When cellph off, GV ph rings, but call immediately forwards to cell voicemail

Started by Malachi123, June 19, 2018, 07:52:29 AM

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Malachi123

I'm using GV.. and that works for outgoing. But for incoming (since yesterday), when the cellphone is off, the phone will say "incoming call" but in the meantime the call goes to the voice mail of the cellphone...

Anyone any idea's what's going on? (or how to fix this) ?

RFC3261

Quote from: Malachi123 on June 19, 2018, 07:52:29 AM
Anyone any idea's what's going on? (or how to fix this) ?
Sounds like you may need to enable Conditional Call Forwarding (CCF) on your cell phone.

SteveInWA

Quote from: Malachi123 on June 19, 2018, 07:52:29 AM
I'm using GV.. and that works for outgoing. But for incoming (since yesterday), when the cellphone is off, the phone will say "incoming call" but in the meantime the call goes to the voice mail of the cellphone...

Anyone any idea's what's going on? (or how to fix this) ?

Which mobile phone service provider(s) are you using?  How many phone numbers do you have linked to your Google Voice number as forwarding phone numbers?

restamp

I'm guessing you have both an OBi phone and your cell phone linked to GV with incoming calls forwarded to both.  If so, what's likely happening is that when you turn your cell phone off, your carrier starts forwarding incoming cell phone calls to it's voicemail immediately.  To GV, this looks like the cell immediately answers and the calling party is left connected to your cell providers voicemail.

One solution is to leave your cell phone turned on.  GV sets their timer to go to VM to 25 secs and most cell providers set theirs to 30 secs, so GV usually wins out.

Another possible solution would be to enable Call Screening.  With Call Screening enabled, you'll be asked if you want to accept the call and you'll need to TouchTone a response.  Until GV gets that TT, it won't transfer the call, and your cell phone VM doesn't normally send a tone, so you should be able to still pick the call up on your OBi.

This said, Google has been making a lot of changes lately, and I haven't tested any of this in the post-XMPP era.  However, I'd bet this is what's happening.

SteveInWA

I specifically asked about which carrier the OP is using, so I could help them set up conditional call forwarding on that phone number.  The only workable alternative is to enable call screening, but it's not ideal.

restamp

Steve, I have two Android cell phones.  Which one I use depends on where I'm going.  Both are always logged into my GV/gmail acct.  I've been toying with the idea of trying to develop a Tasker script that (1) removes the phone as a GV forwarding phone when it is plugged into a charger at home, and (2) adds the phone when it is removed from the charger.  I have no idea if this is even possible, but if I could figure some way to pull it off, would doing so on an automatic basis be a mortal sin that would result in me (and my account) being cast into Google Voice purgatory?

SteveInWA

Yeah, don't do that; eventually, those numbers might get banned.

Why do you want to do it, anyhow?  If both mobile phone numbers support conditional call forwarding, then they won't interfere with each other, nor with your OBiTALK stuff.  I've run that way for years, with multiple different OBiTALK devices (combination of ATAs and IP phones) and mobile phones from multiple carriers (nutzo, but I do a lot of beta testing and problem determination for Google Voice and Polycom).

If you don't want a particular linked/forwarding mobile number to receive calls forwarded to it via GV, then you can toggle that/those phones' forwarding on or off, on Google Voice settings, with no need to delete the phone number entirely.  I suppose you could automate THAT setting if you wish -- there is no problem with flipping that switch as often as you like.

Taoman

Quote from: SteveInWA on June 19, 2018, 05:49:25 PM

If you don't want a particular linked/forwarding mobile number to receive calls forwarded to it via GV, then you can toggle that/those phones' forwarding on or off, on Google Voice settings, with no need to delete the phone number entirely.  I suppose you could automate THAT setting if you wish -- there is no problem with flipping that switch as often as you like.

The problem with that strategy (at least for me) is that unchecking a linked phone in GV settings doesn't uncheck it for any of your Contacts. So any call from a Contact will still be forwarded to the "unchecked" phone. Unchecking an existing linked phone/device in GV settings only affects unknown callers.

That's one reason why I'm very curious about what parts (if any) of the current "Groups and Circles" will be migrated to the new GV interface. I hope Google Voice will still support groups in some fashion.

SteveInWA

Quote from: Taoman on June 19, 2018, 06:28:40 PM
Quote from: SteveInWA on June 19, 2018, 05:49:25 PM

If you don't want a particular linked/forwarding mobile number to receive calls forwarded to it via GV, then you can toggle that/those phones' forwarding on or off, on Google Voice settings, with no need to delete the phone number entirely.  I suppose you could automate THAT setting if you wish -- there is no problem with flipping that switch as often as you like.

The problem with that strategy (at least for me) is that unchecking a linked phone in GV settings doesn't uncheck it for any of your Contacts. So any call from a Contact will still be forwarded to the "unchecked" phone. Unchecking an existing linked phone/device in GV settings only affects unknown callers.

That's one reason why I'm very curious about what parts (if any) of the current "Groups and Circles" will be migrated to the new GV interface. I hope Google Voice will still support groups in some fashion.

I understand.  I assume you know that the behavior you describe is by design.  The purpose of establishing per-contact, or per-group call handling is to create specific overrides for those people.  So, you could have a group of "VIPs", whose calls would ring through regardless of your overall setting.

I don't have any details from Google yet on how they'll add this into the new platform later, only that they will add it.

Malachi123

Quote from: SteveInWA on June 19, 2018, 04:24:54 PM
I specifically asked about which carrier the OP is using, so I could help them set up conditional call forwarding on that phone number.  The only workable alternative is to enable call screening, but it's not ideal.

I'm sorry Steve, I only received an email once.. when I had the first response to my question.. none since.
My carrier is Verizon. I'm part of a company group plan, so I can't do any settings in the account itself (I could ask I guess..). I only have the cellphone set up to forward to..

Other strange thing (XMPP-post era) is that my GV phone quality is pretty bad lately.. it breaks up constantly. Very annoying. Not sure why this is happening... (specially since I had to set up everything anew a few weeks ago, since stuff wasn't working anymore at all for some strange reason.. I assumed it was because of the XMPP switch.. not sure anymore though). The device is from April 2013.. not sure if it's EOL or not..? Any thoughts on this, Steve?

SteveInWA

OK, thanks.  On your Verizon Wireless phone's regular phone keypad (NOT on the mobile Google Voice app's keypad), enter this command string, substituting your Google Voice number for the n's below:

*71nnnnnnnnnn and then touch the call button.  You should hear some beep tones as confirmation.

See:  https://www.verizonwireless.com/articles/call-forwarding-everything-you-need-to-know/