After upgrading my iPhone to firmware version 3.1 my Visual Voicemail stopped working. Initially I wasn’t sure what the issue was but I was not receiving voicemail via the iPhone. I did finally find out that I could retrieve the voicemail by holding the 1 key which will then dial voicemail and let you retrieve your voicemail. If you are able to retrieve your voicemail by holding the 1 key but the voicemails are not showing up in the iPhone voicemail interface then there is an issue with what ATT calls Visual Voicemail.

ATT iPhone Visual Voicemail Issue:
If you are experiencing the Visual Voicemail conflict caused by the upgrade to iPhone 3.1 firmware then your Visual Voicemail interface will look like the below even if you have voicemails in your voicemail inbox.

Though I was not aware of the issue immediately my issue with Visual Voicemail started directly after upgrading my iPhone firmware to revision 3.1. It turns out that ATT started blocking the iPhone tethering hack in firmware revision 3.1 which somehow also caused an issue with Visual Voicemail. If you must have tethering work then do not update to iPhone firmware revision 3.1. If you have already upgraded to firmware 3.1 or you prefer to have latest software without Internet tethering working then use the below instructions to resolve the issue with Visual Voicemail after upgrading to iPhone firmware 3.1.

Fix Visual Voicemail Conflict With Tethering & iPhone 3.1 Firmware:

1. Open iPhone Settings: First click on the iPhone Settings icon located on your iPhone desktop.
2. Click General Settings: Now click on the General option from the initial Settings configuration window which will display the General settings options as shown below.

   

3. Scroll General Settings: Scroll to the bottom of the General settings window to display the Profiles option as shown below.

   

4. Open iPhone Profiles: Select the Profile option from the general settings that will open the iPhone Profiles configuration window as shown below.

   

5. Remove BenM.at Profile: Now to remove the Visual Voicemail conflict remove the profile with BenM.at in the description field by clicking the red Remove button. Once you click the Remove button a confirmation pop up will appear as shown below. Click the second Remove button to verify you want to remove the profile.

   

6. Test Visual Voicemail: Now call your iPhone from a different number and leave a voicemail message. Within a couple of minutes the voicemail should appear on the ATT iPhone voicemail screen as shown below.

   

Hopefully ATT will eventually offer Internet Tethering as a service one day as it is a service I don’t use often though when I do it really comes in handy. I have been really disappointed with the restrictions that ATT enforces with their 3G network. They seem to claim how impressive the ATT 3G network is but data is limited even when you are paying for an unlimited data plan and they will not allow Internet tethering. If a new hack comes out for Internet tethering with iPhone 3.1 firmware or above I will definitely be installing it until ATT offers an Internet tethering service for a reasonable price even though technically it should be included in the unlimited data plan for the iPhone.

To recap the Visual Voicemail issue was a conflict with the iPhone 3.1 firmware update and the Internet tethering hack that many people have installed on their iPhones. The iPhone firmware update automatically removes the Internet tethering hack however it does not remove the profile that is also created during the hack so manually removing the profile resolves whatever the conflict was with Visual Voicemail.

iPhone

David Pogue. O’Reilly Media 2009, Paperback, 416 pages, $14.40

Apple iPod touch 64 GB (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL

Apple Computer, Electronics, Too low to display

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 9:22 PM and is filed under Errors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.