In a November 9 post, @mtothe_ila said saved voicemails from her late partner and father disappeared from her iPhone after an update she hadn’t initiated.
“Hey, @apple, thanks for deleting ONLY the saved voicemails of my partner and dad, who both passed away, during your update (that I did NOT initiate). Really appreciate that,” she wrote.
In a follow-up, she said she had already screen-recorded the messages, so she still had copies. Even so, seeing them vanish from her voicemail list made her feel physically ill.
In a reply, @rescueabassethound described a birthday voicemail her mother left 9 months before she died. She said she’d kept it for 6 years and emailed herself a copy after her mother’s death.
The original post doesn’t establish why the messages disappeared, whether they were permanently erased or how many people have had the same experience. Apple’s guide warns that carriers can erase messages that aren’t stored in iCloud, but that general warning doesn’t explain what happened on her phone.
If you have a voicemail you want to keep, Apple’s guide says you can share it from the Phone app to save a separate copy. It also explains how to recover messages through Deleted Messages, where that option is available.