I have FreePBX 17 running on Debian 12 with three phones connected. All incoming calls are routed to extension 1 which has voicemail enabled (other 2 extensions don’t have voicemail). When an incoming call is unanswered, the user is not being routed to the voicemail on the FreePBX and instead goes to the softphone app on my mobile (VOIP provider is handling the voicemail and not the extension). I am able to add the Voicemail widget in the UCP for extension 1 which is showing no voicemail recordings. Since the voicemail is not functioning, custom voicemail messages are also not working.
Voicemail tab settings for Extension 1:
Enabled: Yes
Password: ******
Require from same extension: No
Disable *: No
Email and page email address: Blank
Email attachment: No
Play CID: Yes
Play envelope: Yes
Delete voicemail: No
VM context: default
Is it possible to verify that the voicemail has indeed been set up correctly and that the call gets routed there if the extension is unavailable?
That is an interesting question - the service provider does offer a voicemail service by default, in case I don’t use FreePBX as the primary account device. I am using Voipmuch, a SIP trunk provider in Canada which I used to set up the FreePBX trunk and the extensions in my office. The service also offers a softphone app on an additional ‘clone’ device that rings simultaneously along with the main inbound extension.
The actual call flow now is really the more confusing part. When I was using FreePBX 16 till about a week ago, the default behaviour was that the incoming call would ring on both the FreePBX extension 1 and the softphone app, and unanswered calls were routed to the extension’s voicemail. If FreePBX is offline, the service provider handles the voicemail as a failsafe.
After installing FreePBX 17, the extension’s voicemail is not working at all. The incoming call rings on the extension correctly, but the voicemail behaves as if the PBX is offline, i.e. goes to the service provider’s mailbox.
It’s because of your setup with voipmuch. If the call isn’t answered in a specific time, it will reroute it to the softphone app and then their voicemail. If you want the PBX to handle all of this, voipmuch shouldn’t be.
If you want to ensure that the provider’s vm never interferes, you could enable ‘force answer’ on the inbound route. As long as the PBX is up, it should prevent the provider from answering the channel. On the off chance that you’re keeping track of billing seconds, know that enabling this will throw off that value.
The Force Stop option in the inbound route settings worked - it is going to the extension’s voicemail on the FreePBX when unavailable. The softphone app setup is what is creating a conflict regarding how the voicemail is handled, so I will take that up with my service provider. Thank you so much for the help!