Multiple Extensions with phone voicemail button programmed for same mailbox

FreePBX Configuration
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I’ve searched and searched and searched and come up with several people asking this question and several solutions to it. But I have not been able to make it work yet.

I’ve added 5 phones in my house to my FreePBX with a SIP trunk and 5 pjsip extensions.
The phones are Yealink SIP-T58’s.
I’ve tried with Yealink T42s and T46s phones as well and no luck.
The phones are extension 8003 through 8007.
I have the phones autoprovisioning using Sangoma Endpoint Manager.
I can make and receive phone calls, page, and intercom between phones perfectly.
I’m running FreePBX 16.0.19.

I have one ring group on extension 8000 that rings all of the house phones when a call comes in on the house number so that it can be picked up from any phone in the house. Works like a champ.

I’ve setup one voicemail box on extension 8003 and I have all the other extensions, 8004-8007, set to leave messages in voicemail box 8003 if no one picks up an incoming call. That works perfectly as well.

So now I get to the point where I want to listen to the voicemail messages. I see the new message indicator on the phone upstairs, it shows I have missed calls and voicemail waiting, so I press the Message button on the phone at extension 8004 or 8005 or 8006 or 8007, and can’t get to the messages that are so desperately waiting to be heard.

If I am in my basement office at extension 8003, and use the voicemail button on the phone, the phone lets me pick it up and plays the messages and lets me use it as I would expect.

If I am at any other extension, I can’t get it to access voicemailbox 8003 with a one button push of the voicemail button.

So for the rest of this description, let’s say I’m at extension 8005 and want to listen to the voicemails in mailbox 8003.

First, I tried the default. It tries to access voicemailbox for extension 8005, as I would expect.

Second, I set FreePBX->Applications->Extensions->8005->Advanced->Mailbox to “8003@device”. Voicemail indicator now shows I have waiting voicemails on the mailbox extensions. I push the voicemail button on the phone, and no joy.

Third, I try using “*97” in FreePBX->Applications->Extensions->8005->Advanced->VoicemailExtension. No luck. Still me at phone extension 8005, I press the message button on the phone and it tries to access the voicemail 8005 again.

Fourth, I set FreePBX->Applications->Extensions->8005->Voicemail->Enabled to “No”. Turns off the voicemailbox for 8005 for I know it’s not conflicting in some way.

Fifth, I try using “*98” in FreePBX->Applications->Extensions->8005->Advanced->VoicemailExtension. I press the message button on the phone and it tries it prompts me to enter the voicemailbox number and password. I’m a step closer.

Sixth, I try using “*988003” in FreePBX->Applications->Extensions->8005->Advanced->VoicemailExtension. I press the message button on the phone and I see it speed dial “*988003” on the screen and it prompts me for the password. I type in the password and I can access the mailbox. I’m two steps closer.

Seventh, I try manually programming *97, *98, *988003, 8003 in the phones at extension 8004-8007 themselves for the Message button on the phone and no luck with any of those options either.

Now my wife asks me if I’m done messing with the phones yet and tries to check the messages from upstairs from extension 8006 and it prompts her to enter a password. She doesn’t like having to enter the password every time or walking downstairs to my basement office to check the messages on extension 8003. So now I’m backward all three steps, and down in my basement office until I figure out how to make my cool new touchscreen phones easy to check messages… :slight_smile:

How can I get the voicemail button on all of my non-8003 extensions to automatically use the voicemail box for 8003 with one button push and not ask for the password every time?

Any help would be very greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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Bump…

Does anyone have multiple phones with different extension numbers sharing a single voicemail box with the voicemail buttons and message indicator on all of the phones working together to access that one voicemail box?

Thanks!

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I think you are on the right path. Have you remove (leave blank) the Voicemail > Password field for x8003?

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@eNetKC Edit your /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf file and add these lines at the bottom of the file and save.

[custom-Vmail]
exten => s,1,Ringing
exten => s,2,Answer
exten => s,3,Wait(1)
exten => s,4,VoiceMailMain(8003@default,s) ; <== default may be device depending on your setup
exten => s,5,Macro(hangupcall)

Then in the FreePBX GUI, go to Admin > Custom Destinations and add one. In the Target field, add this:

custom-Vmail,s,1

In the Description, put “Home VoiceMail” or whatever description you want and submit and apply changes.

Now go to Applicaionts > Misc Applications and add one. In Description, put Voicemail. In Feature Code, put 8010 or whatever extension number you’d like. In Destination, choose Custom Destinations from the drop down. Then in the next box, select the Custom Destination you created above “Home VoiceMail” in this example. Submit and apply changes.

Now you can program a speed-dial button on each phone for extension 8010. This button will be used on all phones to retrieve voicemail from extension 8003. Pressing the messages button on the phones will not work so this button will need to be used. It will not light up when there is a message so you need to keep a message waiting indicator set up on the phones.

The messages button on the Yealink may work (I haven’t tried this) if you put 8010 in the extension’s voicemail extension instead of *97.

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Hi @kenn10, not following the logic here, what does the custom dialplan and misc destination achieve that you don’t get automatically by just programming a BLF with *988003.

@eNetKC My house phones are all registered to the same PJSIP extension which eliminates the necessity of a ring group, and vm automatically gets shared across all devices. The only thing I lose by doing this is the ability to directly dial to a single device, which is not an issue for me.

Otherwise, using a BLF for the shared mailbox is probably the least impact for doing this. Instead of using the phone MWI, you can use the BLF and LED for messages waiting. Program BLF with the VM mailbox number with the *98 prefix.

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It allows login to voicemail from any extension without using a password. That was one of the OP’s requests. Using PJSIP for one main number on each phone as you suggest might be easier and just put a secondary extension on each phone for direct extension calling or intercom.

You do not want a voice mailbox with no password for security reasons and my custom dial plan lets the internal extensions bypass the password requirement.

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@kenn10, this dialplan method worked perfectly.

Putting 8010 in the voicemail field for all extensions in the house programmed the Yealink phones voicemail button to properly dial the mailbox without a password, from any extension in the house.

Putting 8003@device in the Mailbox field for all of the extensions in the house allows the message indicator on all Yealink phones in the house to recognize new voicemails and turn on the new message indicator.

So now all phones in the house can see new messages in the house mailbox and can check message in that mailbox from any phone by pressing the phone’s message button. And I retain the intercom and paging functionality between phones in the house because each phone has it’s own extension number. It works perfectly!

Thank you SO much for your input. It is very much appreciated!

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@lgaetz Thanks for the input. The problem with using *988003 is that it would dial the extension and prompt for the password each time. That defeats the purpose of programming the messages button to dial the mailbox directly for 1 button access to messages. Which, in turn, creates annoyance with the family…

Using the dialplan method gave us the ability to check the house messages without having to dial the voicemail password each time. And both the message waiting indicator and the new messages count display on the Yealink phones show correctly and can be checked from any phone in the house with 1 button press on the phone.

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Glad I could help. Sometimes, you can’t do everything you want within the GUI in FreePBX so a bit of Asterisk dial plan code is all that you need. The wife approval factor (WAF) is vital to a successful home deployment.

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