Alternative Host

[JimJonaitis]

When assigning "Alternative Host" I receive message that the person must have a license.   Is there another option.  I have a weekly meeting that I will not be able to attend, however the group needs to meet.  Help! 

If I send out meeting link.  Can the group enter meeting without me present?

[Bort]

When assigning someone as an Alternative Host, they must be another licensed user on the same account. 

If you are needing a meeting to continue without you being there, you might consider editing the meeting for this instance to allow others to start it in your place. Not sure how your meeting is configured, but I would recommend: 

• Disabling Waiting Room for this meeting. 
• Enabling Allow participants to join anytime

Between those 2 options, that should allow the meeting to start and run without you, but no one in the meeting will have host controls. If that is an issue, let me know and I can suggest another route.

[Linda2022]

My Principal has a license and I am his PA/secretary without a license in zoom.  There is no other way to make me his alternate host? Please help.

[Bort]

Unfortunately, no. Something you might do is ask your Principal for their host key, which would allow you to claim their host controls if they are not in the meeting. This means you are not officially the alt-host, but this works for most situations in the same way. That being said, its not generally advised to share your Host Key, as it gives you host access to all your meetings, but I would assume your Principal can trust you with this info. 

[JoeMilowic]

@Bort - Hello, I host peer support meetings for a non-profit.  But I cannot attend all of the meetings.  I have a team of facilitators who host the other meetings.  We currently use Google Meet, but would like to try using Zoom.  So our non-profit licensed a Zoom account through Tech Soup.  But now I see the license is only associated with my email address.  So I am wondering how to enable my other facilitators to host meetings when I am not present.  Seems like one option is to purchase separate licenses for each facilitator, but I think that will be cost prohibitive.  Another option seems to be what you have said above, to share my host key with each of the facilitators.  Would that enable them to host the meetings without me?  Are there instructions somewhere on how this would work, e.g., I schedule the meeting and share the link with the group and I provide the host key to my facilitator--then when and where do they enter the host key?  Thank you for your help.    

[Bort · Accepted solution]

This is difficult to navigate as a Zoom employee, since sharing accounts is technically against our Terms of Service. 

The best option is to acquire additional licenses, then use Alternative Host (to all others to start the meeting in your place) or Scheduling Privilege (to allow users to schedule and transfer meetings for each other), both of which require being licensed users on the same account, but certainly your financial constraints are understandable and may prevent this. 

The other method I mentioned is useful in such situations, but is more intended for the actual host to claim host controls when they cannot login to their account. The host would schedule the meeting (with join before host enabled and waiting room disabled) and share the invite as normal. The facilitator in control for this session will need to have the host's host key, so that they can claim host with that ID and gain host controls for this session. This only applies for the active session, so this would need to be done each session the actual host is not in attendance. 

This should only be used sparingly, as the proper route is to get additional licenses for users on the account. 

Hope that helps @JoeMilowic 

[JoeMilowic]

Thank you @Bort.  This helps.  If we want to have multiple facilitators act as hosts, we are best to get additional licenses.   So, we will probably just stick with using Google Meet, which is free since we are using the Google non-profit program.  Appreciate your insights and integrity.    

[abeals]

I have a recurring meeting set up with 5 alternative hosts (all are licensed account holders) (each week the meeting host rotates) However only one of those individuals is able to start the meeting.  The other four individuals go into a waiting room and receive a message that the host will let them in.   We have troubleshooted this several weeks and even when they alterative host is the first into the meeting they still go into a waiting room until the scheduling account logs in and makes them a host.  Please help

[YoramSchwell]

Hi. I work at a cash-starved start-up. What is the cheapest plan that will allow us to name alternative hosts?

[Bort]

Hi @YoramSchwell 

Since Alt-host requires both users being licensed, you would need a Pro account with at least 2 licenses. If you need more users on your account to serve as alt-hosts, then you will need licenses for them as well. 

[spencer-gs]

Both I and the guy I work with have licensed accounts but am getting this pop up when trying to add as an alternative host.

Any suggestions on what to do?

[spencer-gs]

@Bort 

[Bort]

Hi @spencer-gs 

So, you're both licensed users, but are you both on the same overall Zoom account?