SfB on iOS: sometimes late or even no call signaling at all

[Christian Reichhoff]

Hi there,

recently I moved the whole company (less than 100 empl.) to Sfb Standard on premise connected to a SIP-Trunk from our carrier.

Problem:

Sometimes the iOS devices do signaling incoming calls very late while the desktopclient is ringing at the right time. It does not matter if it is a SfB-Call or an external telephone call.

Clients we use:

- SfB 2016 (Win7/8.x/10)

- SfB 16.x (OSX)

- SfB 6.17.2.5 iOS 10.3 (iPhone 5C) or 11.x (newer devices)

All connected via an Aruba AP315 & 7008 based WiFi network doing the QoS correction for OSX and iOS (Windows Clients get their correct settings via GPO).

All iPhone 5C do not have a SIM card inserted they only are used indoor with WiFi; WiFi signal is strong.

ApplePush is enabled at server- and mobile side.

Push is working as I can "kill" SfB app and I can wake it up by calling the person again. (If the person has really logged out from the app I cannot wake it up, this works as designed.) 

I know that iOS will hibernate apps after a time beeing unused or if the RAM (iPhone 5C has 1 GB) is filled up - but the only running apps at these iPhones are

- SfB

- Mail

- Contacts

And the employees do use the SfB app many times a day.

Are there any hints where to search?

[#2]

Hi Christian,

There is this known issues with SfB on a iOS device. MS does have the app for iOS but in my best opinion there is still a lot of work before SfB will work prober on a iOS device.

Are you running with 'Simultaneously Ringing' activated through SfB?
Do you have any 'Switchboard' 3-party SW installed in your solution? and by that I - do you have any 'Offer Timeout' in your Call-Flow?

Best regards,

[#3]

Hi Thomas,

thank you for your reply.

Is there any confirmed list of "issues"? (like for OS X although that list does not contain all by MS via blogs and forums confirmed bugs)

"There is a known issue" is the most giving answer to any question I asked over the last 2 years since I am working on SfB on premise projects. Working for 30 years as an IT Pro, never had such a bad UX. 

Especially non-Windows Desktop Clients are so rich of bugs and "issues", iOS, Android, windows-Mobile - how does MS think we all still are sitting the whole day in front of a Windows-based PC while we have to communicate like back in the 90s?

Especially SfB on Mac is a catastrophy - and MS simply ignores that fact, stating so much lacks of functionality and so many "issus" as known for months and years.

Meanwhile I suspect that there is only one volunteer at the whole company Microsoft programming S4B for OS X.

OK, back on topic:

No, no "simultaneous ringing" needed, ´cause all we need is a "ringing" SIP-client.

No 3rd party Software, Switchboard, Gateway ore changed default timeout values for call flows.

This pure MS Skype for Business Server environment with an Edge-Server and one Standard Server (and statistics, WebApps and diagnose-servers as well).

It simply feels like the SfB app is suspended under mysterious circumstances and it takes a long time to wake it up again.

Cheers, Chris

[#4]

Hi Thomas,

thank you for your reply.

Is there any confirmed list of "issues"? (like for OS X although that list does not contain all by MS via blogs and forums confirmed bugs)

"There is a known issue" is the most giving answer to any question I asked over the last 2 years since I am working on SfB on premise projects. Working for 30 years as an IT Pro, never had such a bad UX. 

Especially non-Windows Desktop Clients are so rich of bugs and "issues", iOS, Android, windows-Mobile - how does MS think we all still are sitting the whole day in front of a Windows-based PC while we have to communicate like back in the 90s?

Especially SfB on Mac is a catastrophy - and MS simply ignores that fact, stating so much lacks of functionality and so many "issus" as known for months and years.

Meanwhile I suspect that there is only one volunteer at the whole company Microsoft programming S4B for OS X.

OK, back on topic:

No, no "simultaneous ringing" needed, ´cause all we need is a "ringing" SIP-client.

No 3rd party Software, Switchboard, Gateway ore changed default timeout values for call flows.

This pure MS Skype for Business Server environment with an Edge-Server and one Standard Server (and statistics, WebApps and diagnose-servers as well).

It simply feels like the SfB app is suspended under mysterious circumstances and it takes a long time to wake it up again.

Cheers, Chris

[#5]

I made a reply twice - and it was deleted shortly.
So: No, there are no 3rd Party Apps or gateways included, no changed default timouts.

It just feels like the iOS App is sometimes hibernated and takes a long time to wake up. This would be "works as designed" if there where any other activity on this iPhones than S4B - but there isn´t.

[#6]

Hi Christian,

Thx for the reply.

I found these articles about SfB - known issues - perhaps they can help you also.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Known-issues-Skype-for-Business-on-Mac-494ac5d5-50be-4aa7-8...

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_sfb-mso_mac/skype-for-business-for-mac-c...

I am also working with SfB - Cloud, VoIP and Switchboards installations, and I my oppinion the most "issues" that we run into is on a OSx device. We have seen call-issues in group calls on a OSx device and likewise on a iOS device as well.

But I have seen a lot of these "issues" when a OSx or iOS device goes into suspended-mode.

I do know, that MS has just released a new version of SfB for MacOS - but I think you already have the latest installation running?

Have you tried to have the SfB installation running on only on device, instead of having the SfB running on a iOS device as well on a OSx device - what happends with the suspended-mode if there is only one device running SfB

I have seen issues where the iOS device will go into suspended-mode and by default my SfB installtion on a MS or OSx-device starts to act "funny" as well.

Best regards,

[#7]

Hi Thomas,

thnx too, for replying and these links - although I know them both and some more, e.g. here:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/home?forum=sfbfr 

Yes, Skype on OSX is quite "funny", thats a shame but another field of problems.

In this thread I have to focus on iOS.

So yes, of course I tried having only one device (just iOS, w/o OSX or Windows) logged in: same-same.

And yes, too - I am in "fast ring" update on Office365 for Desktop-clients and the iOS clients I do manage via OSX Server and push always the latest version to all clients...

Cheers - Chris

[#8]

Any new ideas about that? Today the iPhone of our entrance-personal was refusing to signaling calls until I logged off and back on the user - that´s not funny, ´cause even the door bell is signaling to that specific iPhone (not talking about all the costumers who could not reach us until we noticed it)....