save your voicemail before you switch to the iphone." DH did not do this, and now I am so afraid that I have lost the messages from my mother. Talk about a Valentine's day present gone awry. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions as to how I might get my messages back?

Thanks very much.

So sorry you're dealing with this. have you tried contacting your cell phone provider to see if maybe they could help?

[Anonymous]

I'd contact verizon. My understanding would be that the voicemails are not saved ON your phone, but in some storage space accessible from other phones as well.

[Anonymous]

Your story is heartbreaking OP! I think you should call Verizon direcly asap to see if they can help you--I just got an Iphone and have not set it up, but in the instructions it says that you should back up old meesages because once you activate your Iphone, you will not have access to your old VM and all messages will be erased.

So sorry to have to tell you this! I hope they can get your messages back for you!

[Anonymous]

OP, please let us know how everythng turns out-- I'm pulling for you.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the support - I really appreciate it. I just called Verizon, and unfortunately, the messages were deleted immediately upon switching over to the iphone. I think the guy wanted to cry when he told me. Honestly, I am just so crestfallen. I could have copied these messages any time in the last few years, but I loved having them come up every 40 days as "about to expire" and I would listen to them and resave them, and it was just nice carrying around those little reminders. My mom was just the chattiest, happiest person in the world, and I loved having her little voice pipe in with "Hi lovey, hope you're having a great day!" Sigh. I really will miss her voice.

Anyway - good lesson for all. Save the voices of those you love in a place that can't be deleted! And thanks again to those who were sympathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your story is heartbreaking OP! I think you should call Verizon direcly asap to see if they can help you--I just got an Iphone and have not set it up, but in the instructions it says that you should back up old meesages because once you activate your Iphone, you will not have access to your old VM and all messages will be erased.
So sorry to have to tell you this! I hope they can get your messages back for you!

OP again. I do wish DH had read this when he set up my phone! Sweet of him to want to do it all for me, but oh boy what a mess!

[Anonymous]

this JUST happen to me and i am verrrry upset with the fact being so, THIS IS THE ONLY PHONE THIS HAPPENS TO, that they DO NOT let us know ahead of time!!!!!!!! i have a lot of very important personal messages from my grandparents, mother, and nephew/nieces as their 1st few times calling me on their own... i would like to STICK MY MIDDLE FINGER UP THE NOSE OF THE PERSON WHO DID THIS TECHNICAL MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for your lose in your mother's voice... Just hope she comes to you in dreams and what not!! xoxo my blessings

[Anonymous]

I FOUND A SOLUTION!! I WAS ABLE TO GET MINE BACK!!

Scroll down to the second paragraph to skip my story and see what i did to recover my voicemails!!

Sorry for the caps I just wanted to make sure you saw this because it is time sensitive.... I am in a very similar situation to you, I purchased the Iphone and activated it, I got walked through by an iphone tech and was never told about the whole voicemail thing. My grandmother passed away April of 2010 and I like to listen to her voicemails, I have about 12 of hers, I realized this morning I no longer had access to them. I called Verizon about 6 times crying hysterically since she was like my mother who raised me, and lived with me my whole life! ... They all said oh no they are completely gone there is no way to recover blah blah blah. I knew it todays world, this was VERY unlikely!!
I got home and this was the FIRST thing I did ..

1. Shut off new I-phone that is currently activated
2. Went online to the VZW website and followed steps to RE-ACTIVATE my OLD cell phone (Droid X)
3. After it was activated on the verizon website by entering info like your phone number, and serial number on the phone(before i did the *228 as recommended by verizon) I called me voicemail on my old phone as usual by dialing my number and pressing my password
4. TADAA!! I had all my old messages!! They were all still there!!

It is important to shut off your currently activated iphone because it might not work, both phones will be trying to access the network and will cause an authentication issue, which if you forget, and this happens call verizon they will fix it in 2 seconds.

Second, I did get a weird message when i was calling my voicemail that said i didnt have access to the system, however i stayed on the line and all my old voicemails were there.

Verizon gives you options on how to save your messages but heres what I did... Once i accessed them on my old phone, I called my voicemail and put my speaker on, i turned my iphone back on and in "Utilities" opened the voice memos and recorded each voicemail individually. i just put my voicemal on speaker and held it right next to my iphone the quality of the recordings were perfect!! I then "shared" each voice note and emailed them to my gmail so if i lookse my phone i will still have them online, in my email.

I really hope this helps, I COULDNT believe Verizon techs couldnt tell me this or know about this, I, an a someone who never worked for verizon thought of this idea on my own and crossed my fingers i was so desperate those voicemails meant more to me than 10million dollars would be!!

I called verizon and flipped out on them. I made it a point to come back to this blog and give my response because i know EXACTLY how you feel its horrible feeling, i literally cried all day... oh verizon offered be, a 12 year customer, 20 dollars for my trouble.... i told them to shove it and didnt want it....

if you need me to go into more detail feel free to email me! [e-mail] good luck hun!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So DH decided as a surprise to get me a verizon iphone for Valentine's Day, and he had it set up and my phone number switched to it without my knowing. The issue is that now I cannot access my old voicemail - which I have had saved on my verizon cellphone for years. The messages are extremely important to me, as there are several from my mother, who died two years ago, and these are all I have of her voice. I am completely panicked, as I just googled and it says "Save your voicemail before you switch to the iphone." DH did not do this, and now I am so afraid that I have lost the messages from my mother. Talk about a Valentine's day present gone awry. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions as to how I might get my messages back?

Thanks very much.

Figured I'd quote you incase this helps trigger you getting a notification of a new message.Sorry I am not familiar with this forum! I just came across it while trying to find answers to the same problem you had!! See my response in the post before this!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the information. How long was your Iphone active before you realized about your voicemails? I have had mine for 11 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I FOUND A SOLUTION!! I WAS ABLE TO GET MINE BACK!!

Scroll down to the second paragraph to skip my story and see what i did to recover my voicemails!!

Sorry for the caps I just wanted to make sure you saw this because it is time sensitive.... I am in a very similar situation to you, I purchased the Iphone and activated it, I got walked through by an iphone tech and was never told about the whole voicemail thing. My grandmother passed away April of 2010 and I like to listen to her voicemails, I have about 12 of hers, I realized this morning I no longer had access to them. I called Verizon about 6 times crying hysterically since she was like my mother who raised me, and lived with me my whole life! ... They all said oh no they are completely gone there is no way to recover blah blah blah. I knew it todays world, this was VERY unlikely!!
I got home and this was the FIRST thing I did ..

1. Shut off new I-phone that is currently activated
2. Went online to the VZW website and followed steps to RE-ACTIVATE my OLD cell phone (Droid X)
3. After it was activated on the verizon website by entering info like your phone number, and serial number on the phone(before i did the *228 as recommended by verizon) I called me voicemail on my old phone as usual by dialing my number and pressing my password
4. TADAA!! I had all my old messages!! They were all still there!!

It is important to shut off your currently activated iphone because it might not work, both phones will be trying to access the network and will cause an authentication issue, which if you forget, and this happens call verizon they will fix it in 2 seconds.

Second, I did get a weird message when i was calling my voicemail that said i didnt have access to the system, however i stayed on the line and all my old voicemails were there.

Verizon gives you options on how to save your messages but heres what I did... Once i accessed them on my old phone, I called my voicemail and put my speaker on, i turned my iphone back on and in "Utilities" opened the voice memos and recorded each voicemail individually. i just put my voicemal on speaker and held it right next to my iphone the quality of the recordings were perfect!! I then "shared" each voice note and emailed them to my gmail so if i lookse my phone i will still have them online, in my email.

I really hope this helps, I COULDNT believe Verizon techs couldnt tell me this or know about this, I, an a someone who never worked for verizon thought of this idea on my own and crossed my fingers i was so desperate those voicemails meant more to me than 10million dollars would be!!

I called verizon and flipped out on them. I made it a point to come back to this blog and give my response because i know EXACTLY how you feel its horrible feeling, i literally cried all day... oh verizon offered be, a 12 year customer, 20 dollars for my trouble.... i told them to shove it and didnt want it....

if you need me to go into more detail feel free to email me! [e-mail] good luck hun!!

I just tried this method but it didn't work for me! Just wondering, was this before or after you set up the voicemail on your new iphone?

[Anonymous]

Oh no really?! It was definitely after activatingy iPhone vmail because that is what trigger other vmails to be lost I did it two says after vmail activation..: are you sure you did it right? I just spoke to someone via email who came across thread and it worked for her she had a similar story to mine... What went wrong do you think? We're you able to get your old phone and reactor ate
It?! Were the voicemails no longer there or could you no longer activate tiur old phone? t

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I FOUND A SOLUTION!! I WAS ABLE TO GET MINE BACK!!this thread

Scroll down to the second paragraph to skip my story and see what i did to recover my voicemails!!

Sorry for the caps I just wanted to make sure you saw this because it is time sensitive.... I am in a very similar situation to you, I purchased the Iphone and activated it, I got walked through by an iphone tech and was never told about the whole voicemail thing. My grandmother passed away April of 2010 and I like to listen to her voicemails, I have about 12 of hers, I realized this morning I no longer had access to them. I called Verizon about 6 times crying hysterically since she was like my mother who raised me, and lived with me my whole life! ... They all said oh no they are completely gone there is no way to recover blah blah blah. I knew it todays world, this was VERY unlikely!!
I got home and this was the FIRST thing I did ..

1. Shut off new I-phone that is currently activated
2. Went online to the VZW website and followed steps to RE-ACTIVATE my OLD cell phone (Droid X)
3. After it was activated on the verizon website by entering info like your phone number, and serial number on the phone(before i did the *228 as recommended by verizon) I called me voicemail on my old phone as usual by dialing my number and pressing my password
4. TADAA!! I had all my old messages!! They were all still there!!

It is important to shut off your currently activated iphone because it might not work, both phones will be trying to access the network and will cause an authentication issue, which if you forget, and this happens call verizon they will fix it in 2 seconds.

Second, I did get a weird message when i was calling my voicemail that said i didnt have access to the system, however i stayed on the line and all my old voicemails were there.

Verizon gives you options on how to save your messages but heres what I did... Once i accessed them on my old phone, I called my voicemail and put my speaker on, i turned my iphone back on and in "Utilities" opened the voice memos and recorded each voicemail individually. i just put my voicemal on speaker and held it right next to my iphone the quality of the recordings were perfect!! I then "shared" each voice note and emailed them to my gmail so if i lookse my phone i will still have them online, in my email.

I really hope this helps, I COULDNT believe Verizon techs couldnt tell me this or know about this, I, an a someone who never worked for verizon thought of this idea on my own and crossed my fingers i was so desperate those voicemails meant more to me than 10million dollars would be!!

I called verizon and flipped out on them. I made it a point to come back to this blog and give my response because i know EXACTLY how you feel its horrible feeling, i literally cried all day... oh verizon offered be, a 12 year customer, 20 dollars for my trouble.... i told them to shove it and didnt want it....

if you need me to go into more detail feel free to email me! [e-mail] good luck hun!!

I just tried this method but it didn't work for me! Just wondering, was this before or after you set up the voicemail on your new iphone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for the information. How long was your Iphone active before you realized about your voicemails? I have had mine for 11 days.

My iPhone vmail was activated for two days before I tried that method.... Sorry for taking so long to get back I guess I don't get email notifications when someone quotes me... Did it work for you?!? I spoke to someone earlier today via vmail and it worked thankfully for her! Feel free to email me [e-mail] or else I might not see your question or comment soon enough

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for posting this info! I have a message from my son when he was a four year old that I loved --- he's now 16. I have carried this voicemail from phone to phone with no problems and then I switched to the iPhone. My husband activated the phone while I was at work and when I got home I checked the voicemail and the message was gone! I was heartbroken which is why I googled it. The Verizon website said the old voicemails were gone but because of this forum I didn't give up and we found 2 solutions but they are TIME SENSITIVE.
1). You do not need to activate your old phone (I found this out because my old phone had gone thru the washing machine and was dead so that wasn't an option). From a landline phone call your cell phone number and wait for it to go to voicemail ---- When you get the greeting interrupt it by hitting #. It will then ask you for your pin #. After you enter the pin you can choose to listen to your messages. You can then put it on speaker phone and record it on your iPhone. You do this by choosing camera and then choosing the video record option. The quality is good.
2). Online I googled to see if any company could help me out . I found this company www.cbwproductions.com. We filled out the order form and placed the order. I wasn't going to post this until I could give feedback on them. Well, they were great. We placed the order at 10:30 at night and a rep called me the next morning at 9am. She told me that the voicemail can be recovered up to 7 days and then it's gone forever. I got my CD from them one day later and just listened to it. The voice quality is superb --- they must do something to improve the voice quality.

I really think that they need to warn people ahead of time about this ---mine was just a cute message but for others it could be really sad to lose a special voicemail.