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Pre-Checks

Please complete the Notification Troubleshooting Pre-Checks before proceeding with this article.

Depending on the country where you are located and which cellular provider you use, a variety of issues may affect your ability to receive PagerDuty phone notifications. For these reasons, PagerDuty does not have full control over the deliverability of phone notifications.

We highly recommend push notifications as your primary contact method, which happens automatically when you Log In to the Mobile App, and adding a notification rule for your mobile device. If push notifications are not a viable option, the following sections provide troubleshooting tips for phone notification delivery issues.

Countries Eligible for Phone Notifications

You can review the full list of countries that are able to receive phone notifications from PagerDuty in the Supported Countries article. Please check this list before conducting further troubleshooting. Countries marked with an asterisk (*) indicate Partial Support due to local restrictions and regulations in the region.

Please check the Supported Countries list before taking any further troubleshooting steps.

Duplicate Phone Notifications

PagerDuty relies on third-party vendors to deliver phone notifications. These vendors, in turn, rely on several phone partners and carriers to deliver phone to end users. PagerDuty relies on a delivery receipt from carriers and providers to determine if an phone notification was delivered. In cases where we do not receive a delivery receipt, PagerDuty takes a more cautious approach, and sends the notification again. If the first notification was actually successful, this will result in a duplicate notification.

Phone Notification not Received

• Incorrect or Inactive Number: Navigate to your user profile, and double-check your phone number for errors or missing digits. Inactive and invalid numbers will result in delivery failure.
• Blocked Number: Check you mobile device, to confirm if there are any settings enabled to block calls from unknown numbers.
• Third-Party Apps: Issues may occur when delivering phone notifications to virtual numbers from third-party messaging apps. In the event of an application outage or service degradation, users may not be able to receive the calls to their virtual number. We recommend sending phone notifications to your primary mobile device instead.
• Carrier Outage: Check with your mobile service provider, to confirm if there was an outage or service issue at the time you were expecting to receive the notification.
• Roaming: Prior to traveling, check with your mobile service provider to confirm if there are any additional requirements or restrictions when traveling.
• Mobile Device Settings: Check if there are any mobile device settings enabled, which may have prevented you from receiving the notification.

Other Common Causes

• Cell Service: Phone notifications may not be delivered to areas with poor cell service, such as inside a building with thick walls, remote areas with limited service coverage, or underground.
• Do Not Call: Your phone number may be registered in a do-not-call registry, which may prevent you from receiving calls from certain numbers.
• Call Routing: The call may have gone through a call routing/call transfer system, which did not route the call properly to you.
• Regulatory Policies and Carrier Restrictions: There may be some regulatory policies or carrier restrictions preventing PagerDuty from delivering phone notifications to your location. For more information, please reference our Supported Countries article.

Phone Numbers with Extensions

To send phone notifications to a number with an extension, please reference the following article sections:

• Phone Contact Methods with an Extension or Delay
• Phone Number Formatting

Response Did Not Action the PagerDuty Incident

• Touch-tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) Issues
• Performing an incident action against an old notification

Touch-tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) Issues

Touch-tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals, the beeping tones generated from keypad responses, serve the purpose of letting you navigate menus, select options, and input information. When the signal is interrupted or unclear, unintended behavior may occur.

• Connection Issues: A weak signal, data packet loss, or overloaded infrastructure can disrupt the clear transmission of DTMF signals.
• Carrier Issues: Compatibility issues, misconfigured system settings, or outdated equipment can sometimes cause DTMF signals to be misinterpreted. This can be more common with older phones or specific VoIP services.
• Keypad Buttons: Worn-out or sticky buttons on your device's keypad may not register your presses accurately. Try cleaning them or using a different device.
• Audible Touch Tones: If a user turns off audible touch tones, the signal cannot be sent back to our providers, and the keypad response will not action the incident.
  • Android Devices: Navigate to Settings Sound & Notification Audible touch tones/Dial pad tones Enable Audible Touch Tones.
• WiFi Calling: DTMF tones may not work on iPhones when WiFi calling is enabled. Read this Apple discussion for more information.

Performing an Incident Action on an Old Notification

PagerDuty takes a cautious approach to notifications, so that older notifications do no overwrite newer, important incident state changes.

The following is a list of some incident state changes:

• Escalations
• Resolves
• Reassigning an incident

Once an incident changes state, users can no longer take action on an incident using older notifications that were generated prior to the state change.

Phone Notification Restrictions

Call Length Restrictions

Phone notifications are limited to two minutes, 30 seconds. After point, the call will end, which may cause some calls to be cut short.

Best Practices

• We highly recommend using push notifications and Slack as your primary notification methods, as these mechanisms are 99.99% reliable.
• Staggering your notification rules can also help deliverability.