Videoconferencing is extremely popular right now, as so many companies had to let their employees work from home in 2020 because of coronavirus. Zoom and some other services for online meetings have been really helpful, but we still run into problems using them from time to time. Luckily, there are ways we can fix the problems, and you can find them right here!
Video or audio doesn’t work
It’s hard to imagine something more annoying than the situations when video or audio doesn’t work while you’re on a Zoom call.
Before you join a call, there will be 2 options: you can choose not to connect with audio as well as disable the video. If you don’t check them, your audio and video will automatically be enabled once the call starts.
In case the webcam still doesn’t work, you should make sure that no other program is using the webcam at the moment. Zoom can’t use it if the access is already given to another application.
If you’ve tried the steps above, and something still doesn’t work, test the Zoom’s audio and video here.
Just follow the instructions you’ll see there.
You can try using the web-version of Zoom instead of the app. To select the webcam, click Start Video. If you don’t see it, click the arrow that you’ll see near the video camera icon. Then press Same As System (or Integrated Camera).
What is more, you can try to reinstall Zoom.
But it might well be that the problem is not with Zoom at all; the camera can be blocked on your computer. Check the app’s permissions to let the Zoom app use your webcam.
Echo
This is another typical issue with Zoom – audio echo during calls. Several factors can cause echo.
First of all, somebody might have a computer and phone audio working simultaneously. Ask all participants to make sure that they only have one source enabled.
Secondly, there might be people at the same conference that are in the same room. In this case, they should just use headphones or go to different rooms.
Lagging and freezing
The slow internet connection usually causes these two problems. If you’re using a phone, go to a place where the connection is more stable, this will probably help.
For smooth work of audio and video during calls, the download speed should be around 1Mbps, and upload speed – 800kbps. You can check yours here.
You can also adjust video quality in the Settings menu. For example, you can disable HD or use Touch Up My Appearance to reduce the connection requirements.
Problems with sharing the screen
Once again, check the Internet speed, because screen sharing needs a lot of bandwidth.
Try a Share Screen meeting. For that, find the Home section, then the Start With Video box, and uncheck it. Then click on the arrow near New Meeting. This meeting will feature only audio, and your video will be disabled for now.
Or if you’re already on the call, turn off your video by pressing the Stop Video button. Finally, choose Share Screen.
Zoom-bombs
Zoom bomb is a new term for the increasingly annoying trend of random people coming uninvited to private meetings with the only goal to disrupt the working process. They can talk over the speakers, play music very loudly, etc. There’s a really effective way to prevent it – you just need to require a password.
The person who creates the meeting, the host, sends out invitations. So, the host can require everyone who participates in the meeting to enter a password to join. This way, the uninvited people will have difficulties trying to get in.
Actually, in May this year, there was an update, and now entering a password is the default setting, so to use this feature, you should just update the Zoom app on your computer.
And suppose you worry about some more elaborate ways of getting in, like hacking, we have some good news for you. In June this year, the company behind our beloved video conferencing app promised to bring end-to-end encryption to all meetings. This is going to help with the protection of content and defense from Zoom-bombs even if you use a free version.
We hope that we’ve answered your questions about the problems with Zoom that people often have. If you want to know more about some fun features of this app, for example, filters and different backgrounds, you’ll find all about that in this article.
