Troubleshooting Email Notifications

This is a short guide to troubleshooting Switchvox email notifications.

Most issues with email notification are related to one or more of the following:

  1. DNS (more specifically MX records)
  2. Outgoing SMTP server issues  (access to this server may be needed)
  3. Networking

The following are step-by-step instructions. If at any point the email notification starts working, you can stop at that step and look to isolate the issue to that particular step.

Before we begin, make a note of the settings you currently have in the following two locations:

  • Server > Networking > IP Configuration > Advanced Options 
  • Tools > Notifications > SMTP Settings

By default, you shouldn't have to make any special settings in Switchvox for the voicemail email notification to work. For troubleshooting purposes, our goal will be to do the following:

  • Revert all settings back to default
  • Show that the Switchvox email notification process is working.
  • Isolate the issue to external variables.

The email test is not always an accurate tool for diagnosing because it uses SMTP, and Switchvox uses sendmail for email notification. The true test is to call in and leave a voicemail to activate the email notification feature. Try to conduct the testing after business hours.

Change Your Hostname

This will rule out any DNS issues that may be caused by your hostname. This will drop all current calls.

  1. Go to Server > Networking > IP Configuration
  2. Change the "External IP Address / Hostname" field to: localhost.localdomain
  3. Reset the voicemail settings back to default
    • Go to Tools > Notifications > SMTP Settings
    • Clear out all values in the four fields ('Voicemail Notification Email From Address', 'Outbound SMTP Server', 'Outbound SMTP Username', and 'Outbound SMTP Password') and put the following in the 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' field: PBX@localhost.localdomain
  4. Save the settings
  5. Leave a voicemail message on your extension
  6. Check for an email from the address specified in your 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' field. If you have one, then you don't need to go any further! If you don't receive an email, then continue on

Modify the Voicemail Notification Address

  1. Go to Tools > Notifications > SMTP Settings
  2. Change the 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' to <valid>@<emailaddress.com> where this is a valid email address that exists on your email server. Leave 'Outbound SMTP Server', 'Outbound SMTP Username', and 'Outbound SMTP Password' blank.
  3. Save the settings
  4. Leave a voicemail message on your extension
  5. Check for an email from the address specified in your 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' field. If you have one, then you don't need to go any further! If you don't receive an email, then continue on.


Modify the Outbound SMTP Server

  1. Go to Tools > Notifications > SMTP Settings
  2. Change the 'Outbound SMTP Server' to either the Hostname or IP address of your e-mail SMTP server. Leave 'Outbound SMTP Username', and 'Outbound SMTP Password' blank
  3. Save the settings
  4. Leave a voicemail message on your extension
  5. Check for an email from the address specified in your 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' field. If you have one, then you don't need to go any further! If you don't receive an email, then continue on


Modify the 'Outbound SMTP Username' and 'Outbound SMTP Password'

  1. Go to Tools > Notifications > SMTP Settings
  2. Change the 'Outbound SMTP Username' and 'Outbound SMTP Password' to a valid username and password for an email account on your SMTP server
  3. Save the settings
  4. Leave a voicemail message on your extension
  5. Check for an email from the address specified in your 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' field. If you have one, then you don't need to go any further! If you don't receive an email, then continue on.

Send Notifications somewhere else

If you still cannot receive email notifications of voicemails, then try plugging the settings for 'Voicemail Notification Email From Address', 'Outbound SMTP Server', 'Outbound SMTP Username', and 'Outbound SMTP Password' into an email client and see if you can send emails using the client. You can also try putting in a different email server and account into the fields in Switchvox, such as a gmail account:

'Voicemail Notification Email From Address' : <username>@gmail.com
'Outbound SMTP Server' : smtp.gmail.com
'Outbound SMTP Username' : <username>
'Outbound SMTP Password' : <password>

Simply replace <username> with your gmail username, and use your gmail password. Then save the settings and leave a voicemail message on your extension and check for an email from yourself to yourself on your gmail account. If you receive this email then you can be sure that the problem is not with your Switchvox system, but is more likely to be your email SMTP server itself.

After we verify that the email notification process is working on Switchvox, we can work out by adding the different variables one at a time; i.e., outbound SMTP server IP, STMP server credentials, hostname, etc.  If at any point the emails stop working, then we know this is the cause.  Another good resource is to use the logs availabe on your SMTP server. Also, for advanced troubleshooting, you can leave a voicemail and check the logs on the Switchvox by pulling a TSR Report. For more information on this see the FAQ guide on reviewing TSR Reports.

Most email notification issues are due to either invalid SMTP credentials, MX records for a particular DNS hostname, third-party SMTP server issues, etc.