Cisco Unity Troubleshooting Guide (With IBM Lotus Domino), Release 4.0(3)
Call Transfers

Table Of Contents

Call Transfers

About Call Transfer Problems

Calls Are Not Transferred to the Correct Greeting

Confirming That the Forward Timer in the Phone System Is in Synch with the Rings to Wait For Setting in Cisco Unity

Confirming That the Phone System Programming Enables Callers to Hear the Subscriber Personal Greeting

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, 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. Use the "Task List for Troubleshooting Call Transfers to the Wrong Greeting" to troubleshoot the possible causes.

Task List for Troubleshooting Call Transfers to the Wrong Greeting

1. Confirm that the forward timer in the phone system is synchronized with the Rings To Wait For setting in Cisco Unity. See the "Confirming That the Forward Timer in the Phone System Is in Synch with the Rings to Wait For Setting in Cisco Unity" section.

2. Confirm that the phone system programming enables callers to hear the subscriber personal greeting. See the "Confirming That the Phone System Programming Enables Callers to Hear the Subscriber Personal Greeting" section.

Confirming That the Forward Timer in the Phone System Is in 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 "...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, go to the Subscribers > Subscribers > Call Transfer page.

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 the Yes, Ring Subscriber's Extension check box is checked.

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

Step 6 In the Rings To Wait For box, the value should be two rings fewer 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 future subscribers, go to the Subscribers > Subscriber Template > Call Transfer page.


Note If you change the value in a subscriber template, the value is not changed for existing subscriber accounts that are based on that template. Changing the template affects only the value for subscriber accounts that are created after the template is changed.


Step 8 Determine whether the phone system changes the ringback cadence after a certain number of rings. If it does so, in the Cisco Unity Administrator, set the Rings To Wait For value to a number fewer 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 12-5.

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


Confirming That the Phone System Programming Enables Callers to Hear the Subscriber Personal Greeting

When callers 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. Do one of the following procedures, depending on your phone system integration.

To Verify the Phone System Settings for the Integration (All Integrations)


Step 1 On the Windows Start menu on the Cisco Unity server, click Programs > Cisco Unity > Manage Integrations. The Cisco Unity Telephony Integration Manager (UTIM) appears.

Step 2 Confirm that the settings match those indicated in the integration guide for your phone system.

Step 3 Correct any incorrect values for the phone system, and click Save.

Step 4 If prompted, restart the Cisco Unity server.

Step 5 If you have confirmed that the phone system settings are correct, and callers still hear the opening greeting after dialing the subscriber extension, contact Cisco TAC.


To Verify the Phone System Programming (Ericsson MD-110 Integration Only)


Step 1 On the phone system, confirm that the Prefix digits for forwarded calls and for easy message access are programmed correctly.

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


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 fewer 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, go to the Subscribers > Subscribers > Message Notification page for the subscriber.

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

Step 3 Go to the Subscribers > Subscriber Template > Message Notification page.

Step 4 In the Notification Options section for each device used, confirm that the Wait For How Many Rings Before Hanging Up field is set to three or more rings, thus ensuring 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 Go to the Call Management > Call Handlers > Call Transfer page.

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 field 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.