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Grey boxes blocking screen share

Linzhess
Listener

I have had the experience many times when someone was screen sharing (say a Youtube video) and dark grey boxes block the picture.  I believe one box was the gallery of participants on the side, I have no idea what the other grey box was...  how do you get rid of these boxes so that the screen share picture is unimpaired?

9 REPLIES 9

RN
Zoom Moderator
Zoom Moderator

Hey @Linzhess, the host may have 'Show My Zoom Windows to other participants when I am screen sharing' disabled. 

 

If you go to your Zoom client settings > Shared Screen > and check the setting, the gray boxes are the Zoom windows. Screen Shot 2021-09-14 at 1.01.21 PM.png

 

Also recommending if sharing a Web Tab, in your example YouTube, I would encourage instead of sharing your desktop to share the web browser tab instead. This should resolve your problem with the experiences I've had anyway!  Let me know if this helps! 

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Zoom Community Moderator
he/him/his

Have you heard about Zoom AI Companion? ➡️ Check it out!

Where is the option to just share the tab?  I tried the other fix of enabling Show my Zoom windows, but that didn't solve the gray boxes.  Any help is appreciated!

 

Greetings... I have this same issue of grey screen when I go to screen share a video. I have a Mac with Monterey OS. Please advise on any other options for getting past this obstacle. Thanks, JAH23

I tried this, it didn't help....I am having to speak to Zoom support about this now

 

Shawnloveshorse
Listener

Hi RN!

 

Sorry to jump in like this though our teacher has the same issue and everyone in class could see these and the option for show zoom windows is disabled.

 

Thank you 🙂 

 

Shawn

Hey @pascalgrierson @Linzhess @JAH23 @JRSTEN5925 @Shawnloveshorse looked back at some issues that are similar and seems like if you check “Optimize for video clip” under the ellipsis during a screen share, those boxes will appear. 

 

So, if unchecked, the grey boxes will not appear. Seems like this is by design. 

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Zoom Community Moderator
he/him/his

Have you heard about Zoom AI Companion? ➡️ Check it out!

This was already unchecked and the grey boxes still appear. I've tried all possible solutions and when recording or screensharing, it still shows the gray boxes with diagonal lines.

The_WebiNerd
Attendee

We've written about this topic on our blog quite extensively including why it happens and few options for resolving or working around it. Hope this helps you all out. Not a new thing. 

https://thewebinerd.com/2021/07/13/get-rid-of-those-gray-boxes-in-zoom/

***Helping individuals and organizations gain success in their virtual and hybrid events. https://thewebinerd.com***

bmwparker1
Listener

Great article. I ended up buying a new computer and the boxes went away. They showed up on my old one, so it looks like you may be correct. It's likely the computer and not the application. That's an expensive fix though.