Why Do My Incoming Calls Go Straight to Voicemail on My iPhone? (2023)

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If you're missing important phone calls that are sent straight to voicemail, the culprit may be a feature that blocks unknown callers and unsaved numbers. Settings like Do Not Disturb or Silence Unknown Callers are problematic when you're waiting for a call from a number outside your contact list, but there are several more things to check if those two settings aren't to blame. Here's how to keep calls from going straight to voicemail on your iPhone.

11 Ways Fix Incoming Calls Going Straight to Voicemail 

The problem of calls going straight to voicemail on your iPhone can have many different causes. Before you get started, make sure your iPhone ringer is on and that the volume is turned up high enough to hear, and check to see if your iPhone is connected to headphones or another Bluetooth device. Now that you've done that, let's go through all the other reasons this might be happening, and how to get your iPhone ringing again! Check out our free Tip of the Day for more great phone and voicemail tutorials.

Jump To:

• Update iOS
• Reboot Your iPhone
• Make Sure Airplane Mode Is Off
• Turn Off Do Not Disturb & Check Focus Modes
• Turn Off the Block Unknown Calls Feature
• Check Announce Call Settings
• Check Your Blocked Numbers
• Reset Network Settings
• Contact Your Cellular Service Provider
• Test Your SIM Card
• Still Need Help? Contact Apple Support

1. Update iOS

Doing an iOS update is a quick way to fix bugs and glitches, and is also great for security patches and new features! If your iPhone is sending callers to voicemail, this may be a solution.

2. Reboot Your iPhone

Another way to fix bugs and glitches is to reboot your iPhone. This might be the step that stops your iPhone from sending calls straight to voicemail.

3. Make Sure Airplane Mode Is Off

This one is easy to fix! If Airplane Mode is turned on, you won't hear calls ring. But the person calling you will hear your phone ring, and they'll be able to leave a voicemail. To see if Airplane mode is off:

1. Open the Control Center by swiping down from the upper-right corner of your screen for an iPhone X or later, or by swiping up from the bottom if your iPhone is older. 
2. If the Airplane Mode icon is orange, it means Airplane mode is turned on. Tap the icon to change it back to gray and turn Airplane mode off. Even if Airplane mode isn't on, it's worth your time to turn it on, then off again to reset your wireless features.
   
   

4. Turn Off Do Not Disturb & Check Focus Modes

While you have the Control Center open, you can check to see if Do Not Disturb or Focus Modes are turned on. It sounds simple, but it's easy to forget that Do Not Disturb directs all your calls to voicemail, and Focus Modes can stop calls from coming through as well. A crescent moon icon on the top of your iPhone's screen indicates that your iPhone is in Do Not Disturb mode. Here's how to quickly disengage the Do Not Disturb feature and make sure your iPhone's Focus status isn't interfering with your phone calls. 

1. Open the Control Center. 
2. If the Do Not Disturb icon has a purple moon with a white background, tap it to turn off Do Not Disturb on your iPhone.
   
   

3. Now that Do Not Disturb is turned off, you may find that a Focus Mode is also on; if this is the case, tap it.

4. Tap the three dots in the highlighted Focus Mode.
   
   

5. Tap Settings.
   
   

6. If you see the Phone icon under apps, tap Apps. 
   
   

7. Tap the minus sign on the Phone icon to remove Phone from apps that are silenced. Alternately, tap Allow Notifications From > Add Apps > Phone. 
   
   

If you want to leave Do Not Disturb and/or Focus Modes on but want to allow phone calls from favorite contacts to go through, you can!

5. Turn Off Silence Unknown Callers

If your iPhone is sending unknown calls to voicemail, the culprit is often the Silence Unknown Callers setting. It's great to silence unknown callers when you want to stop spam calls, but it can also lead to missing important calls. If you want to stop calls from unsaved numbers going straight to voicemail, here's how.

1. Open the Settings app, then scroll down and tap Phone.
   
   
2. Tap Silence Unknown Callers.
   
   
3. Toggle Silence Unknown Callers to the left; the toggle will turn from green to gray. 
   
   

If you want to keep Silence Unknown Callers on on your iPhone, you can add a contact for each number you want to hear from, so they don't go straight to voicemail. 

6. Check Announce Call Settings

If your calls go to voicemail without ringing, there's one more setting to check; the Announce Calls setting. You can have Siri announce your calls always, when you're using headphones or in your car, only when using headphones, or never. I have my Announce Calls feature set to Headphones & Car, because those are my most likely times and locations to miss calls. 

7. Check Your Blocked Numbers

When you block someone on your iPhone, they'll hear your phone ring, then be sent to voicemail. You won't hear your phone ring at all, and can only access their voicemail by navigating to Phone > Voicemail > Blocked Messages. 

Here's how to see blocked numbers on your iPhone, so you can make sure you didn't accidentally block a contact. If you find that you blocked someone you didn't mean to, it's easy to unblock them.

8. Reset Network Settings

When you reset your network settings on your iPhone, you can solve internet connectivity issues. Resetting network settings can also remove VPN settings and previously used networks that weren't installed by a configuration profile or mobile device management, which may solve the issue of calls going straight to voicemail on your iPhone. 

9. Contact Your Cellular Service Provider

It's possible that the reason your iPhone is sending calls to voicemail is a cell service outage. Call your network provider to see if there are outages in your area, and when service will resume.

10. Test Your SIM Card

If you have an iPhone 13 or older model, it's possible that the issue of calls going straight to voicemail is being caused by a faulty SIM card (the iPhone 14 series does not have a physical SIM card.). To test if this is the case, remove the SIM card from your iPhone, and insert it into another iPhone. Now, do a few test calls with the iPhone that your SIM is currently in to see if the calls go straight to voicemail. If they do, it's probable that the issue is a faulty SIM card. Contact your cellular service provider to get a replacement SIM card. 

11. Still Need Help? Contact Apple Support

If your phone calls are still going straight to voicemail, it's time to contact your cellular service provider to see if there's an outage. If that isn't the case, contact Apple Support to see if your iPhone has a hardware issue that needs to be repaired. 

Now that you've gone through all these troubleshooting steps, you should receive all incoming calls. Let us know in the comments if there are any other fixes to the problem of phone calls going straight to voicemail that we didn't cover!