If you have a Mac, use Garage Band to record them. If you cannot connect phone to laptop or iPad (I think it's on iPad also), then put on speaker phone and record that way.

fwiw, the husband of a dear friend passed away several years ago. She kept his cell phone active for awhile, but when she went to have it disconnect they were able to email her a recording of his VM "this is X, please leave a message."

Linelle, do you mean to play them on my smart phone and record them onto a tape recorder? I don't think I can record things onto my phone. Not unless it's an app. I avoid apps when at all possible.
Allison, we have PCs and Android phones. I wish I had an old tape recorder. I would have tried to record them that way. I haven't been able to listen to them since she passed until last night and was afraid they'd be gone since it's been way more than the 28 days they say they'll be saved for. I should try calling our service provider to see if there is anything they could do.

The program I installed was Audacity, which I found via a Google search on Cnet. Usually stuff from Cnet is reliable. I wasn't impressed.

I find it hard to believe that if you have a smartphone, it doesn't have a built in recorder. My iPhone sure does.

Violet, I know I made it sound like it didn't have a recorder on my smart phone, but what I meant was I didn't think it could be used while I had voicemail open. Too many things going on today, that I didn't take time to proof read so I missed how that sounded.

I don't work outside the home, so everyone thinks I can drop everything to do what they need, right when they need it. Rarely do I get a warning. I wouldn't mind so much if they acted more appreciative. Not that I'm not treated well, I am, very well in fact. It's just that they still don't get that I have things I want done in a timely manner too.

Do you have a microphone on your PC? If you do Windows has a program called Sound Recorder that may work. Play your voice mails so the microphone picks them up and save as audio files. Then you can burn them to a cd.

good luck!

Try this

On the phone, simply press on the message until the drop-down menu appeared and chose save. This stores the message on the phone's internal storage and removes the VMail from the server. then connect the phone via USB cable to computer and go to the phone's internal drive (listed on the computer) where there is a "Voicemails" folder and copy them to the computer's hard drive. The files are .amr files and just use VideoLan to play them.

Another option is to use a second cell phone that has a record feature and play the voice mail on your phone as you hold the other cell phone with the recorder on against the speakers of your cell phone. That will save it to the other cell phone. That would provide a second backup.

Oh here's a method using audacity since you already have it.

http://time.com/3666242/save-voicemails/

I know this does not address your question, but I wanted to share. I lost my sister and my father back in the 90's. At that time I still had an answering machine with a tape recorder in it. I saved messages from both of them (as well as some friends) and every once in awhile I go back and listen to them. I love still hearing their voices. This was also before camcorders with microphones -- at least before I had one. I hope you are able to save those special messages.

Thanks everyone. it's nice to know I have more options. I'll try them all tomorrow. I spent the evening helping our Grandson go through all his toys to sort, toss and donate them. It was so cute how he picked out things for his cousin that we just visited last week. He noticed what she liked and wanted her to have his toys from his younger days. They are 4.5 years apart, but played together so well.
Because of that I didn't get time to try your ideas tonight as I need to get to bed so I can get up early to take Grandson to the bus stop, then head to town to get my little guy (Tommy cat) his prescription food and grab a couple things at the store.
Dedtired, what a blessing to have those recordings of both your sister and father. I had saved my Mom's last message (from the day she passed) on a taped answering machine. A short time later our daughter noticed the message light and listened to a new message. Not knowing about the special message from her Grammy, she chose to delete all messages instead of just the one she listened too. I was so upset when I heard the message "all messages deleted" from another room I started crying. She felt so bad. She was just 10 when my Mom passed suddenly of a massive heart attack.
Luckily I have a VHS tape of my Mom talking, and at times you can see her. She didn't like videos or photographs taken of her so there are few. I'm like her in that I prefer to be taking the pictures and videos. I am trying to learn to change. Though I don't care for pictures of me, I know my family will cherish them when my time comes.