Mgt Console under Extension Displays "Phones = 2"

[JustinCase]

I have one extension that is showing "2" under the Phones column in the Mgt. Console. Is there anyway to either inspect or get rid of the second phone instance short of deleting the extension?
I'm thinking this might have been left over from a previous attempt or desire to create a Softphone PC based client.
I've seen this in larger installations during some training as well.

 

[cobaltit]

Why? What problem is it causing? This is normal and expected for anyone that has a soft phone (default phone device) as well as a physical phone. But if you want to remove it, just go to the phone provisioning tab and remove the 'extra' phone.

This might also be helpful:

https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/basic/configuring-ip-phones/configuring-desktop-phone/

 

[JustinCase]

Why? What problem is it causing? This is normal and expected for anyone that has a soft phone (default phone device) as well as a physical phone. But if you want to remove it, just go to the phone provisioning tab and remove the 'extra' phone.

This might also be helpful:

https://www.3cx.com/3cxacademy/videos/basic/configuring-ip-phones/configuring-desktop-phone/

Cobaltit, Thanks for the reply. The extension in question isn't currently online as the phone was shipped to the destination. It was NOT causing a problem but when I see things that I can't explain, I get concerned that there might be an adverse effect like redirecting to VMail when the Softphone is offline even though the physical IP phone might be registered. Basically, an abnormal or unexpected outcome in a SIP forking arrangement.
Interestingly, on a different extension, I see two instances of the same ext. under phones in Mgt. Console when my own (x100) Softphone Desktop PC running Bria (Counterpath's client) is running. Probably because I also have a Bria client on my iPhone, but not registered.
The strange thing was that dialing from x104 to x100 popped two simultaneous calls to my PC even though the iPhone Bria app was not registered. I could still answer the call but didn't know why the duplicate popup announcing the same call was there.
Examining the Activity log, I could see the call was terminated but the answered call didn't appear in the activity log. I'll have to see what occurs over time.

 

[cobaltit]

Just to clarify since it seems like blending the two sections. The 'Phones' section in the management console only shows currently or recently registered devices. I say recently registered because 3CX will considered a device as registered until the registration interval has passed and the device hasn't re-registered. The 'Phone Provisioning' tab in the extension will show all devices 3CX knows of and is generating a configuration file for if asked. The two are not related. You could have an extension with only the 3CX App under phone provisioning and thus a '1' in the phones column but register 100 devices manually to that extension which would show up as 100 unique entries on the 'Phones' section of the management console. Conversely you could have 100 different phones 'provisioned' to an extension (with unique MAC addresses) and have zero phones listed in the 'Phones' section of the management console if none of them are registered.

For your concerns about abnormal or unexpected SIP forking, 3CX would only fork calls to devices listed in the 'Phones' section of the management console as they appear to be registered. If a device is offline, no attempt will be made to reach it. So there should be no ill effect from having multiple devices 'Provisioned' to an extension. Now if you have multiple devices registered to an extension then you could get some sort of odd behavior if there is some local configuration on the device. I recently had this issue with someone who had call forwarding setup locally on a SPA5xx phone that was part of a ring group.

Interestingly, on a different extension, I see two instances of the same ext. under phones in Mgt. Console when my own (x100) Softphone Desktop PC running Bria (Counterpath's client) is running. Probably because I also have a Bria client on my iPhone, but not registered.

If Bria on your iPhone wasn't registered then that is most likely not the case. Usually when we see duplicate entries for a single device it's a because it's a STUN device and the firewall isn't configured or doesn't support Full Cone NAT.

 

[JustinCase]

Thank you for the detailed reply. After the first time you explained the "Phones" Tab I understood it. I appreciate the additional info about the persistence of the display until the registration window expires.