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Run a Voicemail Report

The Voicemail Report is a per-mailbox view of recent voicemail messages with playback. Useful for an admin to spot-check a user's mailbox or recover a deleted message before the disk file is purged.

Steps

  1. Go to Reports → Voicemail Reports.
  2. Pick the mailbox (extension number) from the list.
  3. The page shows messages organized by folder:
    • INBOX — new and saved messages the user hasn't deleted.
    • Old — listened-to messages.
    • Family / Friends / Work — user-tagged folders (rarely used).
    • Urgent — flagged urgent.
    • Deleted — recently deleted (not yet purged from disk).
  4. Click a message to play, download, or move between folders.

Recover a Deleted Voicemail

When a user deletes a VM via *97, the file is moved to the Deleted folder (typically /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/<context>/<ext>/Deleted/) — NOT immediately purged.

  1. Browse to the user's mailbox in the report.
  2. Open Deleted folder.
  3. Move messages back to INBOX.

If the deleted folder is also empty, check the filesystem directly — sometimes Asterisk hasn't synced the GUI:

ls -la /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/<ext>/Deleted/
# Move msgXXXX files back to INBOX/:
mv /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/<ext>/Deleted/msg* \
   /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/<ext>/INBOX/
chown -R asterisk:asterisk /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/default/<ext>/

Common Issues

  • No mailboxes appear. Voicemail isn't enabled on any extensions. Enable per-extension at User Attributes → Extensions → Voicemail tab.
  • Recovered VM doesn't show in user's INBOX. File ownership wrong (asterisk:asterisk) or filename pattern incorrect. Check perms.
  • VM-to-email worked but recording missing in report. Delete Voicemail option = Yes on the extension — file is purged after emailing. The user's email is the only copy.
  • Privacy concern accessing user mailboxes. Document admin access in your privacy policy; consider restricting the Voicemail Reports module by Administrator role.