I used to be able to set an extension’s “mailbox” setting to say 2000@default and then the phones would be able to check the voicemail box from the VVM app. That worked great on the D-series phones back when using DPMA. Now that I’m using EPM how do I get these phones to use a shared VM box from another extension?
Changing the EPM setting from “voicemail application” to “standard voicemail” makes it so the phone says there is a voicemail and it seems to be checking the VM box of choice. However I lose the VVM and when tapping the voicemail it tries to dial *97.
Eventually I find this post: Shared voicemail inbox and phone apps visual voicemail - General Help - FreePBX Community Forums and I try setting up my users to have the shared VM box in there. There I also see the following message: " Additional Voicemail Boxes functionality will not work with Sangoma’s D/P series phones which are configured with DPMA." Disabling DPMA within EPM makes it so none of my phones talk back to the server.
If you don’t get help here, you can open a ticket with Sangoma directly.
I never went through this. We just trained users to push the VM button on the phone and used EPM basefile editor to make it go to the shared inbox instead of their own (they didnt have personal VM in this example)
Interesting. However, in my 2 second perusal of the base file I didn’t see anything that stuck out at me as a smoking gun for changing the visual voicemail app. I don’t think this is where I’m going to find my solution.
Set a BLF (PKF) “button” on each IP phone …
This new button on each phone could be used to “monitor” another voicemail box (using) Asterisk HINTS. This is very common in SangomaOS now.
Example Syntax:
*98200
This would make the button be GREEN (until) 1 or more VMs are present, and then the button will go RED
This way, users keep their own personal VM with the built-in button on the phone, and those that need to monitor a 2nd or more other VM-boxes can have other buttons on their phone.
If you were in my shoes how would you get around the limitation I’m seeing? I need two desks to share the same voicemail. The Extensions don’t need their own voicemail box.
A couple of options. You could email the VM to a email distribution list instead of leaving the VM on the phone system or you could setup a speed dial into the mailbox from the authorized extension. The feature code for that is *98. The only downside to the second option is that I am not sure if it shows in the app or on the phones if there is a message waiting in the inbox of the VM for that extension.
Change the associated mailbox on the extensions to the shared mailbox, and set the voicemail button to the shared mailbox using the base file editor. Their voicemail light will light up and when they *98 or press the vm button, they will hear the voicemails.
Make them the same extension using (one PJSIP extension with two endpoints), then the voicemail app would probably work (not sure, have to test it). The downside is both phones would ring if anyone called them direct, but you could overcome that with a second line for one of them.
Create the 2 extensions with their own mailboxes, eg: 201, 202
For one of the extensions, delete the actual voicemail folder (/var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/201) and then recreate the folder as a link to the other mailbox.
ln -s /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/202 /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/201
you may need to set permissions correctly
So you effectively have a shared mailbox using each phones primary account.