Teams app not ringing reliably on incoming PSTN calls to iPhones

[Bob Manjoney]

Tenant is upgraded to "TeamsOnly", with Micorosft Phone System and Calling Plans in place, and things are working for the most part, however, about 50% of the time, my users say that their iPhones running the Teams app don't ring/alert on incoming PSTN calls, but they do get a missed call notice.

I've made sure of the following:

1. the app is up-to-date

2. the app setting for "Always ring on this device even when active on desktop" is checked

3. they're not in "Do not disturb" status

FWIW, the legacy Skype for Business app for PSTN calling on mobile was equally unreliable - lots of missed calls, and Teams seems to be no different in this regard.

Is anyone else having this issue? What other things can we check to make sure calls actually ring as they are supposed to?

TIA,

Bob

[#2]

I have this problem on my Android too.

[#3]

Pretty sure PSTN is still technically running off the same Skype for Business backend, hence why the experience is the same. I don't have any other suggestions unfortunately. Maybe check to see if the calls shows up in the new admin center call reporting to see if you can see anything there?

[#4]

Not really @Chris Webb. Although the new Office 365 Phone System backend first became available through SfB, it's by no means 'old' or being replaced anytime soon.

I'm not sure what @Bob Manjoney means by 'the app setting for "Always ring on this device even when active on desktop" is checked', I think you are referring to the setting for notifications? not calls.

Have your users configured Teams to simultaneous ring their mobile numbers? https://support.office.com/en-us/article/call-forwarding-and-simultaneous-ring-in-teams-a88da9e8-134...

[#5]

Yeah not Old, but still the same back end. The chat etc. is what I believe is on the new Azure stack. Obviously they've continued to bolt on, but the Teams mobile app should be much more reliable. How long ago did you change to Teams only mode? I know the PSTN stuff takes awhile to fully converge over to Teams.

[#6]

I assumed that the app settings for notifications included incoming call ringing behavior. It seems to suggest this as one of the notification toggles is labeled, "Incoming Calls".

We have not configured Teams to simultaneously ring their mobile #. We just want the Teams app to ring on their mobile phone when someone calls.

[#7]

Hi Chris,
We changed over to Teams Only mode about a month ago.

Bob

[#8]

Ahh ok, should be plenty of time :).

[#9]

Where ?

[#10]

I will say that often times restarting the phone seems to make the problem go away for a period of time. Having lots of apps running on the phone also seems to exacerbate the issue, so I'm certainly open to the possibility that it has nothing to do with the back-end, but is instead a phone or app issue.

[#11]

Same here - just more iOS than Android users for this particular group, but it seems to affect both equally.

[#12]

Silly me to assume that the settings for Android and iOS were on parity :)

Here's the Android app notification setting page:

[#13]

And once again - this time on Android. Incoming call never rang, but immediately displayed a "Missed Call" notification. Arghhhh….however, I am able to reproduce it reliably by doing the following:

1. Launch/login to Teams.

2. Call into Teams app from PSTN - phone rings - terrific.

Now...

3. Tap the Android Square system icon (lower-right screen corner, I believe it's called the Overview button) to display "Recent Apps".

4. Tap "Clear All" (which just removes recent apps from the list)

5. Now Try calling into the Teams app from PSTN - my Android phone never rings, but gets a missed call indicator.

[#14]

I'd take this info and get a support request started. Most folks on here won't be able to do anything to get this fixed :).

[#15]

Didn't you just close the Teams app when you pressed Remove All? How would it ring if you closed it? Notifications are handled by Android natively which is why you would see the indication.

[#16]

The "Clear all" doesn't actually close the app, it just removes it from the recent list displayed on the screen. It should still be running.

[#17]

Nope, it closes it.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/close-android-apps,news-21281.html

Here’s how to kill applications running in the background.

3. Tap and hold on the application and swipe it to the right. This should kill the process from running and free up some RAM. If you want to close everything, press the "Clear All" button if its available to you.

[#18]

Good catch, I'm on iOS so don't know better lol!

[#19]

IOS doesn't have such an issue as the operating system provides a common extensible calling integration called CallKit. 

[#20]

It may be a matter of semantics on Android, ("Closing vs. actually terminating a process"). I did a "Clear All" and in the running apps list Teams is still running, however, if I want to, from there I can do a "Force Stop". A lot of apps on Android behave this way.

[#21]

Clear all kills off the user processes of apps, there can still be services running that a force stop is required to kill. As you clearly demonstrate, closing the Teams app in this way means it cant ring on an incoming call.

[#22]

I understand now, thanks for your help.

[#23]

@Bob Manjoney It looks like you have given Teams notification permissions and still didn't receive incoming PSTN calls when the app was cleared. Even if the app is cleared, you should still receive push notifications and incoming calls (unless you are DND).

I'd like to follow up on this. Couple requests -

1 - What phone are you using? (For example - Samsung Galaxy S8, Google Pixel)
2 - Try steps 3-5. If your phone doesn't ring, immediately file a bug from the Teams app > Hamburger menu icon (Settings) > Report an issue. Please drop me a message when you do, I'll make sure to follow up

[#24]

@Debanshu SinghThe phone used in this test is an LG V40 ThinQ from Verizon Wireless in the US. Not rooted. Android and the Teams app are both up to date. I just reproduced steps 3-5 per your request and the phone did not ring, and I posted a bug report via the Send Feedback option menu. 

I'm confused because your post is in direct contradiction of what user @Steven Collier has asserted. 

Thanks for your attention,

Bob

[#25]

I know it doesn't help much if I just say "we have the same problem here". But unfortunately this is the fact. We mainly use IPhones. On my Android device I have the phenomenon very rarely. I will instruct our users to use the "Report an issue" function if the error occurs.

[#26]

I have been researching Teams for possible  roll out to the organization. I registered for a trial of office 365 Enterprise E5 with 25 seats and a call plan trial  and configured it exactly as it should be set up. I can make calls out to the PSTN no problem. I can call between users in Teams via the phone numbers no problem. I get missed call notice in Teams and the voicemail. I get  an email in outlook with an MP3 of the voice message. EVERYTHING is working EXCEPT inbound calling from PSTN. Have had 10 MS support people on here and run power-shell commands and changed many, many settings....still no calls inbound. I got frustrated and deleted that trial organization and got another one. Set it up properly. No inbound calls from PSTN. No escalation to the gurus deep in the Microsoft Teams secret lair who can possibly fix this if it can, indeed, be fixed. Sadly I now have wasted 2 weeks and must inform  the client  the product is not yet ready for prime time. It is 99% there but that missing 1% is HUGE and in our case it is a deal breaker.

[#27]

Hi Bob - Is this issue still happening? Do you have a few minutes to chat about this?

[#28]

Any news on this topic? We are still dealing with this issue.

[#29]

Sorry, I hadn't seen your message till now. Yes, this still happens. As recently as this weekend with one of my users. We verified every setting with regards to notifications, permissions, sound, etc. and they all checked out - but he would only see that he missed a call, never rang. Eventually, I uninstalled the Teams app from his phone and reinstalled it, and in that case, it started working again.