Dual Screen How to stop 'Zoom' Window Switching Monitors During Screen Share

[AndyBuckle]

I have an issue with a dual monitor setup, where when I share the entire desktop the zoom window jumps and takes over the other monitor, going on top of all the media controls we use, even with the zoom setting to share zoom windows selected.

Here is a rough breakdown of the setup we're using to give a better context:

Monitor 1, which is for the operator/ producer:
Zoom Meeting Window to view all participants
VLC Playlist Controls

Monitor 2, which is at the front of the room has:
Zoom, for showing remote participants as and when needed
VLC Media Window

As the screen share isn't needed the whole time, it is only needed when sharing media through VLC we can't leave the screen share running constantly.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Saif_Elmejrab]

Hi @AndyBuckle ,

Thank you for reaching out to us via Zoom Community.

Regarding your concern, you may check the Zoom setting, under the General options, if you have Dual Screen enabled and then go to Share Screen options, you could check out the settings related to "Window size when screen sharing".

I will still have to check if there's an option to disable Zoom Screen Share from taking over your display

[GWallace]

I have this same issue, both of the settings you referenced are set as they should be 

How can I stop the "Zoom Meeting" window jumping across to a different monitor? 

[T1mmorris]

I have this same issue. 
on the same computer I have two window login accounts.

One account it works great. I can share 2nd screen as planned, the meeting controls stay on screen 1, I can work on screen 1 while sharing screen 2

the 2nd windows login is different, When I share screen 2 the current program minimizes displaying zooms second screen/or desktop. I am able to reselect correct window in task bar but if I select zoom on screen 1, screen 2 zoom reappears over.

[WardC]

See my reply to the original message and see if that helps. In my experience, when Zoom jumps to a different monitor, it is because it is trying to get out of the way of a screen share. Share the application instead of the screen and Zoom shouldn't jump.

[Jade3]

I've tried this and zoom screen still bounces over to desktop monitor. Never used to do this. Must have been an update or something in last couple months. We've had to stop dual screen and not display zoom on 2nd monitor as it's frustrating to keep dragging zoom across. 

[GWallace]

@AndyBuckle I think I may have solved this

Start the screen share and then drag the meeting controls back to your primary monitor

the next time you start a screen share it "should" remember this and not take over the screen share at the front of the room

The "Zoom" screen will still move around but it will return to the 2nd screen as you require after you stop screen share

p.s. don't I know you from North London?

[T1mmorris]

I was able to test this and it worked. 
I was using JWlib as the second screen and no issues. Zoom stayed in the background.

thank you

[kksock]

The most common use for screen share is to have Zoom controls on a laptop on the podium and an HDMI cable plugged in from the stage projector.  You extend your display so that the laptop is screen 1 and the HDMI connected display is screen 2. I have been using this for the longest time and it worked fine.  Some update along the way Zoom decides to share the screen on the same display the application is running on.  Which in most cases is the laptop display and hence I see the screen share on the podium and the audience sees my face from the laptop camera.  I followed all these messages and wondered what was the real solution as I would get different results depending on which screen the shared window as on.  Clearly this is not intended to be a feature an is most likely a bug introduced while trying to support some other app behavior.  Please return the shared screen feature back to the way it is needed for the majority of use cases.

[WardC]

We've had a similar problem and solved it this way: Instead of sharing Screen 2 (Monitor 2), share the application itself, in your case the VLC Media Window. 

If you have the Zoom Window on Monitor 2, even in the background, when you share Screen 2 Zoom tries to get out of the way of your screen share so it throws itself over onto Monitor 1, thinking it is doing you a favor. If you share the application instead of the screen, Zoom will stay where it is.

[jarju]

That's VERY HELPFUL!!!  Thanks!

[WardC]

Looks like a number of folks are still having this issue, sometimes intermittently. Here's something else you can try if your issue is between Zoom and JW Library. If you are using a second display for pics/video/year text, move your cursor to the upper right corner of that display and "Restore Down" the window so that it is no longer full screen. Now drag that window off the second display onto the first display and drop it there. Now, drag that same window back over to the top edge of the second display until you see the visual indicator that Windows is going to maximize the window. Sometimes this looks like a flashing circle, sometimes like a white bar (depending on Windows version). In any event, once you drag that window to the top of the second display and see that flash, just let your mouse button go and you'll see the window maximize itself to take up the whole display. Once it does that, Zoom will no longer take over that display when you click on the Zoom UI. It's not easy to explain, might take a little trial and error.

[devingoble]

We have something similar, but it doesn't seem to be limited to screen sharing. Any click on zoom will clear everything from the second screen. You can bring it back by clicking the thumbnail on the Taskbar, but clicking on zoom will repeat the problem. The only solution sometimes is to close everything, start zoom and the meeting first, and then other apps after it's set up. It's not consistent though. We'll go weeks without any issues, and then it will be give us nothing but trouble for a bit. 

[CMcC]

We are having the exact issue.   If you find a fix please let us know.  

[rogermccoy]

Sometimes I can temporarily fix this issue either by attaching the participant list to the meeting window (if it's detached) or by unattaching it (if it's attached). This fixes the problem, at least temporarily, probably 80% of the time. My best guess is that Zoom resets some of its internal settings for drawing the windows, but only a Zoom tech can say for sure. Would be nice to have a proper, consistent fix without resorting to these types of hacks though.

[10987]

We are experiencing the same exact scenario. We are now playing around with Nvidia settings to see if something makes it more stable.

It will work fine and then, when stopping a screen share, the behavior will start. It is as if Zoom is "keeping" hold of the second screen.

[Bahjons]

Anyone get a fix for this? We are also randomly having this issue with zoom keeping the second display anytime we touch zoom. (Sharing or not). 

[10987]

We enabled the "Use dual monitors" setting under General.  This seems to have corrected the odd Zoom behavior. 

One additional new benefit of this setting is that we can drag the new Zoom window provided with this setting (which shows the active participant) to our second monitor (aka stage TVs) when wishing to show a Zoom participant to the in-person audience.

[DaveFord]

I have both settings set as you recommended. Still have the same problem. 

I think it is a Mac-only problem. My co-worker does not have this issue on windows. Then she bought a mac and it started happening on her new Mac.

[Jade3]

Also a windows issue. 

[PeterSteier]

This feature is even more annoying, because it sometimes "looses" windows completely on Windows 11. They show up in the task bar, but do not open when selected. This is caused by window size changes when somebody shares it's screen. I can get the share screen window back by leaving and yoining the meeting.  Certainly, I cannot control whether they share the screen or only one app. Zoom should not mess with window sizes at all. Ther are two zoom windows, one with the gallery and the controls, and one with screen shares (or the current speaker, if none shares presently). ZOOM should not mess around with their positions and sizes, because I know better than ZOOM what I want.

[GreenMtn]

Zoom really needs to fix this. We have tried everything in this thread several times and we are still having the same issues. 
Whenever we move the second zoom window over to the second monitor (when someone gives a talk from home the friends in the audience need to see it) JW Library no longer has access to the second monitor. We then try to show an image/video (our song files are mo4 videos) from JW Library and it no longer uses the second monitor. 
This is not good in front of 200 people in the auditorium let alone hundreds of participants on Zoom. During a funeral talk the last thing the family needs in mourning is technical problems. We are now using OnlyM software for all files but this is not a good solution and only a ln inconvenient work-around. 
We have also noticed that when the Zoom operator accidentally clicks on the Share button twice the windows switch from the second monitor to the main monitor and disables the sharing of audio and high video quality. 
We had zero problems until last summer when everything got messed up. 

[devingoble]

If anybody is still having this issue, I don't have a fix, but we've been able to mitigate it by being careful about the order that we do things. It seems, for our system, that if the monitors are not turned on until zoom is up and running, then zoom behaves itself. You may need to try different orders of operations to find what will work for your setup. Once we started getting consistent about the order, our issues went away. Depending on the types of connections, adapters, and splitters involved, you might need to go as far as unplugging the cable until zoom is running.

[Niagjah]

Hello all,

I have the solution. If you Share screen you then take the sharing meeting controls and from the top of screen two and drag it to screen one. Stop share and re put up the text on the second screen. Now when you share, the share controls will stay on screen one and screen two will stay as it should. Hope that helps!

[gcruzn1]

Hello, just FYI this fix works for our set up:

Go into your Zoom settings -> Share Screen -> Window size when screen sharing-> Check radio button "Maintain current size" 

This ensures that zoom doesn't resize itself to overtake whatever you are sharing on internal/external monitors. 

Fyi this has worked on Windows & MacOS. Hope it also works for you! 🙂

[storyhub]

There are a number of possibilities. However, I would need a lot more information about the screen share content. And VLC is not the best choice to do this especially since you want to show the gallery view on the same screen that has content that is being shared and you want to show the gallery view on the first display as well. It is doable, but the setup is too complex to explain here in a few words. If you would like one-on-one assistance let me know and I can assist you via Zoom. As a broadcast  and A/V engineer this is something I can solve.

[jsaxton421]

So, the issue is not with JW Library or any other applications a user wants to share, it's something with Zoom that seems to be weird with how it handles monitors / dual monitor screens. I have tried from the Hall and from my home setup and it behaves the same way.




The workaround was to disable the setting to allow the host to share the monitors (I personally hate this, and it really limits things). We share the application now and that prevents the zoom window from bouncing displays. JWLibrary now has the ability to play imported images and files that are appropriate without having to go to VLC or OnlyM and it seems to work fine. That lets us keep the dual monitors setting and minimize the Library 2nd screen to display participants if there are any. 

The other workaround probably is to disable the "dual monitors" setting from the video in a meeting, but for those with two or more monitors that also limits things. 

If anyone on Zoom reads this comment the issue is if you have dual monitors enabled, when you select share screen, the "2nd screen" Zoom window gets moved to the screen you are trying to share and thus obstructing the content. 

It looks like one of the newest versions of JWLibrary lets you share the 2nd screen as an application so instead of clicking to share the "screen" you should be able to share the 2nd screen and not have the Zoom window bouncing issue during a meeting. 

[b_welling102]

We have pretty much every issue that has been described above. 

we have dual screen disabled in zoom, we thought this was causing an issue a while back so disabled. 

we find a sure fire way to trigger this is to drag any window onto the extended display. From then on we have to reselect the 2nd window for JW lib once we’ve started screen share every time. Only fix is to close everything and start again, which is not ideal. 

We thought it was a hardware issue but looking more like software bug more than anything now. 

anyone have zoom and JW lib working reliably?

[CristianVentura]

Hey brothers,

Would you mind sharing your hardware specs?

We are trying to determine if the PC hardware is the issue.

Whenever we were hosting meetings from home (and one one ocassion we recently had to) we never ran into these problems using our home setups.

Our current KH PC:

HP Desktop Computer Pavilion 590-P0076 Ryzen 5 2nd Gen 2400G (3.60 GHz) 16 GBRAM  1 TB HDD AMD Radeon RX Vega

VGA connection to monitor 1.

HMDI connection to splitter to all mirrored monitors (aka monitor 2)

We are looking to acquire an Intel processor PC, based on the replacement guidelines, but if Intel processors have the same issue then it's still not a solution. 

Thank you!

[Niagjah]

Hello brothers,

So the computer that we are using has been recommended by the branch probably because it has 3 video connections natively.  I attached the specs here. 

As for the meeting issues, we use dual monitors on the Zoom setup. The key is to share the screen the first time, yes it will knock out the second screen for the moment, then drag the screen share toggle to the first screen. Put the JW library text back on the second screen and share again. The next time you share the toggle will stay on the first screen and allow for the second screen to be shared as usual. It worked for us so I hope this helps my brothers. 🙏

[AErmie]

Similar to many of the comments in this thread, from my extensive testing, the issue seems to revolve around the "Use dual monitor" option/feature in Zoom.

I've tried all combinations of the Screen Share options (ie. fullscreen mode, maximize window, and maintain current size).

What I've observed is, if you have the "use dual monitors" option enabled, what actually happens when you attempt to share the second screen/monitor, is that Zoom's "second" screen (the one that shows just the participants, not the controls), forcefully shifts back to the first monitor. But, it remains in fullscreen mode/view, and forcefully minimizes all other applications.

I've tested this with other applications (ie. a fullscreen picture in the Windows Photos app), not just JW Library. So the issue truly is with Zoom, how it interacts with the second monitor, and it's participant-only view.

[Jade000]

Exactly right. We are getting alot of "fixes" recommended. These have not worked at all. This is a zoom issue as it's only started happening after an update some time ago. Every time we share screen for anything to zoom, the dual screen with participant video bounces back to screen 1. We have to then manually drag it back to screen 3, which is what audience sees, which is distracting. 

[AErmie]

Agreed. Also, in my experience, when you stop the screenshare, Zoom's "second" screen (the one that shows just the participants, not the controls), returns to the second monitor (like it was originally set up).

@Anonymous please address this application bug.

[TLC_Automation]

Any news on this problem ?
I had to bounce back to V5.16 to stop zoom changing the size.
If someone accidently runs an update the problem will be back.
Is zoom working on the issue ?

[digiz]

I have now also bounced Zoom back to V5.16 and the problem is no more.

[PeomirK]

Problem:

When using two screens, sharing the second screen causes the JW Library window to minimize unexpectedly.

Solution:

The issue was resolved by preventing Zoom from starting automatically when Windows boots. The following steps outline the successful procedure:

1. Disable Zoom Auto-Start:

   - Open the Zoom application.

   - Go to `Settings` (usually found by clicking on your profile picture in the top right corner).

   - Navigate to the `General` tab.

   - Uncheck the option `Start Zoom when I start Windows`.

2. Proper Startup Sequence:

   - Restart your computer.

   - Ensure all screens are connected and functioning properly.

   - Manually start the JW Library application.

   - Finally, open the Zoom application.

By following this startup sequence, the problem of applications minimizing on the second screen no longer occurs.

[520003190]

I will join your meeting 

[VideoOperatorGA]

Unfortunately, these are the steps we performed but we’re still experiencing the problem. The only workaround we have found is to bounce the application right before the start of a meeting (given that a co-host has already been assigned).

If anyone else has any other suggestions, please share them. Thanks in advance.

[Jay615]

Hi,
This is what has helped us....has not stopped the issue 100% but has reduced how much it happens. This is a Zoom issue seems to be the concensus.
We leave Use Dual Monitors checked.....Before the meeting starts we make sure the 2nd Zoom screen(the one showing the stage and participants) is on the TV's and is maximized. Then in the Taskbar I put my cursor over that 2nd screen thumbnail and when the small preview window appears I slide my cursor up in the preview, right click to get the menu and left click on minimize. The 2nd screen gets pulled back to the Taskbar of the PC monitor. Leave it there until it is time to show that 2nd screen for someone giving a talk on Zoom. When its time for a part over Zoom I remove the spotlight for the stage and I reverse what I did earlier.....slide my cursor over the thumbnail again, slide it onto the preview window, right click to get the menu and left click on Maximize. When that part is over minimize the window again, put stage spotlight on again and click on thumbnail for Year Text.
Now when Zoom decides to take over the 2nd screen, which usually happens during a song, it only shows a black screen and we just quickly click on the JWL thumbnail to bring it back.
With a little practice it can be done very smoothly.

[Ldar]

The best solution I found so far is to make sure you never share the projected zoom display (on monitor 2, with the speaker) to zoom.  Display the image you want to share first then share. The image will disappear, you have to reselect it hovering over the JW app selecting the second screen. But then it displays and shares properly. And when you want to go back to the speaker, stop sharing first. The second zoom screen will then pop back to the second monitor (it effectively “got out of the way” temporarily, as others have mentioned).