Zoom performance steadily deteriorates on Linux Ubuntu | Community
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brownfr
Newcomer
October 13, 2021
Question

Zoom performance steadily deteriorates on Linux Ubuntu

  • October 13, 2021
  • 18 replies
  • 42 views

I am running Zoom 5.8 on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.  Recently  I started experiencing behavior where Zoom runs fine at first.  Then after 30-45 minutes the video starts to freeze up for varying amounts of time that slowly increases.  The audio comes through fine but the user interface also freezes up.  When I run System Monitor I see that one of the four cpu cores is pegged at 100% while the video is frozen.  When the core comes unpegged the video briefly unfreezes until one of the cores again pegs at 100%.  The other three cores are running around 40-60% at the same time.  This same system used to run fine on previous Zoom releases.   Anyone have any suggestions?

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      V
      Newcomer
      Vince_Pf
      Newcomer
      August 6, 2022

      The issue has been fixed for me since 5.9.6 on Debian and Mint. I haven't tried openSUSE since then.

      L
      Newcomer
      LS650V
      Newcomer
      November 18, 2022

      Debian 11 + XFCE.  Zoom deb version 5.12.6 (173).  Attended a zoom webinar yesterday where the host had live transcriptions enabled.  This problem still exists for me.  I am forced to use Windows 10 when attending zoom webinars because this issue still has not been resolved.

        G
        Newcomer
        GlenOgilvie
        Newcomer
        November 18, 2022

        Why is this issue being ignored Zoom developers?

        P
        Newcomer
        poltpolt
        Newcomer
        January 24, 2023

        same for me on ubuntu

          D
          Newcomer
          drbdrb
          Newcomer
          May 7, 2024

          I used to teach on zoom for hours without issues a couple years ago on this same machine, and now it's almost unusable and I can't even get a 45min window of full functioning. Captioning is not enabled, I suspect the issue is the sound, because if I mute things calm down and then get bad again when I'm talking. My video, other's sound and video, don't seem effected until all 4 cores are maxed out and then the video is choppy to.

           

          Ubuntu 20.04.6

          Kernel 5.15.0-105

          Zoom 6.0.2.4680

           

          At this point I may just give up on zoom

            D
            Newcomer
            drbdrb
            Newcomer
            July 23, 2024

            Can anyone advise if this is working better on 6.1.5?

            I had been using a chromebook as a backup, but that does not support E2EE, so even that won't work in all conditions. I'm left with three machines (Android tablet, Linux desktop, Chromebook) that all can install zoom, but not a single one is fully functional.

            J
            Newcomer
            jm6226
            Newcomer
            October 8, 2024

            I run htop sorted by MEM% constantly to monitor memory usage for various apps, and zoom will sit below all browsers until a zoom meeting.  Nothing fancy, no screen sharing, no captioning, just a plain zoom meeting after which zoom will start to climb the memory rankings.  Exit the app and start it again after every meeting seems to be required.

            This has been the same on Ubuntu 22 and 24.

            Running on a DELL 7420 laptop

            D
            Newcomer
            danieljoan123
            Newcomer
            October 8, 2024

            I understand how frustrating this issue is. Since it seems related to live captioning, you might try disabling that feature during meetings to see if it helps. Also, make sure you're using the latest version of Zoom and check if your graphics drivers are up to date. If the problem persists, consider reporting it to Zoom, as it seems like a common issue on Linux. Let us know if you find a solution!

            J
            Newcomer
            jm6226
            Newcomer
            October 8, 2024

            This occurs even after a plain zoom session:

            "Nothing fancy, no screen sharing, no captioning, just a plain zoom meeting after which zoom will start to climb the memory rankings."

            Zoom is 6.1.11.  I was about to say also kept up to date.  Looks like 6.2.3 dropped recently. Will update and see if it makes a difference.  Would be nice to be able to get zoom via a repo.

            I do keep everything updated on a daily basis. (requirement of the job)

            D
            Newcomer
            drbdrb
            Newcomer
            October 18, 2024

            I just did a 1hr session with zoom 6.2.3 and while it worked great for 30-40mins, the issue persists and my audio and video ended up being broken and all 4 cores maxing out (380% CPU). For the first 20ish mins CPU usage was from 50% to 120%, but regularly under 100%.

            S
            Newcomer
            sscraigie
            Newcomer
            December 2, 2025

            Still running into the same problem

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            New Member
            Dave Hubbard
            New Member
            February 3, 2026

            Zoom hangs the whole system for me.  Latest Ubuntu patches and Zoom release (as of 2026-02-02). No mouse, no keyboard, no apparent disk activity.  Only a hard restart with the physical power button works.  It hangs about 40 - 50 minutes into the meeting.  No special features enabled. Basic Lenovo mini PC with 8GB memory and little else running.

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