Today my brother's cellphone mailbox is full.

His wife's mailbox is usually full.

What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
service's mailbox?

By minutes? How many minutes or how many messages?

I need to know how to phrase my complaining. -)

On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 12:18:27 -0400, micky wrote:

> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
> service's mailbox?

Maybe contact the provider's support and ask them? My ISP's mailbox (we
/are/ talking about mail, IMAP, yes?) is limited to 5 GiB. How many
messages? Depends on the size of each message.

--
s|b

In comp.mobile.android, on Sun, 27 Jun 2021 19:38:00 +0200, "s|b"
<me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

>On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 12:18:27 -0400, micky wrote:
>
>> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
>> service's mailbox?
>
>Maybe contact the provider's support and ask them?

I don't want to ask my older brother who his provider is. It's bad
enough that I complain that's it's full, and that I ask about other
things. OTOH today his vocie-mailbox is full, he's said doesn't read
his texts except maybe once a week, he doesn't read his email except
maybe once a week. His wife is also usually hard to reach. He does
usually answer the phone, but once they went to Peru for at least a week
and all I knew is that no one called me back.

He does usually answer the phone, and he did call me back today. He
knew that I called becaue he heard the phone while he was driving. He
doesn't answer the phone when he's driving. That's good.

And he said he'd try to delete some of his phone messages.

He's 80 years old and never really liked computer stuff, or the phone
stuff**, I'm sure. Ironically, he's a radiologist and while that used
to be like photography, now it's all on a computer and he runs two
computers at one time, one to look at the pictures and one to dictate
reports, etc!

**I think google maps is the only app he uses, plus phone calls. .

>My ISP's mailbox (we
>/are/ talking about mail, IMAP, yes?) is limited to 5 GiB. How many
>messages? Depends on the size of each message.

I should have said voicemail, maybe. I did say "cellphone mailbox"
which I used to exclude the voicemail that comes with my home phone. But
otoh, for people who read their email on the phone, it could mean that.
I didn't think of that. (It's so confusing, no wonder my brother
doesn't like it!)

I've assumed that a cellular voicemail mailbox will be far smaller than
an email mailbox. Partly because his wife's mailbox was full for months
once. I rarely call her and it's full again.

Mine otoh is totally empty, and that reminded me that it would help to
look that up. So I looked Verizon up, "Basic voicemail includes: Up to
20 stored messages. Up to a 3-minute recording per message." That's
nothing. If his is like that, no wonder it's full.

Yes, I could have looked this up and not bothered you all, sorry, but to
make up for that, I'll post more now:

Sprint otoh says
1 Your voicemail box can hold a total of 30 messages.
2 New messages are kept for 14 to 30 days, depending on the type of
voicemail. If you don't save them during that time, they are
automatically deleted.
3 Saved messages are kept for 30 days, and if you don't delete them
during that time, they are automatically deleted."

2 and 3 stink. What if you're in the hospital for a month or more?
What if you're out of the country**? What if you're out of the country
and the virus keeps you from returning. What if you have only one
phone and you changed your sim to another country's sim. It seems to me
it's enough that when your mailbox is full (30 whole messages) callers
can't leave new ones. Remind me not to get Sprint.

**I tried to retrieve the messages on my physical phone machine when I
was out of town and dialing from a cell phone, I coudln't get it to
work. It didn't respond at all. (I have to try from a landline next,
but I don't think about that when I'm at someone else's house. I should
also try from the current cellphone which is not the one I used 4 years
ago. Unlike cellphones, this answering machine is at least 10 years old
and I hope to use it for another 30 years. I even bought spare cordless
extensions for when they break. (The answer key is dirty enough to not
work on one, but later I realized the speaker-phone button also answered
the phone. That should give me another 10 years.))

On a separate subject, when my home internet Verizon FIOS phone is busy
or off the hook, sometimes it plays the msssage I recorded, which says
not to leave a message. But other times, some other voice announces my
phone number and beeps without soliciting a messsage, but it will take a
message anyhow. I haven't found a pattern yet. I'll complain to them
but I don't expect much, at least until I find a pattern, and not even
then.

In article <86hhdglu0a71st9rvljarf9fhu4iqff922@4ax.com>, micky
<NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

> Sprint otoh says
> 1 Your voicemail box can hold a total of 30 messages.
> 2 New messages are kept for 14 to 30 days, depending on the type of
> voicemail. If you don't save them during that time, they are
> automatically deleted.
> 3 Saved messages are kept for 30 days, and if you don't delete them
> during that time, they are automatically deleted."
>
> 2 and 3 stink. What if you're in the hospital for a month or more?

then you have far more important concerns, plus other family members
could retrieve messages for you.

also. people will likely call your hospital phone number instead, which
you could put on the voicemail recording so that everyone knows what it
is, then can call you directly and not have to leave a message at all.

> What if you're out of the country**? What if you're out of the country
> and the virus keeps you from returning. What if you have only one
> phone and you changed your sim to another country's sim.

what if an asteroid hits earth and destroys all life?
what if aliens arrive and pod-people take over the planet?

> It seems to me
> it's enough that when your mailbox is full (30 whole messages) callers
> can't leave new ones. Remind me not to get Sprint.

it's not significantly different on other carriers.

On 27 Jun 2021, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote in
comp.mobile.android:

> Today my brother's cellphone mailbox is full.
>
> His wife's mailbox is usually full.
>
> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
> service's mailbox?
>
> By minutes? How many minutes or how many messages?
>
> I need to know how to phrase my complaining. -)

"Cellphone mailboxes" don't get full. It's possible that the storage on
the phone itself could run out, you the sender would never know that.
It's more likely that your brother has reached his email provider's
storage limit. That limit is different for every provider. Google, for
example allows up to 15 GB for all services (Drive, Photos, Gmail,
etc.) Comcast gives you 10 GB for email. Verizon FIOS gives you 4 GB.
AOL gives you 1 TB.

On 27 Jun 2021, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote in
comp.mobile.android:

> I don't want to ask my older brother who his provider is.

You can usually tell the provider from the email address or by
examining a sample email's headers.

In comp.mobile.android, on Sun, 27 Jun 2021 16:18:18 -0400, Nil
<rednoise9@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:

>On 27 Jun 2021, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote in
>comp.mobile.android:
>
>> I don't want to ask my older brother who his provider is.
>
>You can usually tell the provider from the email address or by
>examining a sample email's headers.

I don't think he's ever sent me an email,

but I've written him and I know his email address ends in gmail. Duh.
But wait... It took me until now to realize we're back to email and I'm
talking about cell phone voice-mail. That's why I asked on the android
group instead of a windows or email group!

It certainly can be confusing!

On 27 Jun 2021, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote in
comp.mobile.android:

> In comp.mobile.android, on Sun, 27 Jun 2021 16:18:18 -0400, Nil
><rednoise9@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:
>
>>On 27 Jun 2021, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote in
>>comp.mobile.android:
>>
>>> I don't want to ask my older brother who his provider is.
>>
>>You can usually tell the provider from the email address or by
>>examining a sample email's headers.
>
> I don't think he's ever sent me an email,
>
> but I've written him and I know his email address ends in gmail.
> Duh. But wait... It took me until now to realize we're back to
> email and I'm talking about cell phone voice-mail. That's why I
> asked on the android group instead of a windows or email group!
>
> It certainly can be confusing!

Oh, OK. I made a wrong assumption. Still, it's up to their cell phone
carrier. For example, I use Tracfone, which uses Verizon's or AT&T's
service depending on your phone. I read that AT&T limits you to about
20 voice mails. I've never accumulated that many so I can't verify it.
I read that Verizon has a limit of 20 message that they will keep for
21 days before automatically deleting them.

micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

> Today my brother's cellphone mailbox is full.
>
> His wife's mailbox is usually full.
>
> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
> service's mailbox?
>
> By minutes? How many minutes or how many messages?
>
> I need to know how to phrase my complaining. -)

You cannot get that information from the e-mail provider? It's their
service. It's their rules. They probably have quotas on both maximum
mailbox size and maximum size per message.

Unless your brother and wife use the same cellular provider as yourself,
they will have to contact tech support for whomever is their provider.

Am 27.06.21 um 21:10 schrieb micky:

> **I think google maps is the only app he uses, plus phone calls. .

Why are you messing with other people's phones?
This onon of your business in the first place.

> I should have said voicemail, maybe. I did say "cellphone mailbox"
> which I used to exclude the voicemail that comes with my home phone. But
> otoh, for people who read their email on the phone, it could mean that.
> I didn't think of that. (It's so confusing, no wonder my brother
> doesn't like it!)

That is his choice and you *must* accept it. Did he ask for your help.
If he is fine, leave him.

> I've assumed that a cellular voicemail mailbox will be far smaller than
> an email mailbox. Partly because his wife's mailbox was full for months
> once. I rarely call her and it's full again.

That is none of your business either.
You have no constitutional right to reach other people over your mobile
device.

> Mine otoh is totally empty, and that reminded me that it would help to
> look that up. So I looked Verizon up, "Basic voicemail includes: Up to
> 20 stored messages. Up to a 3-minute recording per message." That's
> nothing. If his is like that, no wonder it's full.

None of your business.

> Yes, I could have looked this up and not bothered you all, sorry, but to
> make up for that, I'll post more now:
>
>
>
> Sprint otoh says
> 1 Your voicemail box can hold a total of 30 messages.
> 2 New messages are kept for 14 to 30 days, depending on the type of
> voicemail. If you don't save them during that time, they are
> automatically deleted.
> 3 Saved messages are kept for 30 days, and if you don't delete them
> during that time, they are automatically deleted."
>
> 2 and 3 stink. What if you're in the hospital for a month or more?
> What if you're out of the country**? What if you're out of the country
> and the virus keeps you from returning. What if you have only one
> phone and you changed your sim to another country's sim. It seems to me
> it's enough that when your mailbox is full (30 whole messages) callers
> can't leave new ones. Remind me not to get Sprint.
>
> **I tried to retrieve the messages on my physical phone machine when I
> was out of town and dialing from a cell phone, I coudln't get it to
> work. It didn't respond at all. (I have to try from a landline next,
> but I don't think about that when I'm at someone else's house. I should
> also try from the current cellphone which is not the one I used 4 years
> ago. Unlike cellphones, this answering machine is at least 10 years old
> and I hope to use it for another 30 years. I even bought spare cordless
> extensions for when they break. (The answer key is dirty enough to not
> work on one, but later I realized the speaker-phone button also answered
> the phone. That should give me another 10 years.))
>
>
> On a separate subject, when my home internet Verizon FIOS phone is busy
> or off the hook, sometimes it plays the msssage I recorded, which says
> not to leave a message. But other times, some other voice announces my
> phone number and beeps without soliciting a messsage, but it will take a
> message anyhow. I haven't found a pattern yet. I'll complain to them
> but I don't expect much, at least until I find a pattern, and not even
> then.

You are an addict and you need your daily little mobile phone-problem.
Otherwise you get bored. Very bored. Now you even want to solve other
people's problems.

On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 12:18:27 -0400, micky wrote:

> Today my brother's cellphone mailbox is full.
>
> His wife's mailbox is usually full.
>
> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
> service's mailbox?
>
> By minutes? How many minutes or how many messages?
>
> I need to know how to phrase my complaining. -)

The max size is generally more than an active user would need so
it's probably not a useful line of inquiry.

A full voicemail box is usually indicative of someone that
doesn't check nor listen to them. So the size limit is irrelevant
in those cases.

The other possibility is they listen but don't delete. I think
some services may auto-delete old msgs if they've been listened to?

Am 27.06.21 um 18:18 schrieb micky:
> Today my brother's cellphone mailbox is full.
>
> His wife's mailbox is usually full.
>
> What is a typical amount of messages that can be held in cellular
> service's mailbox?
>
> By minutes? How many minutes or how many messages?
>
> I need to know how to phrase my complaining. -)

Why should you complain about anything that does not affect *you*!
Obviously neither your brother nor his wife miss your calls. Otherwise
they would look for a reasonable solution themselves.

Get the message?

On 2021-06-28, Nil <rednoise9@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:
> I read that AT&T limits you to about
> 20 voice mails. I've never accumulated that many so I can't verify it.
> I read that Verizon has a limit of 20 message that they will keep for
> 21 days before automatically deleting them.

I think the Verizon limit may be by total time not total number.

On 6/28/2021 7:06 PM, NewsKrawler wrote:
> On 2021-06-28, Nil <rednoise9@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:
>> I read that AT&T limits you to about
>> 20 voice mails. I've never accumulated that many so I can't verify it.
>> I read that Verizon has a limit of 20 message that they will keep for
>> 21 days before automatically deleting them.
>
> I think the Verizon limit may be by total time not total number.

<https://www.verizon.com/support/voice-mail-comparison/>