For the past week or so, no one can join my meetings anymore

[Haldurson]

I occasionally will host meetings in the evening with friends. What I've always done in the past is I'll email them the zoom link that is listed in the Zoom app as my default meeting link. I just cut and paste that link into an email. No one ever needed to use a meeting ID, or a password, or to log in to anything. They could simply click on the link, which would launch  Zoom on their device and they'd be in the meeting automatically. For over a week now, no one has been able to join my meetings and everyone is upset. Note that the same people who can't get into MY meetings, can still get into our mutual organization's meetings without difficulty. It's just MY meetings they cannot join.

What's going on?

Note that a lot of the people I am dealing with are not at all tech-savvy, some may have cognitive disorders. They aren't all on facebook, I don't personally have all of their email addresses (the organization we are with keeps them confidential, but they have my permission to distribute my zoom link to their users, since I run activities over zoom). This has never ever been a problem in the past.

[ruth2]

did zoom help as im experiencing problems today. really distressing as they are my patients

[Haldurson1]

I'm sorry, I've been having problems with these lousy forums. In order to come here, I actually had to change my user name because my existing user name is being used (by me, of course). I wanted to update my e-mail a while back when I actually figured out the problem on my own (got no help from Zoom support). It would help if I actually could log in with the same username I originally set up, and I can't wait to see what brand new problems this is going to cause.

In any case, I solved the problem myself. It turns out (and this is what I've inferred) that there was a change to Zoom for Windows that invalidated my security settings. Previously, I literally HAD no security settings, because none of them would work well for my situation. But it looks like in the settings now that you MUST pick at least one of three options: A) a guest list/invite only, B) require a login with password, or C) require guests go into a waiting room, and be admitted one at a time via a pop-up.

I chose the waiting room, and when I did that, everything started working again. My problem with a waiting room is with what happened in last night's group. I had to step away while there were other people in the room, and there was a late arrival who thought I was not letting her in, and she got a bit upset (in retrospect, I know I could have set someone else up as a co-facilitator -- not sure if they would be able to let the person in or not, and I'm not even sure that would be a good idea for my groups).

I really want to be able to run my group with none-of-the above, as I used to be able to. A few people who come to my groups could not deal with a log-in (I know because I had to talk them through something similar, and it was quite distressing for them. One person was ready to give up on the whole thing. As far as a guest list is concerned, I am a volunteer, and due to privacy issues, I CAN'T have access to these people's e-mail without their permission, and I need to keep my group open for ANYONE who's in the program I volunteer for to drop in. I already have to deal with talking some people through using Zoom for the first time, and I'd rather not add another level to that.

BTW, I'm a peer/customer receiving services from the organization I'm volunteering for. I'm actually studying to get my NY State Peer Specialist license. I just run certain activities, and am trying to encourage others to volunteer as well. But I'm actually more technically proficient than most (I used to be a Senior Systems Analyst, until my symptoms got so bad I could no longer work in that capacity).

[ruth2]

Thank you. I only work with one person at a time. They go into a waiting room. Yes I’m not sure why there are these problems