Host already has a meeting in progress

[CravenG]

I'm always the host and set up the meetings. I have the box checked anyone can join before host. When I start the meeting on my laptop my clients keep getting messages telling them "Host has a meeting in progress" or something on that order. I have gone to Youtube and watched the videos on how to try and fix this. Every time I copy and send link out in email it's the same thing and I am getting frustrated with Zoom doing this. Does anyone have an answer or can someone tell me what to actually I have 2 weeks to try to figure this out or I will have to say goodbye to zoom and switch to Microsoft Teams in order to do meetings.

[Ray_Harwood]

Hi, @CravenG,

We see this reported a lot here in the Zoom Community, and sorry to say the cause is often a lack of understanding on how meetings are scheduled and attended.

Every Meeting has a Meeting ID.  If you as the Host are in a meeting with one Meeting ID and your participants are trying to join another Meeting ID, they will get the message you described, "Host has another meeting in progress."

Every Join link has the Meeting ID built into it.  When you get this report from a participant that they are getting this error, ask them for the Join link or Meeting ID that they are trying to get into, and you should compare that against the Meeting ID of the meeting you are in.  You can get that Meeting ID by clicking the green shield in the upper left corner of your Zoom screen:

I've obscured the details of my own meeting ID and passcode, and the Invitation Link information; but when you click on the green shield, you will see the information about the meeting that you are in.

I suspect in many cases the Zoom Host is clicking the Start button for their Personal Meeting ID or a meeting other than the meeting they intend to be in, and having sent the correct Join link to the potential participants, the Host is not in the meeting he/she intended to be in.  Zoom has no way of connecting your participants with you if you are in a different meeting.

[Ken_Jones]

I agree that it seems you are starting a second, different meeting than the one you have invited everyone else to join. Try clicking on your send copy of the invitation, to guarantee you are joining the same meeting as the others.