Fax trying to receive when I am on the phone

[Joanne66]

I use my printer at home and I use my landline for both phone and fax calls.  I have been using this feature on my old HP OfficeJet 4500 for many years without any problem.  After I bought this all-in-one printer I set up the fax function shortly after purchase and set it up the same as the old printer (number of rings, etc.).  This problem has happened a couple of times since I set this printer up, but most recently on July 15th when I made an outgoing call and was placed on hold.  When I was transferred to the person I was calling, the fax answered as if it were receiving a fax.  It finally stopped after 42 seconds and the confirmation said "No fax detected".  I have also just picked up the phone to call out and got the fax noises for no reason.  I have looked at all the settings and I'm not sure if I have missed something that should be set or have something set wrong for the new printer.  Something that should be on or off?   Can anyone help me with this.  Thank you. 

[Jay_G24]

Hi @Joanne66

I read your post, i'd like to help .

This happens when the fax and phone have the same rings to answer or when the machine is not able to identify if its a call or a fax.

Make sure the rings to answer on the fax machine is greater than the phone.

and 

Set the ring type: Use the All Rings setting for a dedicated fax line or select Distinctive Ring if you set up a special ring pattern for the fax line.

Distinctive ring service: A service from the telephone company that allows several phone numbers to be associated with one phone line, and each number has a different ring pattern; the printer detects the ring pattern assigned to it and answers the call

Configure the rings to answer setting on the printer.

a. Turn the printer on.

b. From the control panel, open the Setup menu.

c. Select the Fax Setup menu.

d. Select the Basic Setup menu.

e. Select the Rings to Answer option.

f. Use the numeric keypad on the printer control panel to set the number of rings to 5 or more, and then select OK.

Here is a fax setup -

Prepare your HP printer for faxing. These steps use a traditional landline telephone service. If you use a different type of phone service (cellular, Internet phone, PBX, or DSL), see the FAQs in this document to set up the connection.

1. Obtain a telephone cord. If you received a cord with the printer, use it. If you did not receive a cord, make sure that you use a cord with connectors that have two wire leads, not four.

   

2. Connect the phone cord to the phone wall jack and to the 1-LINE jack on the back of the printer.

   

3. If you have an answering machine, connect a phone cord to the machine and to the 2-EXT jack on the rear of the printer. Doing so allows your telephone answering machine to record voice calls normally without recording the noises from faxes.

   1. Wall jack

   2. Two-wire phone cord

   3. Answering machine

   4. Single-line telephone

and,Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping

[Joanne66]

Hi Jay_G24, thanks for your reply.  The rings to answer is already set to All Rings (I do not have distinctive ring).  The only other setting I changed after this happened was I set Extension Phone to OFF.  Please keep in mind that the the fax tried to receive while I was on a telephone call that I placed from home.  This happened when I was being transferred from a receptionist to a customer service agent, hence a ring on their internal system.  My phone did not ring.  As I said in my previous message, I have used our HP OfficeJet 4500 as fax/printer for many years and have never had this happen before.  It's a mystery to me and I will keep you posted if this continues.  So for now, I will say this issue has not been resolved.

[Jay_G24]

do you have voice mail on the line?

Resolve an issue when fax tones interrupt voice calls on a shared telephone line. Fax setup and preferences settings are in the Fax or Setup menus on the printer control panel.

• Turn Auto Answer on: If this feature is not enabled, you must manually answer incoming fax calls (this might result in lost faxes) or set up a distinctive ring for the fax line with your phone service provider (if available). Distinctive ringing assigns a second phone number to the same line that rings with a different pattern than the primary number. The fax can be set to automatically answer only the distinctive ring pattern.

• Set the number of rings to answer incoming faxes: If you have an answering machine, allow it to answer all calls first so the printer can detect the fax tones after the machine answers the call. Change the Rings to Answer setting to a higher number of rings than the answering machine is set for.

• Use the fax cord that shipped with your printer: HP fax-capable printers ship with a two-wire phone cord. If you are using a different cord, confirm the connector does not have four wires. Shorter, higher quality cords work better than longer cords of lesser quality.

  

• Remove conflicting phone line devices: Computer-based fax software or devices such as credit card machines might answer fax calls before the fax can. Disconnect the power cord from the printer to ensure it cannot answer the line, and then call the fax line. If the call is interrupted, start turning off devices until the cause is identified. If the computer fax software is the cause, disable or change the settings to prevent it from answering. Contact the manufacturer of other devices for assistance, if necessary.

• For fax tones on voice mail messages: Voice mail does not work with fax machines. The phone line is answered at the phone company facilities when voice mail is used. The result is that faxes are not received or voice mail does not function. To use voice mail and a fax on the same line, use a distinctive ringing service.

Keep me posted!

[Joanne66]

Hi Jay_G24.  I think that you may have figured it out.  We have an answering machine on the same line and answering machine picks up after 4 rings.  Fax is set to answer after 6 rings.  However, we do have voice mail that is included with our provider,

which we do not use.  And I believe what happens, if I am on the phone and another call comes in, is that call will be sent to voice mail.  So that may be the problem.  Thanks for that, I don't think I would have thought of that at all.  It doesn't happen often but if it does, I will at least know the reason.  And, I will check all of the other items again, however, I think it's the voice mail that is the problem.  FYI, it never happened on our HP OfficeJet 4500 and I know for a fact that the fax didn't answer, it went straight to voice mail.   Thanks for your help, appreciate it. 

[Jay_G24 · Accepted solution]

You're welcome.

To avoid this situation you can get a distinctive ring pattern for fax and phone so the fax machine will never get answer calls.

To get distinctive rings, you will have to contact the phone line providers.