Visual voicemail gone after contract change

[Kc11]

I changed my contract a couple of months ago and have been trying to get my old voicemails back on my phone but to no avail. The iPhone date is on, I’ve reset voicemail, done a network reset etc, I’ve text STATE to 9011 and done the usual 1750/1760 with voicemail. I wouldn’t normally be fussed but I had a few voicemails on my phone from someone who passed away and I’d really like to be able to listen to them again. When speaking to someone from o2 they said the voicemails shouldn’t be lost but so far they’ve not been able to help me retrieve them.

I’ve since had other messages on my visual voicemail so I know it’s working. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately when you change contracts your old voicemails are deleted off the O2 server.
There is no way to recover them.
They should have been backed up first by yourself I'm afraid.

[Kc11]

My phone was backed up before I changed but as I said when I spoke to the team they o2 they seemed to think the voicemails should still be available.

If they’re not then never mind, just silly on my part I guess.

[MI5]

The problem is that they are stored against your account on o2's servers, not physically on your phone. You need to record them with the voice recorder app and save them as actual files on your phone.