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Help Freaky Voicemail issue on new Maxx HD

M

Marc_G

Well-Known Member
Hi folks,

I'm going through new-handset setup issues as I learn not just a new device, but also ICS instead of Froyo, and the latest tricks and gotchas caused by Verizon.

I'm feeling like an idiot; please help me fix the voice mail thing.
It won't auto dial my password, and it always prompts me to choose visual voice mail, even though I've entered my password and set it not to use visual voice mail.

Here's what's happening. Like with every cell phone I've had for the last 20 years, one of the first things I've done is gone into the voice mail settings (in this case, by accessing the phone menu, hitting the three dots on the upper right, settings, voicemail settings for my carrier, and entering my password so that the voicemail number is *86,,XXXXXXXX where the Xs are my password).

I also changed the default and roaming voicemails to "Voicemail" instead of choosing between it and visual voicemail. I also went into my contacts and deleted anything else called "Voicemail."

Whenever I hit the voicemail icon on the homescreen or the app list, it first signs in, then prompts me to choose Voicemail or Visual voicemail, then when I choose plain voicemail it just dials *86, without my password.

In the People listing, it has Voicemail entered with just *86 no password. It won't let me delete or edit it, though it would let me hide it if I wanted to.

This is very frustrating. How to get past first the voicemail/visual voicemail thing (I TOLD IT NOT TO BUG ME!), and then get it to actually use the voicemail number I entered in the settings?

HELP!

Marc
 
You need to set this up in settings. Open the phone app. Tap the settings menu. There you should see the choice for voice mail. Set it up as you described above. Save it. Let me know if this helps...
 
sherri said:
You need to set this up in settings. Open the phone app. Tap the settings menu. There you should see the choice for voice mail. Set it up as you described above. Save it. Let me know if this helps...
Click to expand...

Hi Sherri,

Thanks for the response. :)

But see my first message... I think I did exactly what you describe. Went into phone app, hit the dots, went to settings, configured voice mail number and prompt choices for voicemail. But it still does what I described.

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious. Still learning my way around the new system (ICS) so please take pity on my if I'm being dense.

Thanks again.

Marc
 
From the main home screen, tap on the phone icon. Then tap the "menu" screen (3 lines at bottom left). Should see "settings". Then "set up". There you should see voicemail. What # is listed there? Should be *86

Tap it and edit. See if this helps. I originally tried to edit this from my contacts/voicemail on phone. Didn't work.
 
sherri said:
From the main home screen, tap on the phone icon. Then tap the "menu" screen (3 lines at bottom left). Should see "settings". Then "set up". There you should see voicemail. What # is listed there? Should be *86

Tap it and edit. See if this helps. I originally tried to edit this from my contacts/voicemail on phone. Didn't work.
Click to expand...

If I tap on the main screen phone icon, the menu screen for me is via the three lines/dots that are at the upper right. For my phone, there's no controls on the lower left.

But if I go into the menu (via dots at upper right), choose Settings, that's where I've been (trying to) set this up all along. There's no "Set Up" option, just places to enter voicemail dial string and which carrier etc.. What I've found is that once this is set up, while the Voicemail Icon is still pretty useless (acts as I described in the original post), if I hold down the 1 key (long press) then voice mail autodials with password. This is very strange behavior.
 
Don't know if this will work or not but how about "Disabling" visual voicmail? I use it so I don't want to disable to test. But maybe then it won't come up as a choice anymore and let you do what you want to?
 
How do you disable it?

Meanwhile I went to the store and talked to a guy there that seemed to know his stuff. He told me to just get rid of the voicemail icon and he configured some deep programming menu with my voicemail code. Now the notification for voicemail when clicked goes right to voicemail and I can ignore the icon that is now gone. This is a great example of something programmers should consider before implementing marketing features!
 
In "settings" click on "Apps" then go to "ALL". That is where you can disable alot of the bloatware on the phone. for example, I have Amazon kindle, MC3, My Verizon Mobile, NFL Football, Real Racing 2, Salcker radio, V Cast tones, Verizon Log-in, Verizon video and VZ Navigator all Disabled. (and you can Re-enable if you ever need them again).
Click on what you want disabled and you will see and option to disable. some can't be disabled though. and some you have to uninstall the updates first.
 
Heh heh. That's part of the problem. There is no visual voicemail app in the All apps listing so no obvious way to kill it all the way. For now I've got it worked around so I guess I'm good for now. Thanks for the help, all!
 
I noticed that also. But I think it's the app named just "voicemail". Because regular voicemail that you dial from the phone isn't really an app? So I think the one named Voicemail is the visual voicemail app. But I'm not 100% sure. And like you said, you have it working anyways
 
Getting back to this thread... I've FDRed my phone, and now I've got the annoying subscribe-nag for subscribing to visual voice mail, and it makes me enter my password each time.

I don't know the backdoor code the Verizon guy entered to change the voice mail password deep inside, and changing it in any user-accessible area doesn't do the trick.

Help! Who knows the special code sequence? If it matters, I'm now on Jellybean 4.1.2.

Marc
 
seVer said:
phone> menu> settings> voicemail> setup> voicemail number - set it to *86(pause)password#.
Click to expand...

The freaky thing is I've set that up exactly as above.

When I press Voicemail, it first "signs in", tells me how many messages I have, and prompts me to either call voice mail or sign up for visual voice mail (no thanks!). If I hit "call voice mail" it dials *86 then prompts me to enter my password.

I even added a second number to the Voicemail contact, including my password, and made that the default number for that contact, to no avail.

My current workaround involves splitting that second voice mail number off the contact so it is stand alone, and made a direct dial button on one of my home screen pages (that works fine). Still, it's very annoying...
 
in the voicemail settings, make sure it's set to "my carrier" or whatever the equivalent is. if it's set to prompt, that could be the problem.

another thing to try is going to the visual voicemail program, and when prompted to sign up decline it.

I don't have this problem at all.
 
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