Today's Mystery - Voicemail notifications

[DaveWT]

For reasons I won't try to justify here, I have gone to Koodo and had my voicemail service stopped. If I now phone my iPhone # from our home phone, the iPhone will just keep ringing (i.e. doesn't send me into voicemail.) However I can be sitting at home with my iPhone in my hand, and I get notifications that there is a voicemail (even though the iPhone doesn't ring at all.) The voicemail flag appears. I can also add that this happens whether I have the phone settings set to silence unknown callers or not. Also if I power down my iPhone and start it up again, it immediately tells me (via a notification) that I have voicemail. (Even before I put in the necessary passcode after powering down/up). This is happening in iOS 15.4, was happening in 15.3 and possibly earlier versions as well. I would love to know what is actually going on.

 

[chas_m]

Check your Do Not Disturb settings.

Also, whether you have Call Control (from your phone provider, not Apple) turned on.

 

[DaveWT]

Check your Do Not Disturb settings.

Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb is Off
Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb > Turn On Automatically is ON and set for11:30 pm to 8:00 am

Not sure what else to check in this area and what impact it would have as to voicemail notifications. I should add that I am getting these voicemail notifications during the day - not just during the 11:30 pm to 8:00 am period when Do Not Disturb is in effect.

Also, whether you have Call Control (from your phone provider, not Apple) turned on.

Just checked my Koodo plan and I definitely don't have Call Control turned on. Not sure how on or off would affect voicemail notifications since I have that (voicemail) turned off too.

Thanks for your thoughts... Interesting areas to consider, even though I don't really understand how they relate...

 

[chas_m]

This has got to be something on Koodo’s end.

 

[Jentek]

What about "Silence Unknown Callers" under the Phone option? (Although I would assume your home phone is known to your iPhone.)

 

[DaveWT]

This has got to be something on Koodo’s end.

If so, I will probably have to just live with it. As the budget option, Koodo isn't always too helpful in obscure problems like this. But if it is a Koodo issue somehow, one aspect of the problem still defies (my) logic. I turned my airplane mode on and bluetooth off. The phone should have no contact with the outside world. I then powered down and powered back up and still got the "new voicemail" notification.

 

[DaveWT]

What about "Silence Unknown Callers" under the Phone option? (Although I would assume your home phone is known to your iPhone.)

For years I had "Silence Unknown Callers" set on my iPhone, but only recently turned that setting off. It has made no difference to this issue.
But thanks for your thoughts. It will be something very strange if I ever find the solution so all thoughts are appreciated.

 

[chas_m]

Ah, there's one question you haven't answered ... when you get these voicemail notifications, do you -- in fact -- have voicemails that you can retrieve/listen to?

The reason I ask is that since you said you have had voicemails turned completely off on Koodo's end, your answer ought to be "no."

 

[DaveWT]

Ah, there's one question you haven't answered ...

Gee, you never asked!

when you get these voicemail notifications, do you -- in fact -- have voicemails that you can retrieve/listen to?

The reason I ask is that since you said you have had voicemails turned completely off on Koodo's end, your answer ought to be "no."

That's a problem... I have never setup voicemail on my iPhone so I can't actually go in and see if there is anything to retrieve. If I click on the voicemail icon it (eventually) asks for my mailbox number and I don't have one. So it keeps just repeating that request over and over until it eventually times out.

I suspect there is nothing really there because if I call my iPhone's number from another phone (eg. our landline) and let it just ring and ring, I never get prompted to leave a voicemail. But I haven't tried that from a truly outside (unknown to me in Contacts) phone so I am not sure if this is a valid test. It is the notifications of a "new voicemail" that has me wondering, especially when I power up the phone if it has been turned right off. (and on my wife's iPhone also.)

This probably isn't worth worrying about. I assumed I just had some setting wrong but since my wife is having at least some of the same symptoms it is more of a curiosity. Perhaps we are the only 2 iPhone users in the world who have not set up voicmail, and some iOS update along the way has pointed out a weird bug that no one else cares about or reports. I don't think I would even give this feedback to Apple. Rather save their attention for if / when I really need them.