voicemail stuck in loop (can't access messages)

[Loa]

Hello,

After years of working flawlessly, my wife's iPhone 7 doesn't allow her to access her voicemails anymore. She can see the red numbered icon telling her that she has messages, but when she presses "1" to hear those messages, it asks her to record a greeting message. Even if she makes a new one, she still can't access the messages (it asks her for a new greeting).

We haven't changed anything with our carrier and the rest of the phone works normally. We upgraded to the latest iOS, turned the phone off, toggled cellular data off and on. Nothing helps...

Thanks.

[Solution below]

 

[russell_314]

The only thing I could think of is to actually call your voicemail and delete whatever messages you have that way. Maybe that would reset it.

 

[Loa]

The only thing I could think of is to actually call your voicemail and delete whatever messages you have that way. Maybe that would reset it.

I think that's the only option on my wife's phone. So that's what she's always doen. On mine (more recent version), I see the list of messages, but for her it's always been only the call option.

 

[Loa]

I'll explain the resolution if anyone else finds this thread with a similar problem. For some unknown reason, the first message on her voicemail was a recording of our carrier's invitation to record the greeting message. It was not in a loop, but made us believe so.

It was like the prank of displaying the screenshot of someone's phone on their phone to mess with them.

We deleted the message and everything got back to normal.