Cisco Unity Troubleshooting Guide, Release 3.1
Call Transfers

Table Of Contents

Call Transfers

About Call Transfer Problems

Calls Are Not Transferred to the Correct Greeting

The Forward Timer in the Phone System Is Out of Synch with the Rings to Wait For Setting in Cisco Unity

Phone System Programming Causes Callers to Hear the Opening Greeting Instead of a Subscriber Personal Greeting

Extensions or Ports Are Remapped Incorrectly

Subscriber Hears a Reorder Tone When Answering a Call from Cisco Unity


Call Transfers


About Call Transfer Problems

Call transfer problems fall into two categories:

Problems on a newly installed or upgraded system

For call transfer problems that occur on newly installed systems or on systems that have just been upgraded, refer to the Cisco Unity integration guide for your system.

Problems on an existing system

See the "Calls Are Not Transferred to the Correct Greeting" section, the "Extensions or Ports Are Remapped Incorrectly" section, or the "Subscriber Hears a Reorder Tone When Answering a Call from Cisco Unity" section.


If you encounter a call transfer problem that is not described in this chapter, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Calls Are Not Transferred to the Correct Greeting

The following sections describe possible reasons that calls may not be transferred to the correct greeting. Note that the causes are listed in order, from most likely to least likely to occur:

The Forward Timer in the Phone System Is Out of Synch with the Rings to Wait For Setting in Cisco Unity

Phone System Programming Causes Callers to Hear the Opening Greeting Instead of a Subscriber Personal Greeting

The Forward Timer in the Phone System Is Out of Synch with the Rings to Wait For Setting in Cisco Unity

For supervised transfers, the number of rings that Cisco Unity waits before routing a call to a subscriber personal greeting (or to another extension) can be reconfigured. If the phone system is programmed to forward calls, confirm that the phone system waits longer to forward a call than Cisco Unity waits before taking a message.

If the phone system is forwarding the call to another extension before Cisco Unity can take a message, the following may occur:

The caller does not hear the beginning of the subscriber personal greeting. (For example, the subscriber greeting is "Hi, this is Maria Ramirez. Please leave a message after the tone." But the caller hears only "...leave a message after the tone.")

The call is forwarded to another phone (for example, the operator) rather than to the subscriber personal greeting.

The call is forwarded to the opening greeting.

The caller hears only ringing.

To synchronize the forward timer and the Rings To Wait For setting


Step 1 In the phone system programming, find the value of the forward timer.

Step 2 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, click Subscribers > Subscribers > Call Transfer.

Step 3 Click Find, and find the subscriber whose calls are not being routed to the correct greeting.

Step 4 In the Transfer Incoming Calls to Subscriber's Phone section, confirm that Yes, Ring Subscriber's Extension is checked.

Step 5 In the Transfer Type section, confirm that Supervise Transfer is checked.

Step 6 In the Rings To Wait For box, the value should be two rings less than the value of the forward timer of the phone system, which you found in Step 1; this value is typically not greater than four, and is never greater than eight. This value specifies the number of rings that Cisco Unity waits before routing the call to the subscriber personal greeting.

If the values do not meet the parameters, either reprogram the phone system so it waits longer before forwarding unanswered calls, or change the value in the Rings To Wait For box so that Cisco Unity routes the call before the phone system forwards it.

Step 7 To change the default Rings To Wait For value for all subscribers, click the Subscribers > Subscriber Template > Call Transfer page.

If you change the value in the subscriber template, note that the value for existing subscriber accounts is not changed. Changing the template affects only the value for subscriber accounts that are created after the template is changed. For more information on subscriber templates, refer to the "Overview: Subscriber Template Settings" section in the "Subscriber Template Settings" chapter of the Cisco Unity System Administration Guide. The Cisco Unity System Administration Guide is available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity31/sag/index.htm.

Step 8 Determine if the phone system changes the ringback cadence after a certain number of rings. If so, in the Cisco Unity Administrator, set the Rings To Wait For value to a number less than the number of rings at the initial cadence.

Step 9 If you have determined that the phone system is waiting longer to forward a call than Cisco Unity is waiting to take a message, but Cisco Unity still is not routing calls to the correct greeting, run the Learn Tones utility. For more information, see the "Learn Tones" section on page 9-7.

If you have run the Learn Tones utility, and Cisco Unity still is not routing calls to the correct greeting, contact Cisco TAC.


Phone System Programming Causes Callers to Hear the Opening Greeting Instead of a Subscriber Personal Greeting

Confirm that the integration is enabled and that the phone system settings are correct. If the settings are incorrect, call forward to personal greeting and easy message access will not be enabled. Perform one of the following procedures, depending on your phone system integration.

To verify the integration and the phone system settings


Step 1 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, click System > Licensing > Licensed Features.

Step 2 Confirm that the Integration field contains the setting indicated in the integration guide for your phone system. The Cisco Unity integration guides are available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/index.htm and on the Cisco Documentation CD-ROM.

If the Integration field contains a different value, contact your sales representative for the correct system key.

Step 3 Click System > Switch.

Step 4 Confirm that the settings match those indicated in the integration guide for your phone system.

Step 5 Log off of the Cisco Unity Administrator.

If you changed any of the phone system settings in Step 4, shut down and restart the Cisco Unity server.

If you have confirmed that the integration is enabled and that the phone system settings are correct, and callers still hear the opening greeting after dialing the subscriber extension, contact Cisco TAC.


To confirm the phone system programming (Ericsson MD-110 only)


Step 1 Confirm that the Prefix digits for forwarded calls and for easy message access are programmed correctly on the phone system.

Step 2 Confirm on the phone system that the called extension has Coverage On No Answer set to forward to the voice messaging system.

Step 3 If you run the Cisco Unity diagnostic logs and need assistance interpreting the results or making system changes to correct the problem, contact Cisco TAC.


Extensions or Ports Are Remapped Incorrectly

If the extension remapping feature is implemented, one or more extensions or ports may have been remapped incorrectly, and calls will not reach their intended destination. Since extension remapping occurs before any action that is configured in the Cisco Unity Administrator, remapping plans may not work as desired if subscribers have entered call forwarding instructions for their extensions that are remapped or if they receive calls as a result of remapping entries in an .exm file.

To review and test a remapped extension


Step 1 Click CommServer\IntLib\ExtensionMapping\Calling\ or CommServer\IntLib\ExtensionMapping\Forwarding\, as appropriate.

The calling directory contains .exm files that map direct calls to Cisco Unity, and the forwarding directory contains .exm files that map calls that are forwarded to Cisco Unity.

Step 2 Review the .exm files for appropriate syntax for all remapped extensions and ports. If you discover an error in the .exm files, change the appropriate entries. See Appendix B in the appropriate Cisco Unity integration guide for remapping syntax rules.

Step 3 In the phone system programming, review the remapped and destination extensions and ports to be sure they exist and are set up correctly.

Step 4 Confirm that all extensions in the Forwarding .exm files (both remapped and destination extensions) are set to forward to Cisco Unity on ring-no-answer situations. Change any incorrect entries.

Step 5 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, click Subscribers > Subscribers > Call Transfer for the subscriber or subscribers reporting the problem. Determine if there are any call transfer entries in the Yes, Ring Subscriber at This Number fields for remapped extensions. Discuss the implications with the subscriber and remove the call transfer entry or remapping entries as appropriate.

Step 6 If you made changes to the .exm remapping files, or to the phone system programming, shut down and restart Cisco Unity.

Step 7 On the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Unity > Unity Diagnostic Tool.

Step 8 On the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Viewer screen, click the Configure Micro Traces icon.

Step 9 Click the MiuGeneral 10 and MiuCall 15 diagnostics. Optionally, you can also turn on MIUIntegration 10 to verify extension number information before calls are mapped.

Step 10 On the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Viewer screen, click Start New Log Files.

Step 11 To test an entry in a Calling .exm file, from the remapped extension of the subscriber reporting the problem, call the number to reach Cisco Unity.

Step 12 When prompted, enter the password for the destination extension. If you are connected to the mailbox of the extension listed in the Calling .exm file, the test is successful and the changes you made in Step 2 or Step 4 corrected the problem. Continue with Step 13. If you were not connected to the mailbox of the extension listed in the Calling .exm file, skip to Step 16.

Step 13 To test an entry in a Forwarding .exm file, set up test Phone 1. For more information, see the "Troubleshooting Preparation" section on page 1-1.

Step 14 From Phone 1, enter the remapped extension of the subscriber who is reporting the problem. Do not answer either of the subscriber extensions.

Step 15 The called (remapped) extension should ring, then forward to the destination extension as listed in the Forwarding .exm file. If you hear the greeting of the destination extension listed in the .exm file, the test is successful, and the changes you made in Step 2 or Step 4 corrected the problem. Skip to Step 20. If you do not hear the destination extension greeting, continue with Step 16.

Step 16 To view the log files, click Process > AvCsMgr, and then click the Current log file.

Step 17 The selected log file is formatted and displayed in the right pane.

Step 18 To export or save a copy of the log file, click Action > Export list.

Step 19 Name the file and save it to a location of your choice in .txt or .csv format.

Step 20 To turn off the traces set in Step 9, on the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Viewer screen, click Disable All Traces.

Step 21 Look at the results of the saved diagnostic log to determine the source of the problem. Make the appropriate corrections to the .exm file, to the Cisco Unity Administrator, and/or to the phone system programming, and then repeat the test. If you need assistance interpreting the results of the diagnostic log, contact Cisco TAC.


Subscriber Hears a Reorder Tone When Answering a Call from Cisco Unity

A possible cause for this problem is that the Rings to Wait For settings are incorrect.

Cisco Unity requires a minimum setting of three rings to wait to properly transfer a call or to make a message notification call. If the number of rings to wait is set to less than three, a subscriber may hear the reorder tone instead of the Cisco Unity conversation.

To correct the Rings to Wait For settings


Step 1 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, click Subscribers > Subscribers > Message Notification for the subscriber.

Step 2 In the Notification Options section for each device used, set the Wait For How Many Rings Before Hanging Up box to three or more rings.

Step 3 Click Subscribers > Subscriber Template > Message Notification.

Step 4 In the Notification Options section for each device used, confirm that the Wait For How Many Rings Before Hanging Up box is set to three or more rings. This ensures that future subscriber accounts get the correct default value.

If the default setting in the subscriber template is incorrect, you will need to change the value in all subscriber accounts that are based on that template.

Step 5 Click Call Management > Call Handlers > Call Transfer.

Step 6 View the Standard, Alternate, and Closed rules. In the Transfer Type section, if Supervise Transfer is selected for any of the rules, confirm that the Rings To Wait For box is set to three or more rings.

If Rings To Wait For is set correctly, and the subscriber still hears a reorder tone when answering a call from Cisco Unity, contact Cisco TAC.