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Mobility & Follow Me not forwarding calls

Paul Petersen

March 29, 2016 21:34

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We have a small office with a MyPBX SOHO (V6) switch, two Yealink T46 phones, one Yealink T20 & two Yealink W52 phones.  The switch is running 70.19.0.47 firmware.

We want to configure the MyPBX to forward business calls to an iPhone when we are out of the office. The Mobility Extension feature seems to be a workable solution but even thought the feature is enabled and the cellphone number is in place the iPhone does not receive any office calls whatsoever. We have also tried the Follow Me "Always" setting with the cellphone number but that does not forward calls either.

Next I tried to forward calls to the iPhone at the Yealink telephone level by using the Features tab and enabling the "Always Forward" feature with the iPhone number as the target, but this too is ignored and all incoming calls ring at the office until the IVR voice mail intercepts the call.

It seems that something is preventing the switch from sending the calls to an external number but I don't know where to look.  If we get a voice mail message the switch successfully sends out an email, but it will not forward a call.

 

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18 comments

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  Oscar Colka March 30, 2016 03:17

  Paul, for this issue, i would suggest you to:

  1. Make sure there is available trunk that can be used for call forwarding; The incoming call will take up one trunk, you need additional available trunk for the system to place forwarding calls. Note that the PSTN analog trunk can not be used for Mobility extension feature. But PSTN analog trunk is ok for FollowMe;

  2. Make sure you can dial out successfully the follow me number or mobility extension number from your phone(where you register the extension) directly.

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  Paul Petersen March 30, 2016 13:51

  Thank you for the prompt response.  We have 4 PSTN (FXO) trunks and your response explains why the mobility extension isn't ringing the iPhone. 

  The Follow Me Always setting on the VOIP extension page works to a limited extent, and in order to explain I will give an example; we want all of Deb's calls (extension 301) to be transferred to her iPhone as she is out of the office.  Her extension within MyPBX has been edited with Follow Me Always targeting her iPhone #.  If someone within the office uses an office phone and dials extension 301, the call goes to Deb's iPhone as desired. But an outside call goes to the IVR which instructs the caller to dial 1 for Deb's extension and when the caller dials 1, the call goes directly to office voice mail, not her iPhone.

  Do I also need to modify the IVR each time she leaves the office or should I create a second IVR?  The FORWARD feature on her Yealink phone used to work when we were on a VOIP system, but that feature code no longer works, apparently as a result of moving back to a PSTN trunk (as per your explaination). It is unfortunate because this was a quick and simple means to leave the office and a single button on the phone forwarded all calls.  I am trying to find the most convenient means to recreate this feature, your help would be appreciated. 

   

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  Paul Petersen March 30, 2016 13:59

  Could we somehow configure speed dial to route calls to Deb's iPhone?

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  Roel Koster March 30, 2016 15:22

  how we have done:

  

  add the extension to the outbound route (you can easily forget that)

  If the mobile phone calls back to the office, he/she hears a dial tone for internal calling , to prevent that do this:

  

  the mobile phone number 0653167118 is now 9 653167118, so the pbx does not recognize that number when he/she calls back. You have also have to modify the outbound route, so 9 is replaced by 0

   

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  Roel Koster March 30, 2016 15:25

  If the mobile phone calls back to the office, he/she hears a dial tone for internal calling , to prevent that do this:

  

  the mobile phone number 0653167118 is now 9 653167118, so the pbx does not recognize that number when he/she calls back. You have also have to modify the outbound route, so 9 is replaced by 0

   

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  Roel Koster March 30, 2016 15:28

  @ Paul Petersen
  
  Could we somehow configure speed dial to route calls to Deb's iPhone?
  
  see this:

  
  Yeastar Support/Community/Feature Requests/ call forward via BLF button

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  Roel Koster March 30, 2016 15:36

   

  forward calls to the iPhone at the Yealink telephone level by using the Features tab and enabling the "Always Forward" feature with the iPhone number as the target.

  this does not work if the phone is called in a ring group.

   

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  Oscar Colka March 31, 2016 01:31

  @ Paul Petesen

  Do I also need to modify the IVR each time she leaves the office or should I create a second IVR? 

  It is not good to modify the IVR each time. Can you describe how you setup the IVR? Do you setup the IVR to go to Deb's voicemail? If so, it will go directly to voicemail, but i think if you setup the IVR to route the call to Deb's extension, it should go to the target destination you have setup on the follow me section.

   

  One more thing, pay attention to the target destination you setup on follow me section, you may need to switch from voicemail to number if you would like to forward the call to a mobile phone number.

   

  Yes, i think a second IVR is another solution. One IVR route to voicemail, the another one route to her extension, which should route to the forwarding destination.

   

  I think the root cause may be the IVR didn't route the call to Deb's extension but to her voicemail instead, as you mention if you call from other extension to Deb's extension, the call will be forward correctly.

  If someone within the office uses an office phone and dials extension 301, the call goes to Deb's iPhone as desired.

   

   

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  Paul Petersen March 31, 2016 15:46

  Koster,

  Thank you for taking the time to compose a response and help me configure this phone system to do what we need. However, the Mobility Extension settings that you posted for me are the settings that I have in place and it the calls are not being forwarded to the cell phone and the cellphone does not ring simultaneously.  What you have shown should work, but in this instance it doesn't, hence my need for help.  So far the explanation posted by Oskar Colka is very likely the reason, about two months ago we switched back to PSTN trunks because we were having an unacceptable number of dropped calls with VOIP trunks.

  We have been searching for a convenient workaround since it isn't always easy to open the administrative software and make multiple changes each time someone leaves the office and then remember to change it back when they return.

  The FOLLOW ME ALWAYS setting does forward internal calls to the iPhone, but incoming calls from an external source get routed to the switch IVR and then to the extension voicemail instead of to the iPhone.   

   

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  Paul Petersen March 31, 2016 16:02

  Oscar,

  Your latest post is a step forward in untangling the knot. Incoming calls to our office go to a Ring Group, and then after approx. four rings they go to our IVR. The current IVR audio prompts the caller to press a number for a specific extension and it then goes to directly to voice mail with minimal ring time. It was originally created this way to minimize phones ringing excessively at different stages of progression. 

  If we redirect the call to the extension number at the IVR level isn't it going to ring again until the extension voice mail picks up?  I'm trying to weigh the two possible solutions for the caller and our employee.  Do we set the current IVR to the extension with an immediate FOLLOW ME ALWAYS command to the mobile number or do we create a second IVR with the a different announcement and immediate FOLLOW ME and target the iPhone?  The third option would be to give the caller more options, .i.e. press #4 for Deb's cell phone, but that presents a different set of complications.

  We are on the right track. What do you think? 

   

  Setting up a second IVR with a different audio message may be the way to go.  

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  Oscar Colka April 01, 2016 08:29

  If we redirect the call to the extension number at the IVR level isn't it going to ring again until the extension voice mail picks up?

  Paul, if you setup always forwarding, then it means the target phone will not ring but forward to the configured destination directly. If this doesn't work, there might be something wrong with the call forwarding. Please check on extension page and see if the Always forwarding is Clicked or not. Also, the destination should be the Deb's phone number.

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  Paul Petersen April 08, 2016 21:16

  Oscar, my apologies for a very tardy response...we have been out of the office this past week. I have one workaround on this issue; we discussed using myPBX at the PBX level and then checking the Follow Me Always box with Deb's cell as the target. This arrangement works however I discovered I also had to uncheck When Busy and No Answer (i.e. if all three are checked the Forward to cell didn't work).  It maybe just me as I am not a phone tech but if this is true for other users you would want YeaStar to automatically uncheck the other two options when follow me always is checked. 

  The Yealink phones have a Forward feature that used to work when we had VOIPS trunks, it is unfortunate that simple feature (DSS button) doesn't work with a PSTN trunk. 

  I didn't have time to pursue a dedicated IVR because I would have to test different scenarios, record different messages, etc.  But I will have to address this possibility because if everyone were out of office we would like to redirect all calls to a mobile or other remote number. 

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  Oscar Colka April 12, 2016 08:59

  Paul, do you enable mobility extension for Deb's extension? If yes, try disable it and check again. As I know the Always forwarding should not be affected by When busy or No Answer forwarding. When Always forwarding is enable, the target phone will not ring and forward the call as soon as there is an incoming call to the extension.

  Can you post the screenshot of your IVR and call forwarding settings?

  By the way, if you enable DND, the incoming call would be routed to the When Busy's forwarding destination. So you can setup When Busy forwarding's destination to the target mobile phone number. Then the incoming call will be routed to a target mobile phone.

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  Paul Petersen April 14, 2016 14:19

  Oscar,  Thank you very much for the DND - When Busy forward suggestion.  I would not have come up with that logic path...your idea would fit all of our requirements as long as a DND key at the telephone level (DSS button on Yealink T-46) is recognized by the switch.  If the DND has to be turned on & off with the switch administrator software (as opposed to a key on the phone) it looses convenience and would then become the equivalent to Follow Me Always.  It is unfortunate that the Forward feature at the telephone/DSS level does not work with YeaStar switch.  As for mobility, we have tried it on a few different extensions and it clearly does not work with our PSTN trunks and therefore it is turned off on all extensions.   I will try to follow up with an IVR screen shot shortly.

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  Paul Petersen April 14, 2016 14:37

  IVR settings

  Extension 301 settings.  This is where we change to FOLLOW ME ALWAYS if we are out of the office.  I also uncheck the WHEN BUSY and NO ANSWER because I suspected this caused difficulty on a previous occasion, but I may be incorrect on my assumption because I am beginning to think the misdirected calls where a result of an incorrect IVR setting (sending calls to voice mail).

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  Paul Petersen April 14, 2016 14:52

  The DND setting on the Yealink T-46 DSS key is ignored by the switch, just link the Forward command on the phone is ignored.  It appears that these features have to be employed by the telephone administrator software which is very unfortunate because giving everyone access to the administrator software is a recipe for disaster. Do you have any thought on how to make the Forward or DND features to function at the telephone level?

   

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  Oscar Colka April 15, 2016 01:24

  Paul, If Deb's extension in in the ring group, I think the issue is probably caused by the ring group. As my past experience, if the extension is in a ring group, if there is incoming call to the ring group, the call forwarding of the ring group member will not work(be ignored, as it need to find next available ring group member).

  What i did is to setup the Ring Group's No answer destination to an extension (extension A for example), and the call forwarding of  A will work after the call trigger the No Answer destination.

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  Tomi Perdana Putra August 02, 2017 07:14

  paul petersen it is IVR you ran or no ? events from mobile phone gsm