If you have a voicemail from someone you've lost, the most important thing to know is that it's only safe once the recording is saved as a file you keep. Until then it sits in your voicemail, and carriers delete messages on a schedule you didn't choose. The way to keep it is to turn it into a file you own, then put that file in two places. This page shows how on iPhone and Android, with your carrier's app, and when your carrier offers none of that, then covers their greeting, the file format, and how to label and back it up.
Do the first part today. The rest can wait until you're ready.
Where are voicemails actually saved?
In your voicemail, not in a file you own. Your phone shows you a list and plays the audio, but until you save the recording itself as a file, it stays inside your voicemail, where it can be deleted. That's why a voicemail can vanish during a phone upgrade or a carrier migration, even if you never deleted it.
Carriers also expire messages. T-Mobile's help page says voicemail messages "are automatically deleted after a specific amount of time and cannot be retrieved," with a window of 14 to 30 days depending on the type of voicemail. Verizon's FAQ states that it is not liable for deleted messages "even if you saved them." Pressing 9 to save a message buys time. It isn't a backup.
Families have learned this the hard way. In 2013 the Associated Press reported on a mother who kept her daughter's line open for five years to keep the greeting, until a carrier upgrade silenced it, and a son whose only recording of his mother's voice was erased after 30 days of not being re-saved. So the whole of this page comes down to one move: get the audio into a file.
How do I save a voicemail on an iPhone?
If your voicemail list shows up inside the Phone app (that's Visual Voicemail, which most US carriers support on iPhone), the file is three taps away.
- Open the Phone app and tap Voicemail at the bottom right.
- Tap the message you want to keep so it expands.
- Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up).
- Choose where it goes. The ones that matter:
- Save to Files: pick iCloud Drive or On My iPhone, choose a folder, tap Save. This is the one to do first.
- Voice Memos: the message becomes a recording you can rename and play from the Voice Memos app.
- Notes: attaches the audio to a note, which syncs with your other Apple devices.
- AirDrop: sends the file straight to a Mac or iPad nearby, which gives you your second copy.
- Mail or Messages: sends it to yourself or to a family member.
Do at least two of these. Files plus AirDrop, or Files plus Mail to your own address, covers the "two places" rule in under a minute.
If the message is already gone from the list, scroll to the bottom of the Voicemail tab and look for Deleted Messages. Tap the message, then the undelete icon. How long messages sit there depends on the carrier, so check now. If it isn't there, call the carrier and ask whether they can restore it; some can, for a short time.
If your voicemail list doesn't look like this, your carrier may not offer Visual Voicemail on your plan; the section on carriers without it is for you.
How do I save a voicemail on an Android phone?
Android is less uniform because the voicemail app is usually your carrier's. Here are the common cases; menu names are from the current help pages and may differ slightly on your phone.
Phone by Google (Pixel and many other phones). If the Voicemail tab shows your messages, tap one to expand it, then tap Send to and pick the app: Drive, Gmail, Messages, or any app that accepts an audio file. Google's help page says visual voicemail here is only available on certain carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Google Fi and a few others), and warns that turning it off "deletes the recordings from your Phone app." Don't toggle it while you're moving files.
Samsung Galaxy. Samsung phones generally use the carrier's visual voicemail app, so the AT&T and T-Mobile steps below are the ones to follow.
AT&T Visual Voicemail. Two routes, from AT&T's "Saving your voicemail messages" page. To make a copy without removing the message: open it, tap the Share icon, and choose a destination (AT&T suggests Drive). To archive: touch and hold the message, tap Archive, then Archive again. AT&T says archiving "will clear it from your voice mailbox and save the file locally to your phone," under My Files > Internal Storage > VisualVoicemail. If you archive, copy that file somewhere else the same day; it's now only as safe as the phone.
T-Mobile Visual Voicemail app. Select and hold the message, then Save message to, name the file, and Save to copy it to the memory card. Or select and hold, then Forward to, and pick your email app to send it to yourself.
Google Voice. If their messages came through a Google Voice number, Google's "Export your data from Voice" page confirms that a Google Takeout export includes "voicemails and voicemail transcripts" and "voicemail greetings." Run the export from takeout.google.com, choose Voice, and download the archive.
How do I find or recover old voicemails?
Start with the phone that received them. On iPhone, open the Phone app and go to your voicemail list. A message you deleted may still be under Deleted Messages: tap it, then tap the button to undelete it. If you store voicemail in iCloud, your messages also sync to your other Apple devices, so check those too. On Android, open whichever app plays your voicemail, the Phone app or your carrier's, and look there first.
If a message isn't on any of your devices, call your voicemail and listen through the saved messages. If it's gone from there too, ask the carrier whether they can restore it. Not every carrier can: T-Mobile's help page says that once you've listened to a voicemail and deleted it, "it can't be retrieved." If you used Google Voice, Google Takeout exports voicemails that haven't been deleted.
Will my voicemails transfer to a new phone?
Not always. Apple's guide says your voice messages "may also be deleted if you change your SIM card," and on Android, turning off visual voicemail deletes the recordings from the Phone app, though your carrier might keep a copy. On iPhone, storing voicemail in iCloud keeps your messages in sync across your Apple devices: go to Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, tap See All next to Saved to iCloud, then turn on Phone & FaceTime.
Don't count on a new phone to carry them over. Before you switch phones, save every message that matters as a file with the steps above, and put it in two places.
What if my carrier doesn't offer visual voicemail?
Then the recording never comes to your phone as a file, and you have to make one. It's less elegant and it works.
- Borrow a second device: another phone, a tablet, a laptop. Open its recording app (Voice Memos on iPhone or iPad, Recorder on Pixel, or any voice recorder app).
- On your phone, call your voicemail, navigate to the message, and turn on speakerphone.
- Start recording on the second device, hold it near your phone's speaker, and play the message. Play it twice in one take so you have a clean version.
- Stop, name the recording, and share it to the cloud and to a computer, as above.
Do this in a quiet room. You'll capture a little room tone, and that's fine. The point is their voice, kept.
In the same sitting, press 9 (or your carrier's save key) on the message so it doesn't expire while you work, and ask the carrier directly whether they offer an export; a few have, at times. If your phone has a built-in call recording feature, it may record the playback call; Google's Phone app has one in some regions and tells both sides the call is being recorded.
Can I save their outgoing greeting before the line is closed?
Yes, and for many people the greeting is the only recording there is: "Hi, you've reached…" in their ordinary voice. It disappears the moment the account closes or the carrier moves it to a new system, often without notice.
Record it the same way you'd record a message you can't export: call the number from a different phone, let it ring through to the greeting, and record it on a second device with the first phone on speaker. Call twice. Keep both takes.
If you're the one managing their account, record the greeting before you cancel the line, port the number, or change plans. Once the file is in two places, you can decide about the line on its own terms, including the cost of keeping it, without the recording hanging on the decision.
What file format is a voicemail, and do I need to convert it?
An iPhone voicemail shared through the share sheet arrives as an .m4a file (usually named voicemail-1.m4a or similar). Android carrier apps vary; the file is a small compressed audio file whose extension depends on the app and carrier. Google Voice exports come as audio files inside the Takeout archive.
You almost certainly don't need to convert anything. Every current phone, computer and cloud drive plays .m4a and .mp3. If a file won't open on an older computer, a free player like VLC will play it and can export a copy as .mp3. If you do convert, keep the original too. Each conversion throws a little away, and the original is the closest thing to their voice you will have.
Don't worry about the file being short, quiet, or mostly about nothing. "Call me back when you get this" is a complete recording of a person.
How do I back up a voicemail so I don't lose it?
Two places, two kinds. One copy in a cloud account you pay attention to (iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive). One copy on a physical thing that isn't your phone: a laptop, an external drive, a USB stick in the drawer with the important papers. A phone alone isn't a backup; phones are what get lost, dropped and replaced. A third copy, if you can bear to, is with one other person: email it to a sibling or a close friend with a line saying what it is.
Then label it so it can be found. Rename the file with their name, the date, and a few words of what it is: Mom_2024-03-11_call-me-back.m4a. Put a short note in the same folder saying who's speaking and what was happening that day. In a few years, a folder of files called voicemail-1, voicemail-2 is a puzzle; a folder of names and dates is a shelf.
Once a year, open the folder and play one, only to confirm the files still open and the backups still exist. If a cloud account is lapsing or a drive is getting old, that's when you'll find out, while there's still time to copy.
Now that the voicemail is saved
Once the file is in two places, it's safe, and that was the work this page was for. Most people play it now and then and leave it there.
If you've ever wished it could answer, the voicemail you just saved can do one more thing. CallPastNow makes a recreation of their voice from recordings you already have, starting with that message, and any voice memos or videos you've kept can go in with it. It isn't them, and we tell you so up front. Hear their voice first, free, from that file. The free call is where you find out whether that one saved message is enough.
No card needed. In the US.
