This section lists some common issues that you may encounter when using Fax Service Manager. For in-depth troubleshooting information for events and errors, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=91073. For general troubleshooting steps, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140797.
What problem are you having?
- Clients
cannot send faxes that are routed to a specific fax device in
accordance with an outgoing rule.
- Users are sending
faxes to phone numbers that are working correctly when tested by
phone, but when the Fax service dials the numbers, it gets a busy
signal.
- The
system cannot receive faxes.
- Someone is
trying to send a fax to the service from the outside, but is not
succeeding.
- Incoming faxes
are not being routed by e-mail, despite the fact that the "Route
through e-mail" incoming method is enabled.
- Delivery notification receipts
are configured, but are not being delivered to fax senders.
- A specific
modem device is consistently answering calls that are often
disconnected immediately after answering—these calls rarely achieve
the status of successfully received faxes.
- A modem
has been added to the computer and appears in Phone and Modem
Options in Control Panel, but it does not appear in the device list
in Fax Service Manager.
- Faxes are
spending too much time in the outgoing fax queue before being
sent.
- Faxes are
remaining in the Outbox folder longer than required and are filling
the folder.
- Incoming
and sent faxes are remaining in the archive folder longer than
necessary and are filling the folder, or a warning appears
periodically that the archive is too large.
- Faxes cannot be submitted or sent,
and a message appears in the event log that the fax Queue folder
cannot be accessed.
- Fax
Activity Logging is not working, and a message appears in the event
log that the Fax service cannot access the activity log
folder.
- Fax
archiving is not working, and a message appears in the event log
that the Fax service cannot access the archive.
Clients cannot send faxes that are routed to a specific fax device in accordance with an outgoing rule.
- Cause: The device or data
cable is not turned on or connected correctly.
- Solution: Verify that the
device is connected to the main power and turned on, and that the
data cable is correctly connected.
- Cause: Device properties
are not configured properly.
- Solution: Verify that the
device exists and is enabled to send faxes.
Users are sending faxes to phone numbers that are working correctly when tested by phone, but when the Fax service dials the numbers, it gets a busy signal.
- Cause: There is a mistake
in the outgoing routing rule that controls the transmission of
faxes to those numbers.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, double-click Outgoing Routing, and
then click Rules. In the right pane, right-click the rule,
and then click Properties. Correct any errors in the
configuration.
- Cause: The user has added a
0 (zero) before a local area code that would normally be used for
manual telephone dialing. Or, the user is using dialing rules and
has specified the fax number in the wrong format.
- Solution: When using
dialing rules, users must type the fax number in the following
canonical format:
country/region_code (area_code) fax_number.
If you send a fax from Microsoft Outlook 2003, and use dialing
rules, you must specify the fax number as follows:
fax:+country/region_code (area_code) fax_number.
In this case, the word fax must be followed by a colon
(:), a plus sign (+), the country/region code, a
space, the local area code in parenthesis, a space, and the phone
number without spaces or hyphens. For example: fax:+1 (818)
5551111.
The system cannot receive faxes.
- Cause: The device that is
set to receive the fax is not turned on or connected to the main
power, or the data cable is not connected.
- Solution: Verify that the
device is connected to the main power and turned on, and that the
data cable is correctly connected.
- Cause: Some of the
properties of the device were configured incorrectly.
- Solution: Verify that the
device is configured correctly to receive faxes.
Someone is trying to send a fax to the service from the outside, but is not succeeding.
- Cause: The outgoing fax
queue is so long that it is constantly sending faxes. This takes
the available device resources from incoming faxes.
- Solution: Check fax
activity to verify that this is the cause of the problem. To check
fax activity, in the console tree of Fax Service Manager,
right-click Fax, and then click Properties. On the
General tab, see how many faxes are queued and how many
faxes are in progress. If the number is excessive, do one of the
following:
- Pause the outgoing queue to enable incoming
calls to be answered. To pause the outgoing queue, on the
General tab, select the Disable transmission of outgoing
faxes check box. Remember later to clear the check box to
enable sending faxes.
- Pause the submission of new faxes to the
outgoing faxes queue. To pause the submission of new faxes, on the
General tab, select the Disable submission of new
outgoing faxes check box. Remember later to clear the check box
to enable submitting new faxes.
- Add fax devices and then configure at least
one device to only receive faxes.
- Pause the outgoing queue to enable incoming
calls to be answered. To pause the outgoing queue, on the
General tab, select the Disable transmission of outgoing
faxes check box. Remember later to clear the check box to
enable sending faxes.
Incoming faxes are not being routed by e-mail, despite the fact that the "Route through e-mail" incoming method is enabled.
- Cause: The e-mail address
of the recipient was not configured correctly.
- Solution: In Fax Service
Manager, in the left pane, double-click Devices and
Providers, double-click Devices, double-click the device
you want to configure, and then click Incoming Methods. In
the details pane, right-click Route through e-mail, and then
click Properties. Correct the e-mail address specified to
receive incoming faxes.
- Cause: A parameter was not
typed correctly in a box on the Receipts tab of the Fax
Properties dialog box.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Receipts tab, verify that all
information is correct.
Delivery notification receipts are configured, but are not being delivered to fax senders.
- Cause: A parameter was not
typed correctly in a box on the Receipts tab of the Fax
Properties dialog box.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Receipts tab, verify that all
information is correct.
A specific modem device is consistently answering calls that are often disconnected immediately after answering—these calls rarely achieve the status of successfully received faxes.
- Cause: Adaptive answering
is enabled, but the modem device does not support adaptive
answering. If adaptive answering fails, calls are immediately
disconnected.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, double-click Devices and Providers,
and then double-click Devices. Right-click the modem that is
causing the problem, and then click Properties. On the
Microsoft Modem FSP tab, clear the Enable adaptive
answering if supported by the modem check box.
- Cause: The device
supposedly supports adaptive answering, but because of a lack of
standardization between modem models, the device is not
distinguishing between incoming data and an incoming fax. When
adaptive answering fails, calls are immediately disconnected.
- Solution: Test whether the
modem that has adaptive answering enabled correctly supports this
feature. Check both data transmission and incoming faxes. If either
type of call is not correctly received by the modem, you need to
disable the adaptive answering option for this device as described
in the previous solution.
A modem has been added to the computer and appears in Phone and Modem Options in Control Panel, but it does not appear in the device list in Fax Service Manager.
- Cause: Newly added modem
devices do not appear in Fax Service Manager until you restart the
Fax service and then refresh your view.
- Solution: In the console
tree of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, click
Stop, right-click Fax again, click Start, and
then press F5 to refresh the view. If this does not work,
close Fax Service Manager, and then reopen it to refresh the
view.
Faxes are spending too much time in the outgoing fax queue before being sent.
- Cause: Insufficient fax
devices are allocated to sending faxes.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, double-click Devices and Providers,
and then click Devices. Right-click the device that is not
currently enabled to send faxes, and then click Send.
Faxes are remaining in the Outbox folder longer than required and are filling the folder.
- Cause: The automatic
deletion of faxes that remain in the Outbox folder longer than a
specified length of time is not enabled, or the specified length is
too long.
- Solution: In the left pane
of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Outbox tab, select the
Automatically delete faxes older than <number>
days check box. If it is selected, decrease the number of
days after which faxes will automatically be deleted if remaining
in the Outbox folder.
Incoming and sent faxes are remaining in the archive folder longer than necessary and are filling the folder, or a warning appears periodically that the archive is too large.
- Cause: The automatic
deletion of faxes that remain in the archive folders longer than a
specified length of time is not enabled, or the specified length is
too long. If you are receiving a warning, the number of days is too
high for the size of faxes you are receiving, and the archive
reaches the maximum quota limit that you have set before faxes are
automatically deleted.
- Solution: In the console
tree of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Archives tab, select the
Automatically delete faxes older than <number>
days check box. If it is selected, decrease the number of
days after which faxes will be automatically deleted. If you have
received a warning, manually delete the number of faxes below the
size of the minimum quota limit indicated on this tab to reset the
warning.
Faxes cannot be submitted or sent, and a message appears in the event log that the fax Queue folder cannot be accessed.
- Cause: This problem usually
occurs if the default location of the fax queue has been changed or
the folder location does not exist or is invalid.
- Solution: Check the fax
queue location and modify it with a registry key if necessary. To
do this, do the following:
- In Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Stop to stop the Fax service.
- In the operating system, click Start, click Run,
and then type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
- In
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fax\QueueDirectory,
set the string value to the required queue location. For example,
<systemdrive>\<queuelocation>.
- Close the Registry Editor.
- Set security permissions for the Queue folder to ensure it is
only available to the Fax service.
- Move contents from the Queue folder in the previous location to
the Queue folder in the new location.
- In Fax Service Manager, click Action, and then click
Start to restart the fax service.
- In Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Stop to stop the Fax service.
Fax Activity Logging is not working, and a message appears in the event log that the Fax service cannot access the activity log folder.
- Cause: This problem usually
occurs if the default location of the activity log has changed or
the folder location does not exist or it is invalid.
- Solution: In the console
tree of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Activity Logging tab, check the
location of the activity log, and modify as needed.
Fax archiving is not working, and a message appears in the event log that the Fax service cannot access the archive.
- Cause: This problem usually
occurs if the default location of the archive folder has changed or
the folder does not exist or is invalid.
- Solution: In the console
tree of Fax Service Manager, right-click Fax, and then click
Properties. On the Archives tab, check the location
of the archive folder, and modify if necessary.
Additional considerations
- To configure fax components, you must be a
member of the Administrators group or you must have been delegated
the appropriate authority.
- To open Fax Service Manager, click
Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click
Fax Service Manager.