How can I save voicemails from my cellphone somewhere permanent?

July 12, 2004 7:36 AM

how can i save voicemails from my cellphone to a more permanent place? for stupid, sentimental reasons, i'd like to transfer voicemails from my cellphone to a tape or a cd or just something i can keep. i have verizon wireless, and an LG4500 phone, no bells, no whistles, no peripherals beyond the charger. i'm *this* close to holding the phone up to the mic on my old boombox, but if there's a better solution, i'm all for it.
posted by crush-onastick to technology (10 comments total)

Maybe just a mono cable from the phone's headset jack to your computer's microphone jack? If the phone has a small headset, you could try one of these
posted by subgenius at 7:52 AM on July 12, 2004

Radioshack sells a suction cup mike for like $1.99 that should actually meet your needs pretty well. If you need better quality, you could snag one of their more advanced phone recording systems and just dial the phone from a land line to get your messages.
posted by ph00dz at 8:05 AM on July 12, 2004

If you have a data cable and know how to download your voice recordings, you can archive your voicemail to your voice recordings, then download, convert and save. (Note: that's for the vx6000, but would probably apply to the 4500.) Subgenius' suggestion would work too.
posted by Hankins at 8:49 AM on July 12, 2004

Bitpim is an application that works with the LG VX 4400, 4500 and 6000 series that allows you to connect your computer to your phone and download ringtones, images, and phonebook information. I'm pretty sure that there is a way to download the voice memo's, the discussion list on their website is a pefect place to figure out of the filesystem let's you.
posted by Derek at 9:28 AM on July 12, 2004

I'm contemplating a similar thing, but the messages are on my landline answering machine... I've been assuming the "hold it up to the mic" approach is the way to go, or subgenius's approach if I'm lucky (haven't looked at the machine for a while and forget what kind of plugs its got) - does anyone know if I might have other options? It's a digital machine - is there a standard format for recording the messages in that I might be able to take advantage of?
posted by nickmark at 10:46 AM on July 12, 2004

If you have a WinModem (an if your modem came with your computer, you probably do) you can use a program like Modem Spy to call up your voicemail and record what you've saved. Seems like you'd get better quality than a microphone.
posted by revgeorge at 12:22 PM on July 12, 2004

Simply need to plug the earphone jack of the phone to your computer's microphone input.

You will need a 1/8" to 1/8" cable, and plug one end into your computer. The other end must be plugged into a 1/8" to micro-mini adapter, in order to fit the tiny plug on your phone.

Fire up windows sound recorder, or any other recording program, and check your messages.

Both the cable and adapter can be found at Radio Smack for under five bucks apiece!
posted by plexiwatt at 1:45 PM on July 12, 2004

A minor addendum. You don't need a WinModem to do as revgeorge proposes, just a voice capable modem. I've got a box full of old US Robotics Sportster 56V modems (the exact opposite of a "winmodem") that'll do it.

However, the whole thing is predicated on being able to retrieve voice mail from a line other than your cell phone -- not all services permit that.
posted by majick at 3:45 PM on July 12, 2004

Good suggestions here. This thread will change the way I record messages off the answering machine.

Here's a question to ponder: why isn't there also an HTTP frontend to our voicemail databases? As in "messages.verizon.com/~username/"? Think about how much traffic would get transferred off those networks if people had the option to use the web to retrieve messages.
posted by squirrel at 11:02 PM on July 12, 2004

You have that option, if you use a VOIP provider.
posted by kindall at 11:25 PM on July 12, 2004