How to Get Rid of that Annoying Voicemail Icon When You Have No Voicemail (Android)
Every now and then, that little voicemail icon thinks it’s funny.
Even when you don’t have a voicemail, it decides it wants to say hi and pester you in a non-dismissable notification at the top of your phone.
So, if you have checked your voicemail and there’s clearly none left but the icon won’t seem to get the hint, there is a way to remove the icon manually.
Essentially, what has happened is the phone’ never received the notification from the network that everything is read and it can clear that icon. So, what we can do is force the phone to recheck for that message by clearing its data/cache.
Here’s a quick way to remove the voicemail notification icon on your Android phone.
- Head to Settings by pulling down the notification shade and tapping the gear icon.
- Tap on Apps.
- Tap on Phone.
- Tap on Data Usage.
- Tap Clear Data, then tap Clear Cache.
- Reboot the phone.
After that, you should no longer see the voicemail icon and be free of its tortuous presence.
Hope that helped some of you guys and feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments below or leave other ways to get rid of the voicemail icon for others who might need it there, as well.
Doesn’t work for me.
What part didn’t work?
What do you think!? Clearing the Phone app cache does nothing for removing the voicemail notification.
Ok, I’m just trying to help…
Some people have said different issues like the phone app not showing up in apps etc so wanted to clarify.
So also to clarify, you already of course tried to listen to the voicemail first? Also try and clear the data and not just cache. Let me know if that works.
Yes I listened and cleared them out a good while ago and yes I cleared data too. still claiming there are 3 messages even though there are none. The method you put forward doesn’t work. At bare minimum it doesn’t work anymore. On Android 8.1 btw.
I just did it on my phone after leaving myself a voicemail. So it does work. What phone do you have? Wondering if a manufacturer changed something for their devices? Samsung?
It’s a Nexus 6P.
Ok just cleared Data for a 3rd time in a row and it FINALLY went away. Apparently I was suppose to shut it off and wait at least 10 seconds before turning it back on.
Ah ok good to know. I’ll add this to the article. Thanks
Welp looks like I spoke too soon the same message returned after a while despite not receiving any new messages in voicemail. I dunno what else to do other then a full reset of the phone…
Hmm. Can you post a screenshot of the notification itself?
Does not work — Android 8.1 on a Samsung J327. Neither Phone nor Voicemail shows in the Apps list.
Look for contacts and try that and let me know if that worked
I did a search-and-destroy on the VM phone number. All deleted, notification remained. Even after a reboot.
Not for ever though. A few days ago I had a VM notification and now it’s gone. Dunno why or when. No restart or other such disruption recently.
I wouldn’t even care except that it sometimes pushes far more important notifications off the lock screen.
Hmm. Seems it worked for now, no? Let’s see if it comes back, I guess.
Does not work. Nothing works. About to just take phone in….
Look for contacts in the apps instead and do the same thing to that and see if that works
what finally owrked for me was sliding down the notification bar and hitting “Clear All” then restarting the phone. Notification is now gone. Thanks for responding!
Glad it worked!!
it didnt remove the voicemail icon when i cleared the cache and data on my samsung a20
Check the other comments on here and try their solutions (also make sure you clear the data & cache for any app in your settings that is called phone in case you have more than one). Good luck!
Galaxy S7. none of these suggestions work. with Verizon carrier, yiu only see a Voice Mail App and no Phone App
Make sure you tap the options in Apps and select show system or whatever it says to allow you to see system apps like the phone.
I just hit Force Stop in the phone app. That did the trick…for now.
I simply hit Force Stop and that did the trick…for now.
I cleared the data and now I can’t clear cache and the icon is still there
So I did both and the icon is still there
thanks i couldn’t find the phone app, did it with the contacts app and was still there
slide to the right on the notification and then on the app info (call services) cleared cache and data and BOOM disappeared
thanks for pointing me in the right direction
PD: Did it on my LG G8X ThinQ
So glad to hear this still helped! Thanks for reporting that it did ?
Mine didn’t work either 🙁 when I go to call settings and clear data it goes away but then every time my phone turns on from being powered off it comes back. Been doing that for about a month 🙁 any suggestions on how to keep it gone for good?
It doesn’t work
Go settings, notifications, advanced, hide all.
Doesn’t work for me, either, it just kept coming back, now clearing the data doesn’t remove it at all
Nothing is working for me. Motorola g power 2022. I tried the force stop and it worked but couldn’t use my phone until I restarted it. Then icon came back.
I had the same annoying problem. Uninstalling updates for the phone app just now worked for me. One of the updates we got was crap apparently.
That icon drove my ocd crazy. I NEEDED it gone! Lol. Hope it works for you!
Notification goes so long as I don`t reboot the phone.I`m with Tesco mobile and they don`t allow to permanently delete the icon even though voicemail is turned off.