If your landline phone can call out but can’t receive, the issue can be either inside your phone’s electronics or in the outside receiver panel.
In this post, we made sure to include more than enough potential solutions to resolve your issue as soon as possible.
To fix a landline phone, check for dial tone and take a look at the test jack in your NID. Try to determine any phone cord problems then wait out if there is any bad weather and make sure all phones in your household are hooked up.
Now when you know what the solutions include, let’s take a look at why you are unable to receive calls and then troubleshoot accordingly.
Why Can’t I Receive Calls On My Landline Phone?
If your landline phone is able to make calls but cannot receive any, a few things could have happened.
Users suggest that the issue can be either with the electronics of your phone or an internal issue with the receiver panel on the back of your house.
Let’s now learn the main suspects of the issue and get this issue enveloped as soon as possible!
1. No Dial Tone
The most frequent cause for your phone to be able to call out but cannot receive is no dial tone.
2. Phone Cord Problem
If there is an issue with the phone cord inside of your house, this might impact the landline phone’s ability to receive calls.
3. Bad Weather
In case your landline phone has lost dial tone during a heavy thunderstorm outside, avoid troubleshooting and wait for the weather conditions to improve.
4. More than One Phone
If you have more than one registered phone in your household and some of them aren’t plugged, this may cause interference issues.
5. Plugged Test Jack
Plugged test jack into the NID installed by the service providers may cause issues with one or more of your household landlines phones.
If we exclude a hardware problem, your issue is definitely related to one of these causes. Luckily, we’ve prepared a solution for each of them so let’s jump right in!
Can Call Out But Not Receiver Calls Landline Phone Fix?
If your phone can only call out but not receive any of the calls, it is possible that there is a problem with the dial tone.
These dial tones can usually get muted during maintenance or a power outage in your local area and should be fixed after a couple of hours.
In addition, wait out any bad weather or thunderstorms outside and do not troubleshoot during that time.
Landline phones can easily get suppressed under heavier weather conditions so if that’s the case just wait.
If the weather is not the problem here, feel free, to begin with fixing the dial tone.
Solution #1 Fix Dial Tone
It is possible that your landline phone is working, but the dial tone is muted or gone. This can often occur and there are plenty of ways to fix it.
Here we’ve prepared some easy steps to check and fix the dial tone of your landline phone:
- Unplug the telephone cord from your landline phone.
- Plug it into a different phone in your house and dial it.
- Wait for the time where it has to ring and check.
If the other phone manages to ring, then you will know for sure that the issue is with your landline phone.
If the other phone doesn’t ring either, plug the cord back into the default landline phone and try ringing again.
Solution #2 Plug All Phones
If you have multiple landline phones in your household and some of them are left unplugged, this may prevent all phones from receiving calls since there won’t be an exact phone to port forward the call.
To resolve this issue, ensure that all landline phones in your house are securely plugged into a power source and have the telephone cable inspected.
Try receiving calls from multiple phones and not only one to determine whether the issue is with a single phone or with the whole landline.
Solution #3 “Hook” All Phones
If some of your landline phones are left off the hook, this will prevent you from receiving calls on your regular ones.
If you don’t know what a “hook” is with the landline phones, it means that your phone’s handset is placed on the phone panel and it is not active.
Once you pull the handset OFF the phone’s hook, this will immediately activate the landline thus, making your phone active as well.
Ensure all landline phones in your household have their handle placed on the panel.
Once ready you can test and hopefully the issue would be gone for good.
Solution #4 Try A Different Phone Cord
If your landline phone can call out but can’t receive any, then perhaps the cord you have your phone plugged into may have developed some issues.
It is certain that you have more than one phone cord since technicians will install a minimum of three to choose from.
Follow these steps to relocate your landline phone and plug it into a different phone cord:
- Unplug your phone from the outlet.
- Choose a different location for the landline phone and place it there.
- Plug the telephone cable into the new cord.
Once your phone is now plugged into a trusted outlet, try receiving some calls to determine if the issue is fixed now.
If you still can’t receive any calls on your landline phone, proceed with our next troubleshooting step.
Solution #5 Unplug the Test Jack
If nothing has worked so far, then the issue might be with the NID (Network interface device) installed by the technicians.
You will be looking forward to unplugging the test jack, which if left plugged, can cause interferences with your landline.
Follow these steps to do it:
- Grab a flathead screwdriver to open the compartment.
- Unplug the cable labeled as “Test Jack”.
- Go on one of your phones and listen for a dial tone.
- If there is no dial tone, try plugging the test jack back inand test.
If there was no dial tone in both situations, then most certainly the test jack has gone faulty.
Solution #6 Maintenance Troubleshooting
Since there is not much more you can try, there are few things to do before you call customer service.
- Reset – Unplug the phone’s cord from the power supply for about 10 minutes.
- Batteries – If the batteries are not holding the charge, you’ll need to replace them with AAA.
- ADSL – If you’re using an ADSL phone or similar, unplug the internet and plug directly into the wall. Wait for a few minutes and test.
If nothing works and you cannot manage to get it to receive calls, you’ll need to call the phone’s company to check if there is any fault in your phone line.
Read Next: Is My Phone Compatible with Straight Talk?
Bottom Line:
To fix a landline phone that can call out but cannot receive, you should use a different cord and check the test jack in the NID. Make sure that all landline phones are plugged and if it does not help, perform a power cycle and replace the batteries.
Now that you know why a landline phone can call out but can’t receive calls you should be able to confidently resolve the issue following our simple solutions.
At the end of the day, calling the phone company can save you a lot of time in case the issue is not on your side.
Kevin has over five years of experience working in various Tech startups and providing Technical solutions. He has contributed to many Tech publications and websites.