QUEUE — In Queue

What QUEUE Means

Indicates that a lead’s phone number is currently in the dialing hopper, queued for an outbound call attempt. This is a transient status — leads move through QUEUE rapidly as calls are placed.

When This Status Is Set

QUEUE is assigned automatically when a lead is pulled from the vicidial_list table into the vicidial_hopper and the dialer begins processing it for an outbound call attempt. The status transition from the lead’s previous state (NEW, NA, etc.) to QUEUE happens as the hopper fill process selects the lead based on dial_status_filter, lead ordering, and filter criteria. QUEUE is a transient status — under normal operations, leads pass through it rapidly as calls are placed and the lead receives a new status based on the call outcome (NA, B, A, INCALL, etc.). If the dialer is actively processing calls, the QUEUE duration for any individual lead is typically measured in seconds. A lead that remains in QUEUE status for minutes or longer indicates that the call was never placed, which points to a dialer process issue.

Impact on List Management

QUEUE leads must never be included in your dial_status_filter because they are actively being processed by the dialer — adding QUEUE to the filter would create a circular reference where the hopper tries to reload leads it already contains. High persistent QUEUE counts with no corresponding active calls in vicidial_live_agents or vicidial_auto_calls indicate a synchronization problem between the hopper and the dialer process. This can happen when a campaign’s dialer process crashes, when the database connection between the web server and database server is interrupted, or when the VDauto_dial process stops running. Stale QUEUE records silently lock leads out of the dial pool — on a busy system, hundreds of leads can accumulate in QUEUE status if a crash goes undetected for even a few hours.

Best Practices

• Do not include QUEUE in dial_status_filter — these leads are already in the dialer pipeline

• Monitor QUEUE count vs. active calls ratio to detect stale hopper entries — if QUEUE count exceeds active calls by more than the hopper_level, investigate immediately

• High persistent QUEUE counts may indicate crashed dial sessions requiring a VICIdial process restart or VDauto_dial recovery

• Build a monitoring alert that fires when any leads remain in QUEUE status for more than 5 minutes, as this is always abnormal

• After a dialer restart or campaign reset, verify that stale QUEUE records are flushed and leads are returned to their previous callable status

Admin Configuration

QUEUE is a system-level status defined in Admin → System Statuses with callable set to N and selectable set to N — it is managed entirely by VICIdial’s hopper and dialer processes. The hopper fill behavior that moves leads into QUEUE is controlled per-campaign in Campaign Detail → Dialing Options, including hopper_level (how many leads to maintain in the hopper) and dial_status_filter (which statuses are eligible for hopper loading). To diagnose stale QUEUE issues, check that the VDauto_dial process is running via the Admin → Process Monitor, and verify the hopper contents through a direct query against the vicidial_hopper table. The real-time report shows the current hopper count and active call count for each campaign.

ViciStack’s List Management module monitors disposition distribution in real time — automatically adjusting recycling logic, dial_status_filter priorities, and hopper fill strategies based on how your dispositions are trending. No manual SQL, no spreadsheet audits.