Hi Folks,
I've used an Obi202 for probably 7 years now. When I set it up, I set up SP1 to link to my main personal google (household line) account and SP2 to a secondary GV account I created because I'm a notary public and I wanted to publish my name and number in town to service the community.
This has been working fine now for years. Earlier today, I had a friend tell me she had tried to call me on the 2nd (Notary) line and got a strange message (she didn't remember exactly what the message was.) When she mentioned this, I did stop and think to myself I couldn't remember the last time I got a call on that line.
I went to my obi dashboard and SP2 still showed as "connected" to Google. However, when I went to
voice.google, I see the GV number was "reclaimed" by Google after a period of 30 days of inactivity and there's no longer a GV number linked to that google account.
I'm not sure why this changed, although it seems to be a recent change since I've had this GV # on SP2 for as long as I have had the GV # on SP1, although I do make more calls from SP1 and almost never make a call for SP2 (I use it more as a form of voice-mail if someone wants to get in touch w/ me to do a notary service.)
Losing the GV # I had for these past 5+ years is a major PITFA since I have that number literally everywhere attached to my notary public service.
I have to guess the reason the number was reclaimed is Google must have made some change in how they determine they are going to reclaim a number. My "usage" on that line hasn't changed in 5+ years so the metrics they use to reclaim a line must have changed.
Does anyone know what the specifics are?
I have to assume it has something to do w/ the fact I never make outbound calls on that line and just use it for inbound voicemail.
Now I'm likewise petrified I am going to lose the "main" household GV # due to whatever changes they have made... which again, is a major PITFA because although I rarely use the line (I use my cell phone mainly) it is there for an emergency and if someone (like my elderly parents) need to reach me. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that I do not dial out or receive in a call on my main line in more than 30+ days. I'm sure there are times when I go even longer than that. We actually do use this line as a contact line for various doctors, etc.
There there a way to tell an Obi device to "dial" an outbound number? For example, could I set up a cron task on my linux router to tell my Obi to actually dial a call on SP1 so the Obi actually registers some "use" on the line? Or likewise have SP2 call the # assigned to SP1 to register some usage?
Anyone have suggestions on how to avoid this in the future?
Maybe its me, but it does seem sort of assinine that google would reclaim a number that is actively attached/connected to an obitalk device. Sort of defeats the purpose of having it.