Return to Telephone Troubleshooting articles

How to Reverse The Telephone Lines On A Telephone Jack

There is a two-line telephone in my office. When a call comes in, LINE 2 lights up on the phone for business calls, and LINE 1 for personal calls. I would like to have LINE 1 light up for business calls, but only in the office. Is there an easy way to do this?

Yep. Reverse the wires in the outlet itself. Simply unscrew the cover on the outlet, and switch the red wire with the yellow wire and the green wire with the black wire. This will fool the stupid phone into thinking it is on LINE 1 when it really is on LINE 2. None of your other phones will be affected by this change.

If perchance the wires leading to the telephone jack are not colored red black green and yellow, all is not lost.  Most phone jacks have short, internal wires that have use the typical residential color coding,  so you can use these as a guide.  Just write down which color goes with red, black, green or yellow and make the changes accordingly.

If possible, always test the jack when you're done with a telephone line tester to be sure all's well!

Return to Telephone Troubleshooting articles