How can I get old voicemails off my Nexus 6P phone?

February 6, 2023 8:16 AM

I have an old Nexus 6P phone that I'm not using anymore, but I suspect has voicemails from a now-deceased parent. I want to see if those voicemails are still there, but the 6P doesn't seem to store the voicemails on the phone itself - you need to access the voicemail box by calling, but it doesn't currently have a SIM card.

The 6P has a full charge and is connected to wifi, but when I dial into the mailbox, it gives me a 'mobile network not available' error. Could I insert the SIM card from my current phone (Pixel 6 Pro) and resolve this? I feel like I might need to activate it through my Google Fi service, though, which seems messy for such a temporary use.

I don't want to 1. lose the voicemails or 2. mess up anything with my current phone/service, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this rather than experimenting.

Any ideas on the best way to go about this?

posted by rachaelfaith to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: The voice mailbox is most likely associated with a phone number and the provider and stored on their servers, not the phone or sim card. If you still have access to that phone number you should be able to get a sim for the account.

But providers commonly expire voice mail after a certain amount of time, so even with account access there may not be any messages left, depending how long ago they were left.

If you ported the number to another carrier, cancelled the account or anything similar the messages will be gone.
posted by TheAdamist at 8:50 AM on February 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I still have the same phone number! Should've said that from the get-go, as well as the same service provider, Google Fi.
posted by rachaelfaith at 9:01 AM on February 6, 2023

Best answer: What happens when you dial your provider's voicemail number from your current phone?

Voicemails are associated with your account with your provider, and you haven't changed number or provider — so if they're not in your mailbox, they're most likely gone.
posted by Klipspringer at 9:16 AM on February 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Huh, never even realized I could still dial into voicemail that way from my current phone (I usually just access it from a tab in my Phone app) and didn't imagine the voicemail record was continuous between phones because of the number and provider - should've figured that out. Well, nothing was there that I was looking for, but I did clean out over 50 old messages. Thanks anyway!
posted by rachaelfaith at 9:49 AM on February 6, 2023