When deploying a new customer Lync 2013 environment, we found that music on hold wasn’t working for the customer’s end users, who were using the latest version of the Office 365 click-to-run version of Skype for Business (15.0.4727.1001). This was raised to us as a fault where customers were complaining they were being cut off when placed on hold. In truth, they weren’t cut off – they were just hearing silence.

We’d set up the client policy the same way we always do, where EnableClientMusicOnHold is set to $True and MusicOnHoldAudioFile is $NULL. In the past, this set Lync 2013 to play its default music on hold audio file, which at the time was C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft LyncMediaDefaultHold.wma

PS> Get-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global |fl enableclientmusiconhold,musiconholdaudiofile

EnableClientMusicOnHold : True
MusicOnHoldAudioFile    :

It appears, however, that the click-to-run version of Skype for Business either doesn’t know where its default music file is, or is expecting the file to be in the old location. In click-to-run, the file is located at C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootoffice15MediaDefaultHold.wma

To resolve the issue, we added the file to our client policy like this:

PS> Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global -EnableClientMusicOnHold $TRUE -MusicOnHoldAudioFile "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Office 15rootoffice15MediaDefaultHold.wma"

After giving it a while to update on the client end, music started functioning properly again.

Note, however, this will cause problems if you’re running different versions of Skype for Business or Lync, or if you’re running Lync Phone Edition devices, as the file location will most likely not exist for those clients.

The other alternative fix would be to have each user select the music on hold audio file in their options menu by clicking the Cog menu and selecting the Ringtones and Sounds option, then pressing browse next to the music on hold file listing. When the explorer window appears, click the file and press ok to force the client to use this file.