Voicemail Remote Inquiry via IMAP4, Problems and Solutions (Overview)

Typical problems and their causes:

• Announcement "Your mailbox cannot be accessed, please check your access parameters": Please check points 1-6 of the following list.
• No (new) voicemails are found: Please check points 7-9 of the following list.
• It takes a long time until voicemails are found and played: Please refer to the "Performance Optimization" section at the end of this article.

For the voicemail remote inquiry to work, the following basic requirements must be fulfilled:

1. The mail server must support the IMAP4 protocol and it must be activated.
   MS Exchange requires the activation of an extra Windows service, which is not automatically active during a standard installation. On the Exchange server, simply go to the list of Windows services, find the MS Exchange IMAP service, start service and activate <Automatic start>.
   Other mail servers may also support IMAP4, but this feature must first be activated. Ask the mail server administrator. Alternatively, you can try to access the server with any IMAP4-compatible mail client (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, mail clients of SmartPhones).
2. If there is a firewall between SwyxWare Server and mail server (e.g. for an external mail server on the Internet), it must not block access to the IMAP4 ports (TCP 143 or 993 for SSL).
3. The SwyxWare user needs access rights within the mail server to access his mailbox via IMAP4. For most mail servers, this right normally exists, but may have been restricted by the mail server administrator.
4. The currentIMAP4 access data for remote access must be stored in the properties of the SwyxWare user: "Call forwarding, standard remote access" (SwyxWare Administration or SwyxIt!)
   If the mail server only allows IMAP4 access via SSL, the option "Use SSL (Secure Socket Layer)" must also be activated here.
   If no or incorrect access data is stored here, or the SSL option is not activated although required, the user hears an announcement when trying to use the remote inquiry "Your mailbox cannot be accessed, please check your access parameters".
5. If you are using an MS Exchange server, the IMAP user account is identical to the domain user account and the IMAP password is always identical to the current domain password.
   Attention: If the domain password has been changed, the new password must also be maintained in the SwyxWare configuration!
   If a policy forces a regular password change, this KB article can be helpful: Simplifying the user account configuration for remote voicemail retrieval.
6. If the mailbox still cannot be accessed, it may be due to the authentication method for IMAP4. See IMAP authentication for remote voicemail polling.
7. The mail server should allow the use of X header lines and correctly answer a search query for an X header.
   If this is not the case, the user does not receive an announcement that the mailbox cannot be accessed, but no voicemails are simply found.
   The standard configuration of newer MS Exchange versions does not allow the correct use of the X headers in some cases. Please note the following KB articles in addition to the Microsoft documentation: Remote access may not work with MS Exchange 2007
8. If the use of X headers is generally not possible, or you have difficulties configuring the mail server accordingly, you can use the workaround described here: Remote inquiry sometimes does not find voicemails when MS Exchange is used.
   However, this should only be considered if all other attempts fail. A correct processing of the X headers by the mail server is to be preferred in any case.
9. Also some parameters in the SwyxWare configuration have influence on whether/how a voicemail is found. Please refer to: Recognition of voicemails during remote enquiry.

Performance optimization:

Remote inquiry can take a long time if there are many (hundreds or even thousands) emails in the main directory of the respective user's mailbox and the search for voicemails is therefore very slow. In such a case it can be helpful to move voicemails to a subfolder of the mailbox using an e-mail rule and to specify this subfolder in the "Mail folder" field in the configuration of the remote inquiry. This considerably reduces the number of emails to be searched, which has a positive effect on speed. attention