Why Are My Distinctive Ring Hints Not Working?

How to Troubleshoot Ring Hints Not Working:

1. First, reset to factory defaults and reboot the phone you are testing with. Then, try the incoming call again and if the correct ringtone does not play, proceed to next step.

2. From the phone that you are testing with, go to Menu > Preferences > Sound Settings > for Default Ringtone, select the Change softkey > scroll to the Chimes ringtone > select the Preview softkey and see if the correct ringtone plays. If not, there is likely an issue with the phone or extension. Try swapping out the phone, or delete the extension and recreate it.

If the ringtone on the phone works, but the Ring Hint is not working, check the Call Type selected for the Ring Rule to verify it is correct (on the extension, go to Features > Phone Features > Ring Rules). If the type is correct (Queue Calls, Direct Calls, Internal Calls, All Calls), try testing aRing Ruleon an internal extension-to-extension call. For example, if you have an IVR set up to create a Distinctive Ring hint for certain incoming calls: test from an internal extension by dialing the IVR extension number. Or if it is a Ring Ruleset up on an extension that uses a ring hint for Queue calls, dial the queue extension from another extension to test the ring hint (Note: Queue is not the same as an Internal call). If the ring hints do not work follow these steps:

1. Does the extension have a Call Rule set to Ring All? The Ring Hint will not apply with a Ring All Call Rule, so you cannot have both a Ring Rule and a Ring All Call Rule on the Main extension. However, you can modify the Call Rule to ring only the Main extension first, then after x number of rings, you can add an Action to Ring All for both extensions (or to ring only the second additional extension). For example: if you have a Call Rule that rings the main phone two times, then in the second Action use the Ring All Action (Number of times to ring previous rule = 2 rings), the phone will ring two times with the distinctive tone, then go to default ringtone on the third ring. This can be a good workaround when you need both a Ring All Call Rule and a Ring Hint. Please refer to How to use Switchvox Call Rules? :

2. For testing purposes, make sure the target extension (the called extension number) has a Ring Rule that applies to the call type: Internal Calls (this includes transferred calls). Go to Setup > Manage > click on door icon > on the extension login page, select Features > Phone Features > Ring Rules. Is there a Ring Rule condition set up for Internal call types? If not, set up up a Ring Rule for Internal calls.

3. Next, run a packet capture with a Ring Rule set up for Internal Calls and try these troubleshooting steps:

• Call the target extension from another internal extension; that will trigger the Ring Hint.

• Look at the INVITE from the PBX to the target phone: does it include an 'alert-info' in the SIP Header? 

• Take a PTSR of the target phone, and look at config.xml: Is the alert-info header specified in the phone config? 

• Look at the log in the phone: Does it show it attempted to play the ringtone? 

4. Now, set up a Ring Rule for an External call type (calls originating from an external caller) and run a packet capture while calling from an external phone like a cell phone.

• Look at the INVITE from the PBX to the target phone: does it include an 'alert-info' in the SIP Header? 

• Take a PTSR of the target phone, and look at config.xml: Is the alert-info header specified in the phone config? 

• Look at the log in the phone: Does it show it attempted to play the ringtone? 

• With a Cascade or Ring All Call Rule the ring hint is removed when these call rules are invoked; since some SIP Providers that do not want the extra alert-info header in the call INVITE, there is the potential of the calls being rejected.