Today, I called a business and wasn’t able to leave a message because an automated recording said, "The user’s voicemail is full." This can happen to anyone–and it’s not ideal, especially if you rely on voicemail for important calls.
I personally get a lot of spam calls on my iPhone, and many of them leave short voicemails, after I rejected the calls. Over time, this quickly fills up my voicemail box, making it necessary to delete messages regularly.
When your iPhone says your voicemail is full, it usually means your carrier’s voicemail server has run out of storage space, even if the Phone app on your device looks empty.
In this article, I’ll show you how to quickly clear space by deleting your voicemails–either individually or multiple at once–and then emptying the Deleted Voicemails folder so callers can leave new messages again.
First Step: Delete your voicemails
When your iPhone says your voicemail is full, you must delete your voicemails from the Phone app first. Follow the steps below:
- Open the Phone app on your iPhone.
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Tap Calls tab at the bottom of the screen.
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Tap the three-line filter icon in the upper-right corner of the display.
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Tap Voicemails.
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Now delete voicemails from your iPhone:
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Delete individual voicemails
- Swipe left on the voicemail.
- Tap Delete.
- Delete multiple voicemails:
- Tap Edit.
- Tap Select.
- Choose the voicemails you want to delete.
- Tap Delete.
Second Step: Empty the "Deleted Voicemails" folder (important!)
Even after deleting voicemail messages on an iPhone, they still remain in a hidden "Recently Deleted" area and continue to take up your carrier’s voicemail storage. This is why many iPhone users still get the "Voicemail is full" message.
To permanently delete voicemails from your iPhone:
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Voicemails screen.
- Tap Deleted Voicemails.
- Tap Clear All.
After doing this, your voicemail box is fully emptied, and callers should now be able to leave new messages.
