How to Save, Listen to, or Re-record a VICIdial Prompt

Once you press # to stop a phone recording in VICIdial's 8168 prompt recorder, you reach a three-way menu. Pressing 1 saves the prompt permanently. Pressing 2 plays it back so you can hear exactly what callers will hear. Pressing 3 discards what you recorded and takes you back to the beep to try again. This post covers what each option does in practice, how to use the listen-then-decide loop, and how to confirm the file actually landed on disk after saving.

The three post-recording options

flowchart TD
  A[Press hash to stop recording] --> B{Choose action}
  B --> C[Press 1 - Save]
  B --> D[Press 2 - Listen]
  B --> E[Press 3 - Re-record]
  C --> F[Asterisk writes file]
  F --> G[Filename spoken back]
  G --> H[Done - hang up]
  D --> I[Recording plays back]
  I --> B
  E --> J[Return to beep]
  J --> K[Record again]
  K --> A

Option 1 (save) commits the recording to disk and increments the counter so the next recording gets the next ID in sequence. Once you press 1, the file exists as a GSM audio file in the Asterisk sounds directory. Asterisk immediately speaks the filename back to you — that is the number (starting from 85100001 and incrementing by one per recording) that you will paste into VICIdial admin fields. You cannot un-save from within the 8168 context, so once confirmed, the file stays. You can overwrite or delete it via the filesystem, but not through the phone interface.

Option 2 (listen) plays back exactly what Asterisk recorded. What you hear is what callers or agents will hear — the same file, the same codec, the same volume level. Use this to catch clipped words, background noise, or a pacing issue before committing. After playback, you are returned to the same three-option menu so you can save or re-record based on what you heard.

Option 3 (re-record) discards the current take and returns you to the beep. The ID number that was announced at the start does not change — you are still recording the same file slot, just re-doing it. This means re-recording does not waste an ID number; only pressing 1 to save increments the counter.

Using the listen-then-decide loop

The most reliable workflow is: record, press # to stop, press 2 to listen, decide. If the take is good, press 1. If not, press 3 and repeat. This is especially important for messages that go into compliance-sensitive fields like the Safe Harbor Exten in the Campaigns screen Safe Harbor message or the after-hours message for an In-Group Ingroup, where the message text may have legal requirements on exact wording.

There is no limit on how many times you can cycle through option 2 (listen) and option 3 (re-record) before saving. Take as many passes as you need. The call stays connected to the 8168 context until you either save (option 1) or hang up.

Confirming the file after saving

After pressing 1, Asterisk speaks the filename. Write this number down immediately — it is what you will enter into the Answering Machine Message field, the Drop Exten field, the agent alert message, or any other prompt field in VICIdial admin for your campaign Campaign or in-group. If you miss hearing the filename, you can look it up later in the Asterisk sounds directory by checking which file has the most recent modification timestamp, but writing it down during the call is faster.

For a complete explanation of how these file IDs are numbered and what the 85100001 sequence means, see How VICIdial Numbers Phone-Recorded Prompt Filenames. For the full guide to all phone-based dialer functions, see the VICIdial phone-based functions guide.

Every VICIfast plan ships a fully configured VICIdial box in under 40 seconds, with the 8168 prompt-recording dialplan context ready to use from the first call.