This article was originally posted in January, 2011 and may contain outdated information.

A few things you should know about FreePBX voicemail:

• If you are not receiving voicemail notifications (stutter dial tone, message waiting indication on certain phones, etc.) there are two things to check.  One is to go into /etc/asterisk/vm_general.inc and see if there is a line of the form ;pollmailboxes=yes — if it is commented out (semicolon in front), uncomment it by removing the semicolon.  The other is to go to the /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail directory and make sure that you have directories there called default and device, and that one is symlinked to the other (generally default is the “real” directory and device is the symlink). If the device directory is missing, make sure you’re in the voicemail directory and do this:  ln -s default device

• If you have users in different time zones, you can have the voicemail “envelope” information say the correct time by creating a [zonemessages] context at the end of /etc/asterisk/vm_general.inc (in later versions of FreePBX you can also enter these in the Timezone Definitions section of the Voicemail Admin module) — here’s a simple one showing the four major time zones in the continental United States (I know this is not complete, it’s just an example):

[zonemessages] eastern=America/New_York|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
central=America/Chicago|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
mountain=America/Denver|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp
pacific=America/Los_Angeles|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMp

Then, on each extension setup page in FreePBX, find the Voicemail & Directory section, and under that the VM Options.  In the VM Options add a tz= option for each user (for example, tz=eastern), using one of the zones you defined under [zonemessages] in /etc/asterisk/vm_general.inc.  Note that multiple options in VM Options must be separated by the | (vertical bar) character (not that you’re likely to have multiple options, but I mention it just in case).

• If your system is not used in a large office, or some other location where not all users can be trusted, you can disable the requirement to enter a PIN when using *97 to pickup voicemail for your own extension.  To do that, add the following context to /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf:

NOTE: This is the original code for older versions of FreePBX:

[custom-voicemail-retrieve] exten => s,1,Answer
exten => s,n,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Macro(user-callerid,)
exten => s,n,Macro(get-vmcontext,${CALLERID(num)})
exten => s,n,VoiceMailMain(${CALLERID(num)}@${VMCONTEXT},s)
exten => s,n,Macro(hangupcall,)
exten => h,1,Macro(hangupcall,)

In newer versions of FreePBX (probably 2.9 and later) use this instead:

[custom-voicemail-retrieve] exten => s,1,Answer
exten => s,n,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Macro(user-callerid,)
exten => s,n,Macro(get-vmcontext,${AMPUSER})
exten => s,n(check),Set(VMBOXEXISTSSTATUS=${IF(${MAILBOX_EXISTS(${AMPUSER}@${VMCONTEXT})}?SUCCESS:FAILED)})
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${VMBOXEXISTSSTATUS}" = "SUCCESS"]?mbexist)
exten => s,n,VoiceMailMain()
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${IVR_RETVM}" = "RETURN" & "${IVR_CONTEXT}" != ""]?playret)
exten => s,n,Macro(hangupcall,)
exten => s,check+101(mbexist),VoiceMailMain(${AMPUSER}@${VMCONTEXT},s)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${IVR_RETVM}" = "RETURN" & "${IVR_CONTEXT}" != ""]?playret)
exten => s,n,Macro(hangupcall,)
exten => s,n(playret),Playback(beep&you-will-be-transfered-menu&silence/1)
exten => s,n,Goto(${IVR_CONTEXT},return,1)
exten => h,1,Macro(hangupcall,)

Then do the following in FreePBX’s GUI (do these steps in the order shown):

Go to Feature Codes and under Voicemail, disable “My Voicemail” (*97) using the dropdown, then Submit Changes.

Go to Custom Destinations (under the Tools tab) and create a new Custom Destination:  custom-voicemail-retrieve,s,1 — then Submit Changes.

Go to Misc. Applications and add a new Misc. Application. Make the feature code *97 and the destination the Custom Destination you created in the previous step, then Submit Changes.

Finally do an “orange bar reload” in FreePBX. Now when your users dial *97, it will assume they are authorized to pick up the voicemail for the extension they’re calling from. Obviously, this is probably not a good idea in any kind of office setting.

Got any other FreePBX voicemail hacks you like?