How to turn off call forwarding on any device, iPhone, Android

This guide walks you through the steps to turn off call forwarding so you never miss an essential call again. Then, we introduce a better alternative to call forwarding so you can provide an excellent experience for both customers and team members.

How to turn off call forwarding using star codes

Using star codes, turning off call forwarding is a straightforward, if tedious, process:

On a landline or traditional phone

Landlines are the simple case. One code works across essentially every US provider, because deactivation is a standardized vertical service code, not a carrier-specific one.

1. Lift the handset and listen for a dial tone, so you know the line is live.
2. Dial *73. On a rotary or pulse-dial phone, dial 1173 instead. (Some older switches accept 73# in place of *73.)
3. Wait for the confirmation — usually two short tones — indicating forwarding is off.

On a mobile phone

On mobile, the code depends on your carrier, because GSM carriers and Verizon use different systems.

1. Check if your phone has a dial tone, so you know if it’s working.
2. Different phones have different codes to turn off call forwarding:
   1. For Verizon phones, dial *73
   2. For AT&T phones, dial *73#
   3. For T-Mobile phones, dial ##21#
   4. For other carriers, try the universal disable call forwarding code ##002# — just keep in mind it may stop your calls from reaching voicemail.
3. Wait for a confirmation tone, usually a few short beeps, indicating you’ve turned off call forwarding.

How to turn off call forwarding on iPhones

Here’s how to remove call forwarding on an iPhone:

1. Navigate to Settings, then Apps.
2. Select Phone.
3. Choose Call Forwarding from the menu.
4. Switch the Call Forwarding feature to the off position.

💡 Pro tip: If you don’t see the toggle, it could be because your carrier manages forwarding server-side. Use the carrier app or portal instead, or try the star codes for your carrier.

How to turn off call forwarding on Android phones

If you have call forwarding on an Android device enabled, follow these steps to turn off forwarding. These should work on Samsung Galaxy devices and other Android phones:

1. Launch the Phone application.
2. Select the three-dot menu in the top right corner and choose Phone Settings
3. Choose Calls or Supplementary services. On Google Pixel phones, tap Calling accounts and select the correct SIM card.
4. Choose Call forwarding
5. Turn off all the options for call forwarding:
   • Always forward
   • Forward when busy, or when you’re on the phone
   • Forward when unanswered, or if you reject the call or don’t pick up
   • Forward when unreached, or when your phone is off or doesn’t have a signal

💡 Pro tip: If you’re using a dual-SIM, make sure to choose the right line when you’re setting up forwarding.

Call forwarding you didn’t set up: common causes

If you never turned on forwarding but your phone shows it active, there are a few usual causes. Most aren’t cause for alarm:

1. Conditional forwarding is on by default. This is the most common reason, and it’s why forwarding seems to keep turning back on. Carriers route unanswered and busy calls to voicemail using conditional forwarding, so it registers as active whenever you check — even though you never touched it. Because it’s a default rather than a setting you added, clearing it often doesn’t stick: the carrier re-establishes the voicemail route.
2. A previous owner or your carrier left it on. Recycled phone numbers and refurbished phones can carry over forwarding set up by the last person who had them. Carriers also occasionally leave forwarding enabled after a port, an account change, or a support call.
3. A company phone has it set centrally. On a managed device, an IT or telecom admin can enable forwarding through a work profile or MDM policy, so it appears without you doing anything on the handset itself.
4. It only looks like forwarding. Do Not Disturb, Focus, and Quiet Mode silence incoming calls and send them to voicemail, which feels identical to forwarding even when none is set. On Verizon, it’s also worth checking call blocking and Verizon Smart Family filters.

To clear real forwarding, use the codes or in-app steps above.

You might be noticing how often manual forwarding fails. Whether you set it once and forgot, inherited it from a previous owner, or never touched it at all, you usually don’t notice until a call has already routed to the wrong place. A business line shouldn’t depend on a setting you can’t see.

4 drawbacks of using call forwarding

Unconditional call forwarding is a standard feature on many phone systems, but it comes with major drawbacks you should keep in mind.

For example:

1. Calls may slip through the cracks: You may forget to remove call forwarding when you no longer wish to forward calls to another phone number automatically. You might miss mission-critical calls or get a ring at night when you’re not expecting it.
2. Manual setup: On many traditional phone systems, you may need to manually set up your call forwarding feature each time you want to forward calls to another number or device. This gets tedious fast, especially if you constantly add or remove team members to your business number.
3. No call forwarding for specific groups: You can’t automatically forward business calls if you use one phone number for business and one for personal. Apart from not knowing how to answer the phone, this could blur the lines between your personal and professional life.
4. Challenges with shared numbers: If multiple team members share a phone number, forwarding could limit their access to calls on the original number — and the history of their conversation with a contact. Less context equals less prepared team members, as well as awkward conversations if customers have to repeat themselves.

Balancing a business phone number and a forwarding number is usually more trouble than it’s worth.

Even if you remember to deactivate call forwarding, using an old phone system to manage your business could take up time from your day.

A call forwarding alternative is your best bet — virtual phone numbers.

Virtual phone numbers: The better alternative to call forwarding

If you rely on call forwarding to share calls between different phones, you’re probably using a traditional phone system — or worse, an outdated one. 

To avoid the hassle of manually transferring calls — and not being able to see any of your past phone call history with a contact — a virtual phone number is the solution you need.

Virtual phone numbers let you send and receive calls and messages over the internet. This means you can take your business with you anywhere with a WiFi connection. Although they provide call forwarding capability, they also offer key features to help you avoid missed calls without the need to turn on call forwarding.

Here are a few ways virtual phone numbers are a better alternative to call forwarding:

1. Split responsibility for incoming calls and messages

Virtual numbers enable your team to share numbers so you don’t have to forward calls to a different phone every time you leave the office. Everyone on your team can see the same calls and messages. When a customer calls, anyone on your team can answer it so you don’t miss important calls.

The best part is team members can view your business’s conversation history with each customer in a shared inbox view. This means they can easily pick up where a colleague left off and get heaps of context all in the same place. Need to delegate tasks to another member of your team? Just tag them internally so you can collaborate on the perfect response.

2. Set a custom ring order for incoming calls

If you have many people on your team who share the same forwarding number, it can be hard to decide who should answer the calls first.

The bad news is call forwarding doesn’t allow for custom segmentation with incoming call recipients. The good news is virtual phone numbers do.

Custom ring orders make it easy to segment which team members receive incoming calls first. That way, calls go to other members of your team if they go unanswered in the first couple of rings.

Quo also gives you more ways to automatically route calls using conditional call forwarding. If no one on your team answers the phone, you can send callers to a backup support team or forward them to a different number during or after business hours.

3. Set business hours and let calls route themselves

Stop dialing *72 to forward your line every evening and *73 to pull it back every morning. Instead, set business hours once and calls route automatically on the schedule you choose.

Any callers who reach you outside business hours get sent to voicemail or receive an auto-reply, depending on your phone settings.

Coming up on a vacation or a company-wide holiday? You can adjust your business hours to set expectations with customers. Quo also lets you upload a custom voicemail greeting for calls made outside of business hours, which helps customers know when they can reach you next.

Team members can also set their own working hours, which makes it easier to work in shift-based schedules and ensures you have adequate support coverage. Add this to analytics, including Quo’s hotspot charts, and you can see the days with the most calls and decide who to assign during peak call volume.

“Quo offers a lot more flexibility than your traditional business line. You can set your business hours and customize away messages with a few clicks. If you are looking for intuitive, clean user experiences with your VOIP business phone service, Quo is for you.” — Melissa Hughes, Principal/Owner, Halogen Design Lab

What to read next

Want to weigh your options beyond traditional cell carriers? See our guide to the best call forwarding apps. 

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