Saved voice mail erased by Verizon. How do I recover?
Riderdad
Newbie

I want my saved messages back! I pay Verizon for this service to store my personal messages. My uncle passed away in September, 2015. He left me a long heartfelt voice mail on his way to the hospital September 21st at 8:07pm. I listen to this frequently.

I bought a new phone last month which came with a visual voicemail app preinstalled. It claimed to be a free service. I went through the set up and was forced to try the premium version of the app which has a fee. Okay, no big deal, but I didn't want to pay as I was fine with regular voice mail, so at the end of the free 30 day trial it automatically wrote out all of my saved messages and I was required to set up a new voice mail.

I am very upset that I can no longer hear my uncle's voice and the last message he left me. I have had other issues with Verizon, but this hurts my heart. If there's anyway to get these back please, please, please let me know 😞

I had intended on downloading the audio to my phone, but a message appears and said if I did that it would be deleted of the server. I have had issues with the new phone so I didn't want to do that yet thinking it would be safer on server

I have read on this Verizon forum of someone else who list there dad's last messages. Please share this post with others so they don't lose messages.

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vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Riderdad,

First and foremost, my condolences on the loss of your uncle. I know it’s always hard when we lose a loved one. My goal is to do everything we can to retrieve your removed voicemail messages. I’ve had a similar situation like this before too. You mentioned you switched to new device. What device did you have previously? What is the make and model of your new device?

JuanD_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Riderdad
Newbie

Old phone was a Galaxy s3 that stopped working. Switch to my old iphone4 until black Friday and picked up the turbo 2. I'm now using the third turbo 2 sent to me from motto maker which has a dead spot on the screen. The fourth replacement should be here in a few days. The voice mails were still there when I switched phones until the 30 day trial ran out

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rcschnoor
Legend

Riderdad wrote:

Old phone was a Galaxy s3 that stopped working. Switch to my old iphone4 until black Friday and picked up the turbo 2. I'm now using the third turbo 2 sent to me from motto maker which has a dead spot on the screen. The fourth replacement should be here in a few days. The voice mails were still there when I switched phones until the 30 day trial ran out

The voicemails were still there after switching from a Galaxy S3 to an iPhone and then to a Turbo2?

That is unusual because iPhones use Apple's own voicemail system and anything on Verizon's system will automatically be lost when signing up for voicemail on an iPhone.

Possibly this has changed?

In the future, you may want to use a platform/carrier independent VM system such as Google Voice. It is free and the voicemails will still be available if you switch phones or providers.

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Riderdad
Newbie

I didn't say up the voice mail on the iphone when I had it reconnected.

When I got the turbo all my saved messages where still there.

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vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Riderdad,

Thank you for the details. Our main goal is get your uncle’s voicemail back. Was the voicemail ever on your previous iPhone? You mentioned the voicemail successfully where on your Turbo2, correct?  Do you still have that device?

JuanD_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Riderdad
Newbie

I have the iphone but if I open the voice mail it wants me to set it up. I

don't think the saved files were ever on the iphone. I do have that phone

though. The Galaxy is fried and won't turn on. That's why I got the turbo.

I sent the other turbos back to Motorola.

On Jan 5, 2016 3:04 PM, "Verizon Wireless Customer Support" <

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Tidbits
Legend

How often did you listen to them. Iirc it only saves voicemail for 21 days. That's why they give an option to save somewhere else.

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Riderdad
Newbie

I listen to them every once in awhile when I miss my uncle. I can't be

specific but several times since Black Friday. When I got the new phone.

Some messages forward from a few days ago or last week and all those are

missing too. As I posted when I was going to download the messages to the

phone a pop up message from the visual voicemail app said if I downloaded

it to the phone you would delete it off the server and I did not want to

download message to the junkie turbo to phone that was being replaced

anyway I'm still waiting on a new phone that works properly. When I called

customer service they said that because I chose to do the visual voicemail

it upgraded me to the premium service and you could only go up you couldn't

go down and when I discontinued the premium service to go to the basic

service which is the only thing I ever wanted anyway they said it wiped out

my mailbox. But I'm hoping there's a way to get them back. Nothing is

really ever deleted. It's got to be somewhere just sitting there on a

server. I just need to find the person who can find it for me.

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vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Riderdad,

Thank you for the details. Since we are unsure if the voicemails are saved on your iPhone, we can re-activate the device and verify this information.  You can refer to your My Verizon online account and reactivate your iPhone http://vz.to/1fCKRB8

JuanD_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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pherson
Champion - Level 1

I wish everyone would stop giving false expectations. The voicemail are gone.

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Riderdad
Newbie

I didn't go back to voice mail from visual voicemail, I just opted out of

the "premium" visual voicemail.

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pherson
Champion - Level 1

And no, I am not a verizon employee.

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Riderdad
Newbie

There is still a mvm .log file for the missing voice mails on my phone.

Would this be of any usefulness?

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pherson
Champion - Level 1

The only way you will know is to click on it. But logs like that always need a plug in so it's probably not going to. But try it!

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Riderdad
Newbie

I know the log won't be the voice mail, but I wasn't sure if it would point

to it?

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vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Riderdad, I completely understand how important this voicemail is to you. I want to check all available options to connect you to this message. I have sent you a Direct Message already. Can you please reply to it so we can continue? I look forward to hearing from you soon.


RuthW_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Riderdad
Newbie

Hello!

This is Ruth from Verizon Wireless Social Media. I would love to help any

way I can with finding options for your voicemail. In order to check what

options may be available, can you please provide your name (as it would

appear on your VZW account), mobile number, and account verification? Your

verification would be a 1-5 character password or the last 4 of your SSN if

there's no password in place. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

-RuthW_VZW

I'm not comfortable giving this information out. How would I know if this

is even a Verizon employee?

On Jan 8, 2016 11:04 AM, "Verizon Wireless Customer Support" <

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tikibar1
Community Leader
Community Leader

VzW employees are identified by their avatar and user name, and ruthw_vzw noted in the thread that they were contacting you by Direct Message (which is what it appears you've copied here).  For them to access your account, they need to verify that you are you, just as you would be asked if you were to call Customer Service.  If you aren't comfortable responding to the Direct Message, you could call Customer Service (*611 from your phone or 800-922-0204).

rcschnoor
Legend

Since the messages were originally in Verizon's Voicemail system and the OP did not activate Apple VVM when temporarily switching to the iPhone I don't know how you can say that is a possibility. Since when does Verizon give the impression that messages in their VM system will possibly transfer over to the Apple VM system.

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pherson
Champion - Level 1

It doesn't matter if the apple vm was "activated" or not. When the system activates the apple device it puts the code for Apple vm in the system which disables the old vm. Even if by fluke the original vm stayed once the turbo was activated the system refreshed itself, therefore no vm that were saved.

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