Call recordings blank

[ITD-NH]

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I have an issue where a number of extensions are recording calls but these calls end up blank and either at 1kb or 9kb in size (mostly 9kb). I've checked the logs and found the below example where the recording should be about 50 seconds long, but it's not.

17/02/2021 13:23:06 - [CM503022]: Call(C:10892): Call recording is started, audio file:
17/02/2021 13:23:57 - [CM503023]: Call(C:10892): Call recording is stopped, audio file:
17/02/2021 13:23:57 - [CM503008]: Call(C:10892): Call is terminated

There are a number of examples like this but there is one extension in particular that has this problem more frequently than any others. I've seen it happen for this extension for 50% of the calls on some days.

I turned off the extensions ability to record calls and then turned it back on and I've seen it do it a few times since then but not nearly as bad. I'm considering rebuilding the extension completely, but because I see the issue on other extensions I'd like to see if I can get to the bottom of the issue.

Running version 16.0.5.612 on Windows.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[Evolute IT]

Is the user manually stopping the recording by any means? You need Enterprise to prevent them from doing it (a bit stupid I know.)

 

[ITD-NH]

Is the user manually stopping the recording by any means? You need Enterprise to prevent them from doing it (a bit stupid I know.)

I wondered that as well, which is why I was checking the logs. I can't confirm with 100% that they're not, but from what I saw in the logs, the recording was stopping in line with the call ending.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Well, first of all, you are running an outdated version of 3CX and you should update it to the latest version at some point, first though, better provide us with this info here: https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/information-to-provide-when-requesting-help.67558/

Also, is this happening for a specific type of call such as an ad-hoc conference for instance, or transferred calls? Where can you see that the recording is 1KB in size? Is it when downloaded from the Webclient or Management Console, is the file the exact same as on the file system level: "C:\ProgramData\3CX\Instance1\Data\Recordings"

 

[Alphabetic]

Are you using default file location for recordings or did you change?

 

[ITD-NH]

Thanks for all the responses. To answer your questions:

3CX Version: 16.0.5.612
Server OS: Windows Server 2016
Is the 3CX Server Hosted: No, on Prem.
IP Phone Make/Model/Firmware: iOS / Android App
Provisioning Method: NA
Trunk Provider: Australian Phone Company
Has the Firewall Checker Passed: Yes
Are custom phone templates being used: No

Calls come in via a queue and are all external, not conference or anything like that.
In terms of the size, I checked both downloading it and at the file level and both are either 1KB or 9KB; mostly 9KB.

Recordings are saved to a different location. The location is a different local drive. This is disks local to the server not networked or anything like that.

Normally these calls would all go to local IP phones (Yealink T41S) but as they are all working from home at the moment they're mostly using the mobile apps. I've asked them to try the web client to see if that makes a difference.

I've also checked the local file storage for the recordings to see if the issue is still on going after my earlier change and I'm still seeing 3 or 4 for this one extension.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

At this point I'd first make sure that both the 3CX PBX and the mobile clients are running the latest stable versions and then check to see if the issue persists. Also, as a precautionary measure, I would check the disk's health just to be sure.

 

[ITD-NH]

Thanks Chris, I'll organise for those to be done and see how we go.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Since it is a Windows machine, I would also recommend checking for and uninstalling any third party software or security/antivirus software that might be contributing to the issue. Also, you mentioned using a local drive on the server, is this, a physical server and the local drive is an additional physical disk, could you please specify?

 

[ITD-NH]

The windows machine is a virtual machine hosted on Hyper-V. It is the only guest running on the host. All the disks are configured in RAID and then made available to the guest as a local disk.

I didn't think any AV had been installed on this server but it appears that is not the case. I'm not sure if that will be something I can remove or not, but will have the necessary discussions. I have checked and confirmed that the AV was not reporting any events or detections related to 3CX or associated files.

The only other software installed on this server are for our monitoring and management.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

Do try removing the antivirus at least temporarily to ensure it is not related to the issue, also, when you say that the disks in RAID mode are made available to the guest VM, how exactly is this done via Hyper-V? What are the Hard Drive settings there?

 

[ITD-NH]

To follow up on this, we did the updates and made sure our AV wasn't running. But a few days after doing that the server fell over (just the 3cx part) and had to be rebuilt and restored from backup. I've been monitoring since then and haven't yet seen another instance of the issue.