What to do if…
your calls go straight to voicemail and your texts are delayed or not arriving

What to do now

1. Keep an emergency route available first. If you need urgent help, try calling 999 or 112. If your own phone will not connect, use Wi-Fi Calling if it already works on your phone, a landline, or someone else’s phone. If you are already registered for an emergency text or relay service and cannot call or speak, use that route.

2. Check the settings that can silently send calls to voicemail.

   • Turn off Do Not Disturb, Focus, Sleep mode, or any similar quiet mode.
   • Check that Call Forwarding or call diversion is off.
   • Check that the important callers are not blocked.
   • If your phone can silence unknown callers or private numbers, turn that off temporarily and test again.

3. Make the phone reconnect to the mobile network.

   • Turn Flight Mode or Airplane Mode on, wait about 5 seconds, then turn it off.
   • Fully power the phone off, wait briefly, then turn it back on.
   • Send one test text and ask one trusted person to call you once.

4. Move once and retest. Try near a window, outside, or in a different nearby place. If it works there, the problem may be local coverage, indoor signal, or a building issue rather than your phone.

5. Check whether your provider has a fault.

   • Use your mobile provider’s service status or outage checker.
   • Check expected coverage for your postcode with Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker.
   • Ask someone nearby on the same network whether their calls or texts are affected.

6. Check the SIM or eSIM carefully.

   • If you use a physical SIM, power the phone off, remove the SIM, check it is seated properly, then reinsert it and power on.
   • If you use eSIM, check that the line is switched on in mobile settings, but do not delete the eSIM unless your provider tells you to.
   • If you recently changed SIM, eSIM, phone, or provider, tell your provider this when you contact them.

7. Try one deeper phone-side fix only after the basics.

   • Install any pending phone software or carrier settings update.
   • As a last resort, use your phone’s reset network settings option. This may remove saved Wi-Fi passwords, preferred networks, VPN settings, or APN settings.

8. Contact your network provider with specifics. Say: “Incoming calls go straight to voicemail and SMS arrives late or not at all.” Give your postcode, times, whether data still works, whether it happens indoors or everywhere, and what checks you already tried. Ask them to check for local faults, account or service blocks, line problems, SIM problems, and whether your line needs refreshing or a replacement SIM.