Reset the Audio Conferencing PIN in Skype for Business Online

Important

Skype for Business Online operated by 21Vianet in China will be retired on October 1, 2023. If you haven't upgraded your Skype for Business Online users yet, they will be automatically scheduled for an assisted upgrade. If you want to upgrade your organization to Teams yourself, we strongly recommend that you begin planning your upgrade path today. Remember that a successful upgrade aligns technical and user readiness, so be sure to leverage our upgrade guidance as you navigate your journey to Teams.

Skype for Business Online, excluding the service operated by 21Vianet in China, was retired on July 31, 2021.

Note

For information about resetting Audio Conferencing PINs in Microsoft Teams, see Reset the Audio Conferencing PIN in Microsoft Teams.

A PIN is a code made up of numbers that is created for each Skype for Business user who is enabled for audio conferencing. Audio conferencing PINs are used by meeting organizers to identify that they're the meeting organizer and allow them to start a meeting over the phone. If they use the Skype for Business app to start the meeting, a PIN isn't required. If users forget their PIN and they can't find it in the email that was sent to them when they were enabled for audio conferencing, an administrator can reset their PIN, or they can reset their own PIN.

Meetings can be started when an authenticated user joins using the Skype for Business app or when the organizer joins with their PIN over the phone. When a meeting requires a PIN to start, users who join over the phone are placed in the lobby and listen to music on hold until the meeting starts. If the organizer of a meeting doesn't require a PIN to start the meeting over the phone, then callers won't be asked to provide a PIN when they join the meeting.

Reset a user's PIN

  1. Sign in with your work or school account.

  2. Go to the admin center > Skype for Business, and in the left navigation, select Audio conferencing.

  3. Click on Users, select the user that you want to reset the PIN for.

  4. In the Action pane, under PIN, select Reset.

Note

We are frequently updating how you can manage features found in Skype for Business Online, so the steps here might be a little different.

Have a user reset their own PIN

A user can reset a PIN by using the Reset PIN option on the Dial-in Conferencing page. This page can be accessed in one of three ways:

  • In a browser, go to https://mysettings.lync.com/pstncalling.
  • In Skype for Business, click the Show Menu arrow next to Options, and then select Tools > Dial-in Conference Settings.
  • In Skype for Business, click Options, select Call Forwarding in the left menu, and then in the More Call Settings section, click Edit settings online.

What else should you know about PINs?

  • For security purposes, the PIN is only shown to an administrator on one time, when the PIN is reset. After the PIN is reset by an administrator, the PIN will be listed as *********** in the Skype for Business admin center and in the results when they use Get-CsCsOnlineDialInConfencingUser in Windows PowerShell.

  • Automatically sending emails to users is enabled by default, and users receive an email with their PIN when they're enabled for audio conferencing or when the PIN is reset. But if you have disabled automatically sending emails, a PIN reset email won't be sent to a user and you'll have to manually send the PIN information to the user.

  • When a meeting starts, all of the users in the lobby automatically join it. For example, if two participants try to join a meeting before it has been started, they will be put in the lobby and will listen to music on hold, and when the meeting organizer joins using his PIN via phone, the meeting will start and the participants in the lobby will join the meeting.

  • The default setting is to not allow a meeting to be started by anonymous callers.

  • When you enable a user for audio conferencing, by default they are sent emails that include conferencing information and their PIN. The user must have a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 mailbox, because when a PIN is reset, a new PIN will be sent to the user in email to their primary SMTP address (alias) that is set for the user.

  • When you set up audio conferencing, you set the digits that are required for the PINs in your organization. PINs can be from 4 to 12 digits - the default is 5. If you change the PIN length setting, the setting is only applied on newly generated PINs and isn't applied to the PIN setting for existing users that are enabled for audio conferencing. See Set the length of the PIN for Audio Conferencing meetings.

  • The email by default will be set to the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 primary SMTP address of the user. You can send an email to a non-Microsoft 365 or non-Office 365 address, such as a Hotmail or MSN email address. You can override the default email address by using Windows PowerShell. This is useful if the users don't have an Exchange mailbox in Microsoft 365 or Office 365.

  • To override the default user address where the email is sent, the tenant admin can use the following cmdlet: Set-CsOnlineDialInConferencingUser -amos.marble -ResetLeaderPIN -SendEmail -SendEmailToAddress "u@hotmail.com". The SendEmail parameter is required to override the email address of the user.

Want to know how to manage with Windows PowerShell?

Reset a conference ID for a user