Unsupported Voicemail Greeting Playback is distorted

[John Jacobson]

I had an unfortunate computer crash, so had to rebuild my workstation, which hosts my free 3cx system.
I was able to reinstall and restore my settings from a backup I had, and everything works fine except for voicemail greetings playback.

What happens is that the playback starts OK, then goes silent, then runs at high speed, then is OK then goes silent and then plays at high speed etc.

It seems to be some sort of audio buffering issue, but I have found no way to resolve this.

If I play the wav file back with Windows Media Player it plays perfectly.

John.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

What exact 3CX version was the backup you used and what 3CX version did you restore it on and are currently running?

Is the machine compliant with our hardware requirements?

I'd also recommend taking a look at the recourses usage, does everything seem normal?

 

[John Jacobson]

It was a v15 backup that I used on v16
I had planned on installing v15 and upgrading but my license wouldn't work, so I tried the backup and it worked.

The problem was that it was my backup software that killed my computer so I was unable to restore from my backups.

I recorded a new greeting using audacity, but had the same result.

Even if I tried to record from my extension I wasn't able to hear the prompts correctly.

Hardware is all good, it has run fine previously before the crash.

Windows 10, 32gb memory, PCIe disk drive.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

It was a v15 backup that I used on v16

So you downloaded the 3CX v16.0.8.9 installation file for windows from the partner/customer portal, installed and then used the 3CX v15 backup to restore during installation. Can you confirm the backup's exact version number?

You can check this by opening the backup and then checking the .xml file in it's root folder. Edit the .xml file and go to the very top where you'll see a <verison> element.

Note: Just in case, I recommend creating a copy of the backup and then checking this on the copy to avoid file corruption.

I had planned on installing v15 and upgrading but my license wouldn't work,

How would you install v15 though, do you have the installation file? What exactly do you mean when you say that the license wouldn't work, did you get a specific error?

 

[John Jacobson]

So you downloaded the 3CX v16.0.8.9 installation file for windows from the partner/customer portal, installed and then used the 3CX v15 backup to restore during installation. Can you confirm the backup's exact version number?

You can check this by opening the backup and then checking the .xml file in it's root folder. Edit the .xml file and go to the very top where you'll see a <verison> element.

Note: Just in case, I recommend creating a copy of the backup and then checking this on the copy to avoid file corruption.


How would you install v15 though, do you have the installation file? What exactly do you mean when you say that the license wouldn't work, did you get a specific error?

<PhoneSystem>
<header>
<version>15.5.15502.6</version>
<Date>7/10/2019 10:17:24 p.m.</Date>
<TenantName></TenantName>
</header>


It gave me an error when I used my V16 license for the V15 installation saying something like the license key is for a previous version of 3cx. I thought it was a bit strange at the time given that the key was for a newer version.

The backup was from just before I upgraded from V15.5 to V16.

The odd playback is happening for all greetings.

I'd be happy to remove it and do a reinstall of V15.5, restore my backup and then upgrade if that would solve the issue, I just don't have my old license number as I always just got it off the portal.

Funny, I just checked the license details in the backup and it's the same one.

No idea what is happening there.

However I do know I need to get my phone system working much better than it is.

 

[John Jacobson]

Update. I've just tried to talk to someone, and it's actually all outgoing voice has the same issue.

 

[John Jacobson]

My VOIP provider says there is high jitter on the calls.

I've got no idea what I need to do to fix it.

 

[SweetAction]

Does the issue affect voice for extension to extension calls?

Anti-virus exclusions? Is the machine dedicated to 3CX?

 

[John Jacobson]

I've got no idea about extension to extension calls, I'm a one person business, so never make them, but I can test it.

It's also my desktop computer, but I tested it with AV turned off and got the same result

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

It gave me an error when I used my V16 license for the V15 installation saying something like the license key is for a previous version of 3cx.

I see, well if the License Key you used was v16 but the installation was v15 then that would be expected. That said, you will not be able to use this License Key on a v15 installation.

Update. I've just tried to talk to someone, and it's actually all outgoing voice has the same issue.

Since this is the case, you might first need to determine if the bad audio is originating from the PBX or if it happening further down the line.

I've got no idea about extension to extension calls, I'm a one person business, so never make them, but I can test it.

This you could test by calling *777 for an echo test, do you hear your own voice ok? Also, let us know what you are using to make the call, is it the 3CX Webclient, Windows App, IP Phone, mobile app, etc and where from, on the same LAN as the PBX or at a remote location?

It's also my desktop computer, but I tested it with AV turned off and got the same result

As @SweetAction mentioned, the 3CX Host must be dedicated to 3CX. If this is not the case, I would highly recommend taking care of this first. Since you're running on a Windows machine, you could simply use a virtualization platform such as Hyper-V and deploy a Debian VM using the 3CX ISO. You could follow our 3CX with Hyper-V guide here.

 

[John Jacobson]

I've been running 3cx on my desktop for years with no issue.
I found out the issue.
I "upgraded" to a new network adapter that uses 5Ghz wifi. When using this I get high jitter on the call. However, if I change and use 2.4Ghz wifi, it works much better.
I'd added the new adapter at the same time as I'd rebuilt my computer and restored from backup. I was looking at the wrong change.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

I can't really say that you should use any of the two modes as using a wifi adapter as the network adapter for the 3CX PBX is not recommended nor supported. Based on the information provided in this thread I feel confident to say that the 3CX PBX at hand is running a largely unsupported configuration so issues such as the one you reported are to be expected.

In any case, hopefully you managed to sort out this specific issue at least for now but do bear in mind that you might need to scrap the this instance and redeploy it as per our guides should issues continue to arise.