Call 101 from your Telstra mobile in Australia to reach MessageBank. On an iPhone, a message captured by Apple Live Voicemail may be in the Phone app instead of your 101 mailbox.
Set up or switch off MessageBank
For Upfront plans, use My Telstra → Services → your service → menu → Manage your MessageBank. Other plans use 101 for setup; ask Telstra support to deactivate it. Follow the setup prompts for your greeting and PIN.
Choose a greeting that asks for a name and callback number. Listen to the saved version once: a recording made beside a busy road can sound much less clear to a caller than it did while you were speaking.
Useful MessageBank controls
Change greeting
101 → 3 → 1 → 1
- These menu choices follow playback of new messages.
30-second ring time
**61*101**30#
- Enter in the dialler, press Call and wait for confirmation.
Another phone
call your mobile number
- At your greeting, press # and enter the PIN.
Overseas
+61101
- Telstra says this uses your international-roaming voice allowance.
iPhone messages missing from 101?
Apple Live Voicemail stores messages on the phone. Telstra says its ring time is 15 seconds; turn it off in Settings → Apps → Phone → Live Voicemail if you want MessageBank to ring longer.
Source: Telstra: mobile voicemail.
Find which part is failing
You forgot the PIN
- Check
- Whether access works from your own SIM.
- Next
- Ask Telstra for a PIN reset. Avoid guessing a sequence of PINs or changing unrelated phone settings.
The greeting changed, but callers hear something else
- Check
- Which mailbox you edited: Apple’s or Telstra’s.
- Next
- Call from another phone and note the greeting before making another change.
Calls go straight to voicemail
- Check
- Whether the phone is reachable and whether the problem affects every caller.
- Next
- Check call-forwarding and call-silencing settings; a no-answer timer will not fix a phone that never rings.
Make one test call
Ask someone to call while the phone is idle. Let it ring unanswered and have them leave a distinctive message, such as the time. Check where it arrived before testing again. Rejecting the call with the red button tests a different situation from simply leaving it unanswered.
Keep a record of any important message before changing or closing your voicemail service. This guide does not promise that a saved carrier message is a permanent archive.
Sources and review notes
Checked 10 September 2026 against the sources below. This is documentation-based guidance; we did not access a customer account or test these instructions on a handset.
Michel Elijah covers technology, streaming and online security for Tech X Telco. He writes practical how-to guides on everything from email troubleshooting to spotting the latest scams doing the rounds in Australia, with a focus on clear steps anyone can follow.
Spotted something wrong? Corrections are recorded in the open. Report a correction
