Skip to main content

Troubleshooting Voicemail

Answers to the voicemail problems ETS sees most often. If yours isn't covered here, submit an ETS Request for Help at helpdesk.fhda.edu or call the ETS Call Center at (408) 864-8324.

I've forgotten my voicemail password / PIN

  1. Contact the ETS Call Center at (408) 864-8324, or submit an ETS Request for Help at helpdesk.fhda.edu.
  2. If you call, be ready to provide identifying information.
  3. Your PIN is reset to the default 3432 ("fhda"). The next time you enter your mailbox you'll be required to set a new one.

Remember that your voicemail PIN and your Phone Services PIN (used for the Personal Directory on your desk phone) are separate settings. If the Personal Directory is what's rejecting you, set the Phone Services PIN yourself in the Self Care Portal — no work request needed. See Cisco Self Care Portal.

The red message-waiting light is off, but I have a new voicemail

This is expected behavior with Unified Messaging. The red light is lit only while you have unread voicemail. As soon as the matching email is opened or marked read, the system turns the light off — regardless of whether you actually listened to the attachment.

If your smart phone is set up to receive FHDA email, it may report the message as read the moment it downloads new mail, which turns off the desk phone light before you've seen anything. The message is still in your mailbox; it has simply moved from New to Saved.

My voicemail disappeared from my email

Deleting a message from the voicemail system also deletes the matching email. The reverse is not true — deleting the email leaves the voicemail on the system.

This catches people out when they file voicemail emails in a subfolder of the Inbox and then clear out their mailbox by phone. To keep a voicemail permanently, move the email to a new folder at the same level as your Inbox, not a subfolder. See Voicemail and Unified Messaging: Overview.

Voicemails aren't arriving in my email at all

Unified Messaging only works when the phone number is assigned to you personally — tied to your CWID.

  • Department or shared main lines cannot be set up for Unified Messaging unless the number is also an individual employee's number.
  • Interim positions are configured deliberately without Unified Messaging. Voicemail is retrieved by telephone only, and the caller ID shows the position name rather than the employee filling it.
  • TEAs and student workers are generally not assigned personal phone numbers.
  • Part-time faculty — whether your office phone is assigned to you personally is a college decision. Contact your Dean.

A quick check: if your name does not appear on the phone display, the number is not associated with your CWID. If this needs to change, your manager must submit an ETS Request for Help.

Jabber shows no voicemail messages

Try these in order:

  1. Sign out of Jabber, quit Jabber, and restart your computer.
  2. If you see Not Registered at the bottom of the window, click it — a window appears and usually connects.
  3. If you see Connection to Multiple Services failed, click it and then click Open Accounts…
  4. Meanwhile, click Call Voicemail to dial into your mailbox and listen by phone.

Full detail is in Troubleshooting Jabber.

Callers say they hear the wrong greeting

Your alternate greeting overrides everything else while it's on — including after you're back from vacation, if you left it on indefinitely. Sign in, go to Setup Options → Greetings → Play All Greetings, or say "Play all greetings," to hear which greetings are on.

Other causes:

  • Callers hear a robotic system greeting instead of your voice. The greeting is turned on but not recorded, so the system greeting plays instead. Recording a greeting does not turn it on, and turning one on does not record it — you need both.
  • Callers hear a different person's greeting entirely. Your calls are probably forwarded. When you forward your phone, callers hear the greeting on the destination phone and leave messages there. Check the Forward All / Forward off label on your desk phone — see Troubleshooting Your Desk Phone.

My old distribution lists stopped working

Distribution lists created on the previous Fujitsu telephone system could not be migrated to the Cisco system. They have to be rebuilt. See the private distribution list steps in Setting Up and Using Your Voicemail.

If a list needs more than 25 members, contact ETS.

I can't get into my mailbox from another phone

When your mailbox extension differs from the phone you're using, you have to tell the system which mailbox you want:

  1. Press the Messages button.
  2. If prompted for a password, press * instead.
  3. Enter your voicemail extension followed by #.
  4. Enter your password followed by #.

From outside the district, dial 650-949-7899, press *, then follow the same ID and password prompts.

Students can't leave me a message (part-time faculty)

Give them these three steps:

  1. Call 650-949-7899.
  2. Press the pound key twice: ##.
  3. Enter your four-digit extension number, then follow the prompts.

If you have not enrolled your mailbox yet, callers will hear a generic system greeting. See the part-time faculty section of Setting Up and Using Your Voicemail.

Related articles