Call Recordings, System Recordings, and Call Archiving

This article covers three related but separate areas: Call Recordings (recordings made automatically from live calls), Recordings (short audio prompts you build yourself for IVRs, queues, and other call flows — either uploaded or generated from typed text), the Call Artifacts page (your call history, recordings, and real-time status in one tabbed view), and Storage Archive (sending aging recordings and call records off to external storage to save space).

Overview#

• Call Recordings are created automatically when a call that matches your recording settings ends. You listen to, download, or delete them from the Call Recordings list — found on its own, or as a tab inside Call Artifacts.
• Recordings (sometimes called prompts) are short audio clips you build on purpose — a company greeting, a queue announcement, a custom hold message — either by uploading a WAV/MP3/OGG file or by typing text and having the system speak it for you (text-to-speech). These are what you pick from when setting up an IVR menu, a queue, or similar.
• Call Artifacts is a tabbed hub combining Call Detail Records (your call history), Call Recordings, Outbound Call Permission, and a real-time Status view, so you don't have to jump between separate pages.
• Storage Archive lets you automatically push aging call recordings and call records to an external location (FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, Azure, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox) instead of letting them pile up on local storage indefinitely.

The Call Recordings list

Screenshot needed · call-recordings-list

How to Find, Play, or Download a Call Recording#

1. Go to Call Artifacts and open the Call Recordings tab (or go directly to the standalone Call Recordings page, if your menu has one).
2. Use the Search box to find a recording by caller name/number, destination, or recording name, or click Show All to see recordings across every domain you have access to.
3. Click the Play button next to a recording to listen to it right in the list — a progress bar appears under the row while it plays.
4. Click Download to save the audio file to your computer.
5. If speech-to-text transcription is turned on for your system, a Transcribe icon appears next to recordings that have a transcription available — click it to view the call's details page, which includes the transcript.
6. To remove recordings you no longer need, select their checkboxes and click Delete.

How to Turn On Call Recording#

Call recording itself isn't configured here — it's a setting on the Extension doing the recording (choose None, All, Local-only, Inbound-only, or Outbound-only) or on a Call Center queue the extension belongs to. See the Extensions article for the full Record Calls field reference. Once recording is turned on for an extension or queue, matching calls show up automatically in Call Recordings — there's nothing further to do on this page.

The Call Artifacts Page#

Call Artifacts groups four tabs in one place:

• Call Detail Records — your searchable call history (direction, caller ID, destination, duration, hangup cause, and more), with CSV/PDF export and recording playback inline.
• Call Recordings — the same recordings list described above.
• Outbound Call Permission — controls which numbers/destinations extensions are allowed to dial out to. This is covered in full in the Call Features and Access Controls article — this tab is just where you reach it from Call Artifacts.
• Status — a real-time operational view with its own set of sub-tabs: CDR Statistics (call volume charts), Active Calls, Active Call Center, Agent Status, Active Conferences, Active Queues, Destination Summary, Extension Summary, and FAX Queue. Use this when you want to see what's happening on your system right now, rather than historical records.

A Settings button at the top of the Call Artifacts page opens Storage Archive (covered below) — it sits above the Export button so it's easy to find from the call-history tab.

System Recordings (Prompts): Upload or Text-to-Speech#

Use Recordings when you need a short audio clip for an IVR menu, queue announcement, hold message, or similar — not for recordings of actual calls.

How to Upload an Audio File#

1. Go to Recordings.
2. Click Upload.
3. Choose a category name (or type a new one) for the recording.
4. Click the file picker and choose a WAV, MP3, or OGG file from your computer. For best results, use a 16-bit, 8/16/32/48 kHz mono WAV file.
5. Click Upload.

You can also dial *732 from any extension to record a greeting directly from a phone — if a password is configured for this, you'll be prompted to enter it, followed by a number to assign to the new recording.

How to Create a Recording with Text-to-Speech#

If your system has a text-to-speech engine configured, the Recording Edit page offers a text-to-speech option instead of (or in addition to) uploading a file:

1. Go to Recordings and click Add (text-to-speech add is only available when a speech engine is configured).
2. Enter a Recording Name.
3. Choose a Voice to speak the message (voices are grouped by language if your engine offers multiple languages).
4. Type the Message — the exact text you want spoken.
5. Click Save. The system generates an audio file from your text and saves it as a new recording.
6. To regenerate the audio after editing an existing recording's voice or message, set Update to "true" before saving — otherwise editing the text alone won't re-create the audio.
7. Optionally add a Description for your own reference.
8. Use the Preview button on the edit page to listen to the current audio before relying on it elsewhere.

Archiving Aging Recordings and Call Records to External Storage#

What it's for: over time, call recordings and call detail records can take up a large amount of local space. Storage Archive automatically uploads items older than a set age to an external location, and (optionally) deletes the local copies once they're safely archived — so you keep your history without the local footprint growing forever.

How to Set Up Storage Archive#

1. From Call Artifacts, click the Settings button in the top right (it opens the Storage Archive page directly).
2. Choose a Storage Provider: Local (default), FTP, SFTP, NFS (Synology/QNAP/NAS), Amazon S3 (or S3-compatible), Azure Blob Storage, Google Drive, OneDrive/Microsoft 365, or Dropbox.
3. If you choose anything other than Local, fill in that provider's connection details (see the Field Reference below) — host/credentials for FTP/SFTP/NFS, access keys for S3/Azure, or Client ID/Secret for the three "Connect"-based providers (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox).
4. For Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox, save your Client ID/Secret first, then click Connect to link your account — this step issues the long-lived token the system uses to keep uploading without asking you to log in again.
5. Set Archive After (days) — how old a recording/call record must be before it's uploaded to your chosen provider.
6. Set Delete Local After (days) — how many additional days to keep the local copy after it's been successfully archived, before it's permanently deleted (minimum 1 day).
7. Check Enabled to turn the sweep on for this provider.
8. Click Save.
9. Click the Guide button at any time for step-by-step, provider-specific setup instructions, including the exact firewall ports each provider needs.
10. Use Run Now to trigger an immediate archive/delete pass instead of waiting for the next scheduled run — useful right after you finish configuring a new provider.

What "Local (default)" Means#

Leaving the provider set to Local means exactly what your system does today: nothing is archived and nothing is automatically deleted. Recordings and call records simply stay on local storage indefinitely until you explicitly turn on a remote provider.

Choosing a Provider#

• FTP / SFTP — point at any FTP or SFTP account you already have (from a hosting provider, VPS, etc.). SFTP is encrypted and only needs one outbound port; use a password or a private key.
• NFS (Synology/QNAP/NAS) — for a NAS on the same local network as your system. No username/password — access is granted by this server's IP address on the NAS side.
• Amazon S3 (or S3-compatible) — real AWS S3, or any S3-compatible service (Backblaze B2, Wasabi, MinIO, etc.) by filling in a custom endpoint.
• Azure Blob Storage — a Storage Account + Container in your Azure subscription.
• Google Drive / OneDrive / Dropbox — consumer/business cloud storage. Each needs a one-time app registration on that provider's own developer site (covered step-by-step in the Guide), then a Connect click to finish linking your account.

Field Reference#

Call Recordings List#

Recording (Prompt) Edit#

Storage Archive Settings#

Tips & Common Issues#

• A recording only shows a Play/Download button if the underlying audio file is still present on local storage — once Storage Archive deletes a local copy, only the record of the call itself (and the archived copy on your remote provider) remains.
• Switching Storage Archive providers while one is already active and enabled prompts you to confirm — the previous provider stops being used going forward, but files already sent there aren't deleted or moved.
• For Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox, the Connect button only appears usable once a Client ID/Secret has been saved — save first, then come back to connect.
• *732 is the fastest way to record a quick greeting from any extension without leaving your desk phone.
• The Transcribe option on Call Recordings only appears once speech-to-text transcription has been turned on for your system — see the Media Settings article for how to enable it.
• Use Run Now on the Storage Archive page right after finishing setup to confirm the connection works, rather than waiting for the next scheduled sweep.