the UC Guys

Multi Factor Authentication (MFA), IOS and the skype for Business Mobile client 6.14.0.224

The latest version of the Skype for Business Mobile client on iOS (6.14.0.224) seems to have resolved the longstanding issue of the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) with Exchange Online.  This is where the SfB app would connect to the users’ mailbox and display Skype meetings.  You would also get error messages saying the client could not connect to the server. 

Before this client, the only way for the SfB Mobile app on iOS to work properly with users’ Office 365 Exchange Online mailboxes enabled with MFA was to use App Passwords.  This wasn’t a great user experience and most users would not bother with it meaning their mobile app would not display calendar data. 

As of the 6.14.0.224 SfB iOS client, it appears that all is working properly now.  Users don’t have to use App Passwords on their iOS device and the client connects to their Exchange Online mailbox and shows their meeting data. 

Pro TIP

If you find that for users in this scenario, updating the client does not fix the issue, try uninstalling the SfB app and then going to the app store and installing the latest version.  There is clearly something that is cached that may cause the client to not successfully connect to the users’ mailbox and display meeting info.  I am seeing this about 40% of the time.  Hopefully this gets resolved in later builds. 

Note: It appears the latest Android SfB mobile app (version 6.14.0.0) has corrected the similar issue for users of Android devices.  

“Sorry a System Error Has Occurred, Goodbye” says the Exchange Online Auto Attendant.

If using Exchange Online Auto Attendants it’s always a great idea to keep a back up copy of all your customized voice greetings.  There is a known issue where these greetings can become corrupted in the Office 365 Exchange Online datacenter leaving your callers with the message

“Sorry a System Error Has Occurred, Goodbye…”

This is obviously not a great situation.  You will likely need to revert your Auto Attendants back to using the default system greeting, wait 15 mins and then try uploading the customized greeting again.  Hopefully you made a backup copy of them somewhere  

If that process doesn’t work you will need to delete and recreate the Auto Attendants which is not a great scenario but a necessary evil if you want to get things back up and running.  A good idea is to use PowerShell to create the Auto Attendants in the first place so you can simply delete and re-run the scripts in the event you ever need to.  If you didn’t use PowerShell you could create another version of the Auto Attendant in the EAC GUI (append an_1 to the original name of the Auto Attendant) and simply copy the settings one by one referring to the original Auto Attendant.  Once completed you can then remove the Pilot Number from the non-functioning AA and add it to the newly created one. 

Microsoft is aware of this issue and working to correct it.  See the following article for the details:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3186697/calls-to-um-auto-attendant-fail-when-custom-greetings-are-used

File Sharing now available in Skype for business Mac April Update

By popular demand Microsoft has released File Sharing during chat sessions for the latest Mac Skype for Business client.  While this is currently only available for users of Office 365, they plan to release support for Skype for Business on premise users as well. 

Other improvements in the latest client include:

• The video preview and button for answering the call now available on the notification.
• User who receives call from Delegate on behalf of Delegator will now see the call is made on behalf of Delegator.
• Ring device settings are saved after application restarts.
• Names in contact list are sorted alphabetically.
• Users are properly informed their meeting join request has been denied when trying to join multiple times.
• Fixed additional Exchange connection issues.

For a complete list of improvements to the client, please be sure to read the release notes that come with this update.  Download the latest client from the download center or if you already have the client you can use the Microsoft AutoUpdate to get the latest version.

Preload attachments for Skype for Business Online meetings

A great little gem of a feature for Skype for Business Online meetings is that you can simply attach the content you want to present saving you time fumbling around and waiting for the content to upload at the time of the meeting.  The Skype for Business Online meeting service will preload the content so it is ready for you when you join the meeting.  This way you can get right to it when the meeting starts saving everyone time. 

 

1. Set up a Skype for Business meeting in Outlook as you typically would do.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Include section, click Attach File or Outlook Item, and then select the attachments you want to add.

   

   Your message will show that the meeting files have been attached to the meeting invitation.

   

3. You can also attach a file that is in the cloud, such as in OneDrive for Business. However, the file won't be loaded from the cloud location until the meeting starts.

   Note: At this time, you cannot present a PowerPoint file from the cloud. You can open the file and then share your screen.

4. That's it. Just double-check the information and click Send.

Note: You can add meeting attachments any time prior to the meeting by updating the original meeting invitation and sending the update

 

Please note this ONLY works for Skype for Business Online Meetings and not for any on premises deployments. 

For more details please see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Preload-attachments-for-a-Skype-for-Business-meeting-fd3d9f9d-b448-4754-b813-02e49393f251

Users can’t join Skype Conferences: UserXYZ is already on a call

Recently a customer reported an issue where users attempting to join a conference and were getting a busy signal and seeing an error in the meeting saying they were already in the call.  They could not join the audio portion of the meeting. 

When looking at the Front End Server that was hosting the meeting you could see these events being logged:

 

Log Name:      Lync Server
Source:        LS SLA
Date:          4/7/2017 10:50:38 AM
Event ID:      61001
Task Category: (4040)
Level:         Information
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SkypeFE01.contoso.com
Description:
All the lines configured for the SLA group are busy

SLA Group: sip:[email protected]
Number of lines configured: 2

The clue here was the reference to SLA highlighted above.  It turns out the account used to schedule the meeting was also configured to be a Shared Line Appearance.  This shared line appearance was setup with 2 lines which is why no more than 1 person could join the meeting. 

As a quick test we raised the number of lines available to the SLA by the following:

set-CsSlaConfiguration -Identity sip:[email protected] -MaxNumberOfCalls 25

After this, other users could join the conference. 

However, I would not advise using an account that is setup as an SLA to host meetings for supportability reasons or other unexpected issues.    If you do plan to use the SLA functionality in Skype for Business, you should dedicate an account to this and not use it for any other purpose.