Can no longer record GV voicemail greeting on Obi200

[Rick441]

I use the Obi200 with Google Voice.  I went to record a second GV custom voicemail greeting today. On the GV website, if I pick the Obi when it asks where to ring to record the greeting, as soon as I click Connect I get the message "We Had an Error."  I tried many times, same result.  Other than re-trying, the only thing I tried was power-cycling, which didn't help.

If I instead choose my other forwarding phone (a Verizon cell that I don't normally use with GV), there's no error.  It rings the mobile, and I can record the new greeting from there.  So I can still accomplish what I need, but I don't see why I shouldn't be able to use the Obi for this as I did without issue before the firmware upgrade.

Anyone else having a similar issue, and/or thoughts on what might be going on?  The fact that the issue surfaced after the recent firmware update that accommodates Google Voice's change to SIP makes me suspect that it might be related to that.

[SteveInWA]

Hi:

You do not need to use any telephone equipment to record your voicemail greeting.  Google has now added the capability to record it from your computer, using a microphone and speakers or a headset.

Using, for example, a laptop that has a built-in mic, sign into https://voice.google.com/settings, scroll down to the Voicemail section, click the blue + in the circle, and record your greeting.

[Rick441]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Thinking back, I probably set my original GV voicemail greeting directly from the Obi-attached phone (by calling my own phone number and entering my PIN), rather than via the web interface.

So I wonder if what I perceived as a "new issue" (GV erroring out when the Obi is selected in the legacy web interface as "phone to ring" to record a new greeting) has actually been the situation all along?

More out of curiosity than anything, given the availability of workarounds, I would be interested in hearing others' experiences with this -- past (if applicable) and current.

[SteveInWA]

That method is no longer supported.

If you want to record a greeting over the telephone, as opposed to following my instructions above, then you'd need to link a regular, 10-digit US phone number as a forwarding number, and have Google Voice call that number to begin the recording.

[Rick441]

Thanks for that info, it explains the error message I was seeing.

BTW, when I recorded a greeting with my pc's mic, from the link you provided, it called that my new default greeting (or something along those lines).  That led me to jump to the conclusion that that method could only be used for changing the default greeting, when my purpose was to create an alternate.  But I now see from going into Legacy settings that my old greeting is still there, and I was able to re-assign that as my default, while assigning the new one to specific call groups as intended.

[SteveInWA]

The new UI also has a setting where you can select which one of your recorded greetings to use.

There is no longer the ability to use different greetings for different groups of callers, because the "Groups & Circles" feature is going away.  See the screenshot below.

[Rick441]

There is no longer the ability to use different greetings for different groups of callers, because the "Groups & Circles" feature is going away.

Sorry to hear that.  I had thought customizing forwarding groups was one of the key features of GV? The main reason I recorded the alternate greeting was so that Anonymous Callers (Unknown) would get a "special" greeting.  More importantly, I guess that means we will lose the ability to set up a rule to prevent Anonymous calls from ringing the Obi??  I was getting a fair number of those until I unticked all forwards for Anonymous.