A client running 3CX version 10 mentioned that no one was seeing voicemail indicators or getting voicemail notifications via email. I recalled that these are “paid” version features. Sure enough, his license was no longer activated. After re-activating the license, voicemail notification started working again. But why did the license become unregistered?
I did a little research and found this blog post and this forum post with some additional info.
As best I can tell, 3CX checks its license whenever the services are restarted, including at every server boot. The IP address and network card address (MAC address) of your server are stored with the license on the 3CX license server. If the IP or MAC address has changed since the last time, 3CX de-activates. Implications:
- If the 3CX license server is down, your license will de-activate. Check this by going to https://erp.3cx.com/.
- Your server must have network access at reboot, and the firewall must allow connections to the 3CX licensing server.
- If you server does not have a fixed IP address, 3CX will lose activation whenever the IP address changes.
- If the server has two network cards, it might lose activation because it might register from one card, then use the other card when checking the license after a reboot.
You can re-activate your license by logging in to your 3CX server and going to Settings > Activate License.
A Little Bit Deactivated
At first I thought that deactivation meant that 3CX reverts to the Free license mode. But when I manually reverted to the Free license, I saw this under Settings > Activate License:
and when I tried to use CRM dialing with MyPhone, MyPhone displayed this message:
The customer wasn’t seeing either of those issues. He basically re-typed the same license that was already displayed, and his message waiting indicators (MWI) started working again. This forum post indicates that a reboot of the 3CX server might have solved the problem as well.