How Do I Save Important Voicemail From My Old Phone?
Welcome to Tech 911 , Lifehacker’s weekly tech tips column. We have a slightly new look! Hope you enjoy it because I love it. This week we are tackling a more difficult question for the reader – more in subject than in complexity. However, I felt obligated to answer this question, because it is something that we all may have to face at some point in our lives.
Lifehacker reader ” Captain Quack ” writes:
My brother-in-law passed away recently and my mother-in-law wants to keep his last voicemail. Her old Nokia (we think) is dying, and we are going to buy her something comparable, but newer. She is not very happy with the changes, but she is not very happy with her current career. Is there a way to transfer this voicemail to a new carrier?
First, I apologize for your loss, and I’m glad you have at least some sonic memories that you can access.
I can’t remember the last time I used a Nokia phone – it took so long for me too – but at first I thought the best way to save this voicemail was to simply record it with another device. Find something with a reliable microphone – a standalone handheld device , a podcasting microphone , your smartphone, or maybe even your laptop – and use that to record a message that’s played from your phone. If your Nokia has a speakerphone, great; otherwise, you need to position the microphone as close to the earphone of the phone as possible.
You will probably have to do a few recordings to get what works for you, and you will also want to make sure you create the best recording environment for yourself – no background noise if possible. You can then drag the file into an audio editing app like Audacity , one of our favorites, and adjust the audio volume and EQ. You can also play with other filters to try to improve the clarity of the recording, which, even in pristine state, will still be a great voicemail quality speech recording.
As for moving voicemail from one carrier to another, it won’t work if the specified voicemail is stored on the carrier’s servers. There is no mechanism to migrate voicemail from, say, Verizon to T-Mobile or whatever.
You didn’t mention which Nokia phone we’re talking about, but I’m guessing “ancient” means “no Android” – it’s some kind of old-fashioned T9 device or “ regular phone ”. known. If I’m wrong and your Nokia device is running Android, you have even more options to save that voicemail on your device and transfer it to your connected computer. You will have to rummage through the Android file system for your saved voicemail, but it should be easy to find. (I assume you will need to search your device for the “VVM” folder, short for visual voicemail.)
You can also record audio from your phone directly to your computer if the Nokia running Android has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Whichever solution you choose, I would investigate this sooner rather than later. If your voicemail is stored on your carrier’s servers, they may delete it without warning after a certain number of days – usually 30, but this can vary depending on the carrier.