Asking this Q for my Pastor. He is very frustrated...

[JacksonHoleRose]

I thought I had free support with my plan, but it turns out - I don't 😞

So, I am asking this Q on behalf of him because I can't seem to figure it out.

Can someone please give me some things to help him? Although I don't think his meetings are "hijacked" (he is in the older age range & believes many things about technology), but I'm not really certain... Many thanks in advance!

...

Hi Rose,

Thank you for looking into this.

I scheduled a year’s worth of Zoom “meetings” for the Divine Service, Sundays at 10 AM.  In addition, I scheduled a year’s worth of Tuesday study meetings at 1 PM.

At both meetings, when I try to start the meeting, I am told: “Another person is hosting this meeting. You must join as a guest.”  I have never been able to join even as a guest to find out who this is.  No one to whom I have sent the email invitation is able to join as guest either.  This tells me that the invitations are hijacked by some hacker – probably not even a person, just some algorithm.

When I set up the meeting immediately before each event begins, send out the invitations, and start the meeting right away, I can have a normal meeting with me as host.  It’s like it (they) doesn’t (don’t) have time to sabotage the invitation and hijack the meeting.

I do not have time to easily set up the meeting and send out the invitations on Sunday mornings.  I did it this past Sunday and I was very rushed. Thank you for your help on this …thing.

Pastor

[JacksonHoleRose]

Wow. This area is super helpful?

No one even from Zoom will respond to this?

[Bort]

Hi @JacksonHoleRose 

Without knowing more details about the meeting and the options it was scheduled with, its hard to say for sure what is happening, but I can provide a couple of possible explanations. 

It could be that your pastor is not signed in to the Zoom app and thus not being recognized as the host and able to start the meeting. I'd imagine that he's scheduling the meeting through the Zoom website, sending out the invitations, and then days later, clicking on the join link, and running into this issue. This could caused by his sign-in expiring over a few days, as opposed to him scheduling and starting the meeting immediately afterwards. I'd suggest having him open the Zoom app on his computer, sign in with the same login as used on the Zoom website, which should ensure he's recognized as the host when clicking the join link for the meeting. 

I would also suggest checking the settings the meeting was scheduled with. He might be able to avoid the issue above by enabling the Allow participants to join anytime setting under Options. This would allow the pastor and other attendees to join without the pastor having to start the meeting first, which could be related to the issue mentioned above. 

Hope that helps and let me know if you have any further questions. Otherwise, make sure to mark the solution as accepted if this information is what you needed.

[JacksonHoleRose]

I have sent this along to my Pastor. I believe he already has this setting set [Allow Participants to join anytime], but will double check.

During COVID we started the Sunday meetings & had a weekly standing meeting for months.

Then all of a sudden this happened. My Pastor then created new meetings & now this always happens with every new meeting he creates. I will help him to see if your suggestion fixes the problem - but he has been doing this awhile & I highly doubt he is NOT logged in on all of his devices.  As I mentioned, I'll chekc with him & help if needed.

Can't make this as complete yet though.

[JacksonHoleRose]

Thank you Rose. Each of the suggestions in the first reply are steps that I’m already following. Each time after I schedule a meeting I log off of the website and turn off the desktop. Each Sunday morning. I start the laptop in the sanctuary. Log on to the zoom website and launch the meeting.

Since I have stopped using the long term scheduling feature, I have had only one issue that arose because one of the users clicked an old link.

[Frank_TB]

Hello,

Computer software can be frustrating when you don't understand how it works. Zoom has many resources such as the Learning Centre that can help users understand how to get the most out of Zoom.

https://learning.zoom.us/pages/55/home 

Regards

If my reply helped, don't forget to click the accept as solution button!

[JacksonHoleRose]

Perhaps if you led me to the right solution URL this would indeed be helpful. Otherwise, it is a rabbit hole that I'm not going down.

[YaBoiB]

Hello @JacksonHoleRose , 

 If I may add some context to this post. Another item that I have found to be helpful for novice users of our software is to download the application ( aka The desktop client) at zoom.us/download and then when the sign in page pops up click the check box of stay signed in. I would have the pastor do this on every computer or device that he uses for Zoom meetings. This will ensure that he is not logged out unless he does not log in for 30 days. This might help when the pastor clicks on the join link for his meetings. 

Screenshot to guide. 

Hope this helps. 

Brandon

 

[JacksonHoleRose]

Thanks Brandon, I believe he already does this - but will check with my Pastor.

[JacksonHoleRose]

OK, so now this really confuses me. You say to be logged into all devices & the gentleman above says not to. My Pastor just told me this:

Thank you Rose. Each of the suggestions in the first reply or steps that I’m already following. Each time after I schedule a meeting I log off of the website and turn off the desktop. Each Sunday morning. I start the laptop in the sanctuary. Log on to the zoom website and launch the meeting. Since I have stopped using the long term scheduling feature, I have had only one issue that arose because one of the users clicked an old link.

[YaBoiB]

@JacksonHoleRose, 

 It is always easier to troubleshoot an issue when you know where the root of the problem exists. What we were providing you were best practices based on our own experiences. We do not "know" exactly where the issue is with your pastor, but we are trying to do the best we can with the information given. 

If you would like to DM me with the email address of your pastor, I can open up a support ticket on his behalf and add you as a Cc and we can meet up, find the root cause of the issue and get him back on track. I do realize that this software has many functions that most users do not use. This software was originally designed for Enterprise customers, who purchase the software and configure it for their business needs. I am happy to help you and your pastor in any way that I can. 

Thanks, 

Brandon 

[JacksonHoleRose]

Hello Brandon, I double checked with Pastor David Bott & he is open to having you help him directly. Here is his email address: ***********

[YaBoiB]

Hello @JacksonHoleRose, 

 We do not allow email addresses to be displayed in this public forum. I have Direct Messaged you and sent you my email address. Reach out to me and we can set up a time to meet and discuss the issues that you are facing. 

Thanks, 

Brandon