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Make your phone ring for longer before going to voicemail

Tuesday 31st March 2009 by Andy Simpson in How to Guides.

I think we’ve all had experiences in the past where the phone rings, you’re in the middle of doing something and miles away from your phone. You drop everything in a mad panic, dash to your phone, only for it to go to voicemail the second you pick it up. You try and call the person back, only to end up playing voicemail tennis, with them getting your voicemail, you getting theirs, until one of you decides not to ring the other person back. I don’t know about you but that winds me right up!

There is a pretty quick and easy way to try and prevent this, and that is to increase the amount of time your phone rings for before diverting the calls to voicemail. Sounds tricky, but is actually very simple. By default, most networks will have set your ringing time to 15 seconds. Plenty of time if the phone is in your pocket, but not if its somewhere else in the house.

If you have a Samsung phone, you can increase the amount of time before voicemail through the settings on the phone, but for most other makes you will need to key a code into your phone and send it to the network.

These steps should work for all phones on all networks, but there might be some instances where this doesn’t work, in which case, you’re probably better off speaking to your network provider to find out how to do it. Before you start you will need to find your voicemailbox number. This can normally be found in the voicemail settings on your phone, or in the call diverts settings. I can’t really explain in any great detail where to find this number as it’s stored in different places on different phones. If you can’t find it, either leave a comment below and we’ll investigate for you, or contact your network for it.

To set the ringing time, key in: **61*MailboxNumber**N# then press ok/send/call
(N is the number of seconds you want it to ring for up to a maximum of 30 seconds)

To cancel previous setting key in: ##61# then press ok/send/call. This will reset it to the network default

For Example:

If your voicemail box number is: +44 7978 123 456, and you want your phone to divert to your voicemail after 20 seconds, you would key in:

**61*+447978123456**20# and then press ok/send/call.

Your phone should then say "requesting," or something similar, and after a few seconds you’ll receive a confirmation message. If you get an error message, check the code you’ve entered and try again. If it still doesn’t work, you’ll need to contact your network, or if you know someone with a Samsung phone, ask them nicely to borrow it!

Feel free to ask any questions below and we’ll do our best to answer them.

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  • Raiannur Sowdagar Rohman

    How can i extend my Samsung Keytone 2

  • Sog Sussex

    on my Lumia 920 its **61*121**20# (for 20 seconds) thanks for this info, its been driving me mad!! the default gave me just enough time to see who’s calling then straight to answer phone.

  • geoff padmore

    I had same problem 4 rings only then on to VoiceMail. You will need the Tel. No. of your server, mine is Orange or EE and is 07973 100 194.
    Go to the screen for dialing a call. Put in **61* (now the providers number)then * followed by the number of seconds delay you want, the maximum for LG E400 is 20 then # Press send and it will now be re-set to 20 seconds. So it’s: **61*provider number*20# then SEND.
    Hope that helps.

  • geoff padmore

    I had the same problem, about 4 rings then onto VoiceMail.

    You need the phone no. of your provider (mine was Orange/ now EE and their number is 07973 100 194) Get your screen up ready to make a call. Type in **61* now put in the phone number of your provider, then ** then the number of seconds you want it to ring for, my maximum is 20, then # and then press Send. So that’s **61* number ** 20# Send. I hope that works for you.

  • Chinook

    No ‘menu’ function available at that stage (either on screen or via buttons) on a Ssg Galaxy II (but dialing the code worked)

  • Chinook

    Just tried this with my Samsung Galaxy II on Virgin UK and it worked. Brilliant!

  • sid

    how can I make my lg e400 ring longer

  • Ian Staniford

    How do I make my Sony Ericasson W20i ringing longer up to the maximum

  • redvil

    thanks. worked for me :)

  • http://williamjudd.com/ William Judd

    It’s 901, I think.

  • Mic Kippen

    Thank you for the help above, but I can’t find my answer phone number. I am using the iPhone 3G and using O2 as my provider. Can you help me to find it please.

  • Regentjak

    how do i extend my nokia 800 ringtone

  • Regentjak

    how do i make my nokia 800 ringtone longer

  • SaintSlimJim

    Just minimize the keypad and the delay should be there in a separate dropdown menu. I have an HTC and this works

  • Jm_superjoe

    Works great thanks a lot!

  • Colin

    And for an i-phone it’s:
    star star 61 star 121 star 11 star 30 hash

    Where the 30 sets the time delay before diverting, so set it to what you prefer.

  • karen

    thank you

  • Bigd

    i cant see the menu after forward when unanswered, just a place to type your mailbox number. where is the menu to change it it?

  • Debproberts

    FANTASTIC, IT HAS BEEN DRIVING ME MAD, NOW I WON’T MISS MY CALLS AGAIN

  • Carmenjane

    Hi! how do you extend you ring time on a Galaxy Fit?

  • Jenniferm45

    do you know how to do it for a blackberry 9300 i tried this way but i keeps say conditional forwarding no reply and then 447802091901 which i then tried as the access code but it just did the exact same

  • Joey V

    Is it free… And by that I mean the service provider won’t charge you a fee for makin your phone ring longer?

  • Sal Lloyd1

    Thank you!!!!!! No more missed calls!!!! :))

  • Margie H

    Thanks for your information, but I am very new at this stuff. I have a Telstra Smart-Touch phone and when I go to Voicemail setting, then Setting for my carrier, this is what it reads…
    +61101, then it asks me to OK or cancel. So I am not sure what I should do to make my phone ring longer, can you help me please?

  • Andy

    I have a Samsung galaxy S GTi 9000 on talktalk and this almost works! What you need to enter is **61*121*11*NN#. Hope this helps any frustrated users

  • Stevehyperguy

    thank you absoloute gem of info ::::: samsung galaxy s 2:::::::::::

  • Djchappie

    doh, this is the simple way to set your ring for 5 seconds to 30 seconds.

    Settings > Call > Call forwarding > Forward when unanswered > Menu >…then adjust the Delay to your liking, 5secs to 30secs > Update.

    Chappie, Edinburgh, single, looking for love, lol, xxx

  • Graham Hadley

    Can you advise how to extend the ring before vuts in on a blackberry curve please.oicemail c

  • Casey

    Thankyou so much I didn’t actually think this would work but it did! Now my phone rings until I pick it up :)

  • Andy Simpson

    I’m guessing you’re outside of the UK as a Vu isn’t a phone we have over here. Non-UK Carriers will use a different set up so these codes won’t work. Your best bet will be to contact your network for info on how to change it.

  • Chris

    My lg vu keeps saying Request rejected wat do i do?

  • Billy

    Worked on my Nokia N97 with Virgin. **61**212**30#

  • Andy Simpson

    Which network are you on? this shortcode doesn’t work with all of them..

  • kev

    many thanks worked a treat on o2 great help thanx again

  • Marten

    just tried it on my htc legend, says approved but when i try it out it just rings for the same amount fo time.

  • Carrie

    Yaaay, you’re a star Marko! I had missed out the + sign before the number. Have now done it and it works. :)

    When you say though: ‘to verify that your voicemails are still being sent to the correct place, repeat step 1 and check that the phone number matches’ do you mean the phone number you see should match your own mobile number or the one you’ve found by entering the code?

    Many thanks, Carrie

  • Carrie

    By the way, I tried Marko’s way on my Viewty and just received the message ‘Error.’ :(

  • Carrie

    Hi,

    I have a LG Viewty & it stops ringing after 3 rings, very annoying! I can’t find my voicemail number on my phone to do as you suggest, could you possibly tell me where it is? Many thanks. :)

  • Jack

    Just tried it Nokia 6500 on 3 Network.. Worked straight away.. Cheers (Y)

  • Andy

    Thanks for that Marko.. seems to be a quicker way of doing it!
    Andy

  • Marko

    Ok heres how i always do it step by step. Let me know if you got any problems.

    How Do I Make My iPhone Ring Longer?

    1.Dial *#61# and touch Call.

    2.Jot down the phone number displayed on the screen. This is where your voicemail calls are directed to (as shown in the screenshot below).

    3.Dial **61*(THE NUMBER YOU WROTE DOWN)**30# and press Call.
    Your Phone should now ring longer — that is, for the full 30-second duration of your ringtone. To verify that your voicemails are still being sent to the correct place, repeat step 1 and check that the phone number matches

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  • http://www.andronicos.net A

    You are a genius Andy! It actully works on my UK T-Mobile Blackberry 9700, which now means that when I am abroad and landline calls auto re-route to my mobile (which delays getting the call by a few secs, especially i the USA), I will now get more than a few seconds to answer. No more spectacular dives required!

    thanks

    A

  • Andy

    Sorry Dar, I have no idea, I only know how to do this on UK handsets

  • Dar

    how do I do this for a boost mobile phone? I have a i465 clutch by motorola.

  • Andy

    For vodafone the voicemail box number is 121, so the code you’d need to enter would be:

    **61*121*25#

  • Andy

    The 3 network uses completely different technology to the others so there was a chance this wouldn’t work.

    thanks for letting us know

  • Steve

    This doesn’t work on Nokia E71 on 3 network

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