How to Fix Visual Voicemail not Working on your Apple iPhone XS Max

If your visual voicemail is not working on your Apple iPhone XS Max, the first thing you must try is toggle the Airplane Mode ON and OFF again. Doing so will refresh the phone’s wireless radios and dump cached files affecting the phone’s system. If the problem persists, troubleshoot further.

Cannot read a transcript or listen to individual voicemail straight from your iPhone XS Max? If you’re troubled with a similar issue regarding visual voicemail that just won’t work on your new iPhone, then this post is for you. Read on to figure out the possible solutions to try when dealing with various Visual Voicemail not working on your recently procured iPhone XS Max handset. Scroll down a bit and read further for more details.

Visual Voicemail is a feature that allows you to see a list of messages and select which ones to listen to or delete. With Visual Voicemail activated, you will no longer required to call or dial in your voicemail inbox or deal with passwords. All you have to do is simply scan through all of your messages and then get a visual summary of who called you and when, Then you can select which message to listen to, right on the screen you’re in.

If you’re looking for a solution to a different problem, visitour iPhone XS Max Help Guides as we’ve already addressed some of the most commonly reported problems with this new phone. Try to find articles that tackle the problem you currently have.

How to troubleshoot iPhone XS Max with Visual Voicemail that’s not working?

Before troubleshooting, check with your wireless carrier and ensure that your plan supports Visual Voicemail feature. If it is supported but couldn’t get it to work properly on your iPhone XS Max, then try performing the following methods to rule out software problems that may be causing issues.

These are generic solutions to different symptoms affecting Visual Voicemail feature on the iPhone XS Max.

First solution: Toggle Airplane Mode on and off.

Should the voicemail problem you’re dealing with is attributed to random network issues, performing the Airplane mode trick can help. Here’s how:

Go to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu, then tap the switch to turn Airplane mode on. After a few seconds, toggle the switch to turn Airplane Mode off again.

When Airplane mode is turned on the wireless features of your iPhone are automatically disabled while turning Airplane Mode off enabled them again. Thus it’s like giving them a quick restart. Many people have found this trick effective so you might as well consider giving it a shot. It won’t hurt to try anyway.

Second solution: Restart your iPhone XS Max.

A system reboot may be necessary if the problem is attributed to random software glitches and errors. Performing a soft reset or restart doesn’t result to data loss so you don’t have to worry of losing any important data. Here’s how it’s done:

Press and hold the Side/Power button and either Volume Up or Down buttons simultaneously and then release both buttons when the Slide to Power Off menu appears.
Drag the Power off slider to turn off your iPhone completely.
After 30 seconds, press and hold the Side/Power button again until the Apple logo appears.

After your phone reboots, try sending yourself a voicemail and see if it’s already working this time. If it’s still not, then continue and try the next applicable solutions.

Third solution: Turn on Cellular Data and turn off WiFi on your iPhone XS Max.

Many iPhone owners who have had troubled using Visual voicemail have found remedy from turning cellular data off and then back on. WiFi on the other hand must be turned off. To see if this trick works the same wonder to you, give it a try and see what happens.

To do this, navigate to Settings-> Cellular menu, then toggle the Cellular Data switch off and then on again.

To check if your cellular network connection is already up and working, try to call someone. If you can make a call, try calling your iPhone XS Max from another phone and leave yourself a voicemail.

Fourth solution: Update carrier settings on your iPhone XS Max.

Carrier settings update may contain the required fixes to network functions or carrier services including visual voicemail. Carrier settings update can come as mandatory update, which install automatically without user intervention. There are also other carrier settings update the require manual installation.

To manually check for new carrier settings update, go to Settings-> General-> About section.

Wait for a few seconds until the new screen containing a carrier settings update information pops up. Read the review the details then follow the onscreen instructions to update carrier settings on your phone manually.

Fifth solution: Reset network settings on your iPhone XS Max.

A network settings reset can help clear network-related errors on the phone. If the Visual voicemail issue you’re dealing with is attributed to this factor, then performing a network settings reset on your iPhone XS Max will likely fix the problem. Here’s how it’s done:

Tap to open the Settings app from the Home screen.
Tap General.
Scroll down to and then tap Reset.
Tap to select Reset network settings option.
Enter your device passcode when asked.
Then tap the option to confirm network settings reset.

Your iPhone should restart by itself when the reset is finished. After it reboots, head to Settings-> Cellular menu then enable Cellular Data. Then check and ensure that Visual Voicemail is properly set up on your iPhone XS Max. Here’s how to set it up, if you need to redo the process:

Open the Phone app.
Tap the Voicemail tab.
Tap the option to Set Up Now.
Create a voicemail password then tap Done to saved it.
Enter your password again to confirm then tap Done to continue.
Select Custom or Default greeting. If you select Custom, record a new greeting to use.
To save your new greeting, tap Done.

Reboot your iPhone XS Max afterwards then try sending a voicemail message to yourself and see if it already goes through and that you’re able to play it on your device.

Other options

Below are other applicable workarounds you can try on if Visual Voicemail is still not working on your iPhone XS Max after carrying out the prior solutions.

Enable Siri and set language to English. Check your iPhone XS Max restrictions and make sure that Siri is not restricted. To do this, go to Settings-> Screen Time-> Content & Privacy Restrictions-> Allowed Apps and make sure that Siri & Dictation option is turned off.
Reset the Time Zone on your iPhone. Make sure the date and time settings on your iPhone XS Max are correct. You can also reset the time zone, if necessary. To do so, go to Settings-> General-> Date & Time, then turn on the option to Set Automatically.
Reset your Voicemail Password or PIN. Many iPhone users who have dealt with Visual voicemail problem were able to solve it by resetting the voicemail password on their iOS device. If you want to give this a shot, you will need to log in to your carrier’s website or contact customer service for further assistance with voicemail password reset. Note that if you forget your voicemail password, then there’s no way for you to reset it from your iPhone XS Max. In this case, you will need to contact your carrier to reset your voicemail password on their end. The use of new SIM card on your iPhone is also another factor to consider. If you insert a new SIM card on your iPhone XS Max and suddenly lose your visual voicemail messages, contact your wireless carrier for help.

You can also report the issue to Apple Support and ask more help in performing more advanced solutions to get your iPhone XS Max visual voicemail to work as intended.

I hope that this how-to post has helped you one way or another. Please help us spread the word by sharing this post to your friends or people who may also have similar problems.

Connect With Us

We aimed to help our readers fix issues with their phones as well as to know how to properly use them. If you are experiencing other issues, please visit our Help Guide page. We have published articles that contain solutions to common issues. We also have a YouTube channel that has video tutorials and troubleshooting content for smartphones. Click this link and don’t forget to subscribe. Thank you for reading!