Hello All. I'm new to all of this and I'm not sure if anyone can help me solve my issue, or if it can even be solved. First you should know the reason I'm trying to find a solution is that my momma very recently passed away, October 18th, and on my last birthday she left me a voicemail telling me how much she loves me. I archived the message because I know I'll never hear her voice again, or hear her tell me that she loves me. Please help me if anyone can, please ๐๐ป. All I know is the messages were there and now they're gone. I have a Galaxy S25 Ultra
You can't, voicemail is carrier provided service. All massages are recorded on carrier servers. Your carrier might have ability to recover them but this is very unlikely
Sorry for your loss. Archived voicemails are normally kept for a certain period of time then get deleted. Depending on your carrier, they might store your voicemails after you delete them. Unfortunately, there's little hope this is the case, but it's worth a shot. Reach out to them about restoring your deleted (formally archived) voicemail. Act fast, if the voicemail can be recovered, the window of opportunity is small. Deleted voicemails are normally held for 30 days then are permanently deleted.
Sorry for your loss, just so you know for the future, if you use a visual voicemail app, you have to ability to download the recording to your device for preservation. There is no such option if you dial in to your voicemail, however, you can turn on your phone recorder when you listen to your voicemail and preserve the recording.
However, the others are correct. Voicemail is retained on the carrier's servers and different carriers have different retention periods. In the past when I "archived" certain messages, I got a notification that it would remain in the archives for 14 days. I don't know which carrier you use, but my understanding is that Verizon keeps them indefinitely, as long as your mailbox is not full. It is also my understanding that carriers must retain voicemails for 30 days, but that does not mean they automatically delete them at that time. You can only try reaching out to your carrier. If they are able to recover your voicemail, immediately take one of the steps above to preserve your recording.
Archiving voicemails while leaving it remaining on the carrier's server is just waiting for it to be deleted. Most carriers delete the "archived" voicemail after a period of time. Some as little as 14 days. Verizon, as I understand, will keep archived messages indefinitely as long as your mailbox does not fill up. Carriers are only required to retain messages on their servers for 30 days, after which they may sweep delete. Your best bet if you want to save a voicemail indefinitely is to either use a visual voicemail app where you can download the recording to your phone and then transfer it to an external device or, if you dial in for voicemail, turn on your phone recorder (tap the record icon on the panel) and record the message while you are listening to it.
