Answering machine wont pick up it just cuts off incoming call leaving line busy

Are you sharing your home phone line with your fax? If so, do you have a voicemail or an answering machine connected in the same line?

If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

It seems that you're sharing your home phone line with your Lexmark fax machine. You can adjust the "pick-up" ring from the printer operator panel by pressing the Setup button > Fax Setup > Ringing and Answering > Pick Up On > select your preferred number of rings before the fax answers.
Please note:
If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

Should you still need assistance, please leave a comment to my response and I'll get back to you. Should this resolves your problem, your rating will be greatly appreciated.

Are you sharing your home phone line with your fax? Do you have an answering machine or a voicemail feature in the same line?
If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may want to subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

Please go through the following checklists:

• Make sure the that the fax line is working. To check, insert a telephone device straight to the fax line. You should get a dial tone.
• Make sure the telephone cord from the phone jack in the wall is plugged into the Line port on the back of your Lexmark printer.
• Assign the correct fax number on the printer.
• If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.
• If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

If these don't help, please contact Lexmark Technical Support Center for additional assistance.

Ensure that the telephone/fax line is plugged into the Line port on the back of Lexmark printer and not in the Phone port.

If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

If you have an answering machine connected to the same line as the fax, set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. Increase the number of rings by a factor of 3 over the answering machine. For example, if the answering machine is set to pick up on 4 rings, set the printer to pick up on 7 rings.

If you have a voicemail feature in the same line as the fax, you may subscribe from your phone service provider for a distinctive ring pattern feature. You can program your printer to have a distinctive ring pattern and phone number for incoming faxes.

Set the answering machine to answer incoming calls before the printer does. For example, if you set the answering machine to answer calls after three rings, set the printer to answer calls after five or six rings. Also, make sure the fax line is plugged into the Line port on the back of the printer and the fax settings are correct (phone number, pick-up on rings, etc).

There are two ways to configure a fax machine to answer the phone line. The first way is by pushing the "auto answer" key on the keyboard of the fax itself. When this key is used, the fax machine answers all calls that come in after a certain number of rings. The other way is to manually press the fax button when an incoming call is happening. You can set the number of rings for your machine to pick up by using the keys on the fax machine under the menu feature and then scroll using the up and down arrow keys until you see fax set up and then number of rings.

I have heard about the option that your speaking of, where they give you a separate phone number for your customers to fax when you own a business line but I don't know how the fax machine itself would be able to distinguish between the normal ring of a regular call and the double ring of the merged fax line call. I was told that when I set that up for my friends business recently, that the machine would auto recognize the double ring without any programming and to use the auto answer feature for all calls. He has not had any faxes yet (its a new business) so I can't say for sure if it works or not? I can say that none of his regular calls have been picked up by the fax so far though.

i followed the advice posted & it worked fine after that. thanks.

Well... the problem is that you are running two machines on one line. ONE of them has to take predominance. Both machines should have settings for "number of rings to answer at". It sounds like you currently have the fax set to less than the answering machine, so the fax picks up after two rings, while your answering machine might be set to more, which it never gets to, because the fax answered the call already(It doesn't matter if you answer the phone, or the fax picks up, once the line is open, the answering machine is taken out of the equation). Even if you set the answering machine to answer first, you're then taking the fax service out of the loop. I'm not sure how you're going to juggle that, since both types of machines each need control over the line to work properly. That's why we (business machine folk) always recommend a dedicated line for fax service.