I regularly host online teaching sessions on Zoom and frequently use breakout rooms so that students can work in smaller groups.My breakout room settings are configured so that participants automatically join their assigned breakout rooms when I open the rooms. Most of the time, this works as expected.Occasionally, however, a participant does not join the assigned breakout room. On my Breakout Rooms panel, the participant's status then shows as “Not Joined”. The participant remains in the Main Room and is able to speak to me and ask for assistance in joining the assigned breakout room.This creates a problem.When I click on the name of a participant whose status is “Not Joined”, Zoom displays the “Move to” option, but only allows me to move that participant to one of the other breakout rooms. There is no option to move the participant to the Main Room.By comparison, when I click on a participant who has successfully joined a breakout room (shown with the green status indicator), the “Move to” option allows me to move that participant either to the Main Room or to any of the other breakout rooms.This raises two related questions:Why is the Main Room not available as a “Move to” option for a participant whose status is “Not Joined”, particularly when that participant appears already to be in the Main Room? Could Zoom provide a way for the host to reset or reassign a “Not Joined” participant so that the participant can be sent successfully to the originally assigned breakout room?My current workaround is to move the “Not Joined” participant temporarily to a different breakout room. Once the participant has successfully joined that room, I can then move the participant back to the originally assigned breakout room.Although this workaround works, it is unnecessarily cumbersome during a live teaching session and can be disruptive when I am managing several breakout rooms simultaneously.It would be much more convenient if the host could either:move or reset the “Not Joined” participant to the Main Room and then send the participant to the originally assigned breakout room; or directly resend the participant to the breakout room to which they are already assigned.I would appreciate clarification on whether the current behaviour is intentional or a defect. If it is intentional, I suggest that the breakout room controls be enhanced to provide hosts with a simpler way of dealing with participants whose status remains “Not Joined”.

Participant

Solved

Unable to Move “Not Joined” Participant to Main Room

Forum|Forum|22 days ago
August 20, 2026
9 replies
132 views

I regularly host online teaching sessions on Zoom and frequently use breakout rooms so that students can work in smaller groups.

My breakout room settings are configured so that participants automatically join their assigned breakout rooms when I open the rooms. Most of the time, this works as expected.

Occasionally, however, a participant does not join the assigned breakout room. On my Breakout Rooms panel, the participant's status then shows as “Not Joined”. The participant remains in the Main Room and is able to speak to me and ask for assistance in joining the assigned breakout room.

This creates a problem.

When I click on the name of a participant whose status is “Not Joined”, Zoom displays the “Move to” option, but only allows me to move that participant to one of the other breakout rooms. There is no option to move the participant to the Main Room.

By comparison, when I click on a participant who has successfully joined a breakout room (shown with the green status indicator), the “Move to” option allows me to move that participant either to the Main Room or to any of the other breakout rooms.

This raises two related questions:

Why is the Main Room not available as a “Move to” option for a participant whose status is “Not Joined”, particularly when that participant appears already to be in the Main Room?
Could Zoom provide a way for the host to reset or reassign a “Not Joined” participant so that the participant can be sent successfully to the originally assigned breakout room?

My current workaround is to move the “Not Joined” participant temporarily to a different breakout room. Once the participant has successfully joined that room, I can then move the participant back to the originally assigned breakout room.

Although this workaround works, it is unnecessarily cumbersome during a live teaching session and can be disruptive when I am managing several breakout rooms simultaneously.

It would be much more convenient if the host could either:

move or reset the “Not Joined” participant to the Main Room and then send the participant to the originally assigned breakout room; or
directly resend the participant to the breakout room to which they are already assigned.

I would appreciate clarification on whether the current behaviour is intentional or a defect. If it is intentional, I suggest that the breakout room controls be enhanced to provide hosts with a simpler way of dealing with participants whose status remains “Not Joined”.

Best answer by ExpertswhoJohn

hi @larasuddes ,

Yes, there are combinations of settings that can have a student not in the breakout room you want them in and becuase you already allocated them you now can not more them to that room.

There is a simple workaround.

I alweays have a space breakout room setup and if this type of case happens, I will move them into the spare room and I can then direct back the room I orginally wanted them to join.

Alternately you need to setup the breakout setting to force poeple to go into the rooms you want and not to be able to come back to the main room. In many cases my orginal answer is the best solution.

all the best

John

jdott16

Community Champion | Employee

Hello @larasuddes

The first thing I would verify is that users are on the most updated version of Zoom as these issues could occur due to older versions.

The second thing I would note is that if you have opened all the rooms and a user is still in the main room, when you see them as Not Joined, and the option to Move To only shows other breakout rooms, that makes perfect sense as they are already in the Main Room. You would not have a user who has not joined a breakout room already in the main room with an option to move them to the main room.

You are correct that if a participant is already in a breakout room, the move to option would then show the main room, but if a participant has not joined a breakout room and are still in the main room, an option to move them to the main room will not be present.

The last thing I would note is based off your comment: “my breakout room settings are configured so that participants automatically join their assigned breakout rooms when I open the rooms” you appear to be utilizing the Pre-Assigned Breakout Room option. More on the requirements for this feature are here: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0061353 I bring this up because the behavior you are indicating points to users not signed into their Zoom accounts which would leave them in the main session and not apply the pre-assigned rooms. For pre-assignment to work, users MUST be signed into their Zoom account that you preassigned prior to the meeting. If a user is not signed into their Zoom account and you open the breakout rooms, then the experience you are having is by design as users will not be put into a preassigned room if they are not signed into their Zoom account.

From the above article:

Note: When joining a meeting with pre-assignments, participants need to be signed in to the Zoom account associated with the email address used for pre-assignments for the pre-assignment to be applied. If they are not signed in or signed in with a different account, the pre-assignment will not be applied to them.

I would confirm that users are signed into their Zoom accounts and are on the most updated version of Zoom as that should resolve this issue. I would also confirm that all users are joined into the meeting prior to opening the breakout rooms as this too can cause users to be in the main room instead of being pushed into a breakout room when they open.

I hope this helps and if this answers your question please make sure to mark this as a solution.

Thank you,

Jake

L

larasuddesAuthor

Participant

I need to check which lecturer has asked this question, because as far as I'm aware there is already functionality that they can switch on that allows participants to rejoin their breakout rooms.

jdott16

Community Champion | Employee

@larasuddes More information can be found here for managing breakout rooms: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0062540

There is an option that allows users to select their own breakout rooms. This could be what you are referring to.

For reference, this is how users participate in breakout rooms: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0060313

Thank you,

Jake

ExpertswhoJohnAnswer

Community Super Champion | Customer

hi @larasuddes ,

Yes, there are combinations of settings that can have a student not in the breakout room you want them in and becuase you already allocated them you now can not more them to that room.

There is a simple workaround.

I alweays have a space breakout room setup and if this type of case happens, I will move them into the spare room and I can then direct back the room I orginally wanted them to join.

Alternately you need to setup the breakout setting to force poeple to go into the rooms you want and not to be able to come back to the main room. In many cases my orginal answer is the best solution.

all the best

John

L

larasuddesAuthor

Participant

Thanks everyone - I have forwarded your replies to my colleague 😁

aluyun

Community Manager

Hi @larasuddes!

I’m checking in to see if the latest update on your thread was helpful. If it addressed what you needed, please consider marking it as the best answer so others can easily find it too.

And if you still have questions, please feel free to reach out anytime!