Unable to get voicemail messages to play

[Wafflewoofer]

I've had my iPhone 4s since May and it's been working fine.  Now, however, I'm unable to get voicemail messages to play.  I can see that there is a message and who it's from, but nothing I do will get the message to play.  I've checked that I don't have it in airplane mode or silenced, and that the volume is turned up.  I've tried both with and without my bluetooth headset activated. 

Any suggestions?

[99mustang232]

Does it play through the handset speaker when you play them? Have you installed all software updates? If all else fails you should probably try backing up your phone through iTunes or iCloud then restore it to the default and re-synch your data to see if it resolves the problem. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Thanks for input 99mustang232. Wafflewoofer, I'm sorry your not able to listen to your voicemail. I know how important this is. the information provided by the community is very helpful. Are you able to hear your calls, music, applications with sound, & video's ? Are you able to hear voicemail on a different phone? You can access your voice mail from a different phone by dialing your mobile number, press # key, enter your password, and listen to voice mail. Do you have visual voice mail set up on your iPhone? ^KH

[Wafflewoofer · Accepted solution]

Thank you (and 99Mustang232) for your response.  I do have visual voice mail set up, and it had been working just fine until 7/20, then I could see my messages, but they wouldn't play.  I could hear calls, music and other sounds though.  I ended up calling my local Verizon store and the person I talked to had me turn the phone off, wait a few minutes, then turn it back on.  It worked and I felt silly for not thinking of it myself, but I just let my phone go into snooze mode rather than turning it off.