PowerPoint slide progression problems when using Screen Sharing on Zoom

[NeilDeBoer]

At our last weekly hybrid meeting the remote attendees could not see the PowerPoint slides advance when we were screen sharing a Powerpoint presentation. We were projecting the same PPt presentation on a screen at the meeting at the same time. Those at the in person meeting could see the slides advance. Those on Zoom saw the first slide during the entire presentation and no subsequent slides. We are using MS Office 365 and this is the first time this has happened. We have managed quite a few hybrid meetings where we screen shared PowerPoints in the past and this did not occur. Anyone seen this problem before? If so where do we need to look to correct this for our next weekly meeting? We had 3 different PPts cued up and this same issue occurred with all of them.

[heatherarent]

Kindly follow these instructions{Go to Transition Tab and check if the Advance Slide on Mouse Click Option is checked. If not, Check the option and Apply it to All slides. This will ensure that your slides move forward in slideshow option.}

[NeilDeBoer]

Hi Heather,  Appreciate your response. This happened with 3 different PowerPoints during the meeting.  Remember that the slides on the screen in the room did change. But they did not progress for those on Zoom. I just checked all 3 PowerPoints. 2 were already checked as you suggested. The third was set to progress automatically. They all functioned as they were set up on the screen in the room.  But the slides for all of our members on Zoom did not advance for any of the 3 PPts.  This seems like a conflict between Zoom and MS PPt.  The only change that I made before that meeting was to change the PPt preference from Open Office to MS PPt to run the program. I had recently changed laptops and didn't have the time to transfer our MS Office 365 subscription to the new laptop until last week.  Before I did that we were using Open Office to run the PPts.  Open Office will run an existing PPt but some of the PPt functions don't work.  So far why we had this problem is still a mystery. but to test I need at least one helper to login remotely to find out if this issue still exists. Guess I could use my cell phone and login myself to test. But I would rather do that with a helper. I will try to find someone to help with that soon. But if the same issue occurs then I may have to switch back to using Open Office to run the PPts for now until I find the actual cause of this problem. Not sure that will solve the problem either but worth a try to find out.  Thanks again for your reply and your suggestions. 

[AndyH1960]

Hi Neil

Did you sort this out? I am part of a Family History Society and we are planning to run a hybrid meeting in April using Zoom. We have now run several practice sessions and we keep having an issue whereby the PC connected to the room projector and sharing screen with Zoom, shows the PowerPoint in slideshow mode perfectly on the room screen, but only has the PowerPoint shown to the Zoomers in pre slideshow format, which of course won’t advance.

I am now considering having 2 laptops, one running the slideshow on the room screen and one running the slideshow using screen share in Zoom, but that will be difficult to coordinate.

Andy 

[NeilDeBoer]

Hi Andy,  I followed Heather's instructions. Found the "advance slide on mouse click" option checked on one of the PPts that we had issues with before checked and others that were not checked.  The following was the advice from Zoom Support when they finally got back to me. Seems their Support Staff is behind right now. 

 Check if you are using the updated version of Zoom, issues usually happen when the application is not on it's updated version.  https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362233-Upgrade-update-to-the-latest-version

Normally, reinstalling the app fixes all issues. Could you please follow these steps and check if there will be improvements:

1. Please quit out of the Zoom app by right-clicking on the zoom application in your taskbar and selecting Quit Zoom
2. Download CleanZoom:
https://zoomus.zendesk.com/attachments/token/dllCONU8TVJmPTG0KOGEe3AU6/?name=CleanZoom.exe
3. Run CleanZoom.exe
4. Restart device.

After doing so we will need to re-install the zoom application.

1. Navigate to Zoom’s Download Center and select Download for Zoom Client for Meetings.
2. Run the downloaded installer file and follow the instructions to install.

If you're using browser, I may suggest you clear the cache and cookies on your browser.

If you're using Chrome please follow the steps below:

1.On your computer, open Chrome.

2. At the top right, click More.
3. Click More tools. Clear browsing data.
4. At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All time.
5. Next to "Cookies and other site data" and "Cached images and files," check the boxes.
6. Click Clear data

If you're using Firefox please follow the steps below:

1. Click the menu button. and select Options.
2. Select the Privacy & Security panel.
3. In the Cookies and Site Data section, click Clear Data.
4. Remove the check mark in front of Cookies and Site Data.
5. With Cached Web Content check marked, click the Clear button.
6. Close the about: preferences page.

I followed these directions but not sure our problem is gone yet.  No PowerPoint needed at the last meeting. Should know more this next Monday, March 7th.  We will probably have a PPt to manage for that one. 

Microsoft Support was sympathetic. But their advice was to use MS Teams instead of Zoom (no surprise there). We may need to do that if the current Zoom/PPt issue isn't resolved soon. I have tested MST with a few of our members and it seems to be a viable option. However, quite a few of our members tell me that they have used both and they like Zoom better.  We need to remember that it's the challenges that keep life interesting.  😉

[AndyH1960]

Thanks Neil, and for such a quick response.  I think Zoom is much better. We have 70 or more people attending our monthly meetings on Zoom, and at 61 years of age, and I am one of the youngest by some distance. The pandemic has pushed people into using video conferencing, at all ages, which is great.

I may have found a solution by persevering with it all afternoon and its PowerPoint that I think is the issue, and it was your article that made me look at it from a different viewpoint, so thank you for that. It was to do with Using Presenter View in the slideshow tab.

However, I agree that PowerPoint isn’t brilliant with Zoom and also that Microsoft will want to push people towards Teams. Zoom is much simpler.

Anyway thank you again.

Andy

[NeilDeBoer]

Hi Andy,  

Glad you were able to solve your problem with Zoom and PPt. I worked with MS Teams some and tried it with Powerpoints. It seems to work well as far as I can tell. Some of our members use it for work. Some like it and some don't. More seem too like Zoom. Only time will tell if my current problem is resolved or if we have to try a different combination. Strange that the Zoom with PPt issue just appeared lately. We have been using both for a while for our hybrid meetings. Seems like a software update is probably the most likely cause of the current problems. 

Neil 

[NeilDeBoer]

Unfortunately, after a lot of time spent trying to resolve this issue it is NOT fixed yet. Same issue at our last meeting. Those in the room could see the projected PowerPoint images advance on the screen in the room. Those that were on Zoom could only see the first slide. May need to try MS Teams to try to resolve this issue. 

[Galtha58]

We fixed the Zoom/PowerPoint issue today.  There is an option at the top left of the PPt program to "duplicate screens" after the PowerPoint presentation has started. Selecting that option appears to have corrected the issue that we were having. Worked great at our meeting today. Thought you should be aware. So that anyone else who runs into this issue can be aware of this. Easy fix to the problem once you know where to look and what to do. I had NO idea that there was an option like that in PowerPoint. I have seen the "duplicate screens" option for "MSFT" display settings before. But I had no idea there was another setting like that in PPt. 

Neil 

[R2c]

This seems like a work around, and not a fix. Should be able to use presenter view in Powerpoint rather than forcing screen mirroring. Looks like a serious defect in Powerpoint. I refuse to go to TEAMS for this. May be time to find an alternative to PowerPoint

[R2c]

So I converted powerpoint into keynote slide show but Zoom display to attendees is not matching the keynote display on my screen. Makes me think this is a ZOOM issue now.

[Galtha58]

I found another setting in MS Powerpoint that also appears to take care of the issue that we were having. That is the PPt's not showing up correctly for the remote viewers.  Open a PPt presentation and select "Slide Show" at the top of that window.  Then select "Set up Slide Show" and in the "Show Type" area select "Browsed by an individual window".  Select "OK" when finished. Changing this setting has also corrected our PPt remote viewer issue. We have also recently started keeping my cell phone, connected to Zoom, next to our laptop at the meetings so we monitor what our remote Zoom attendees are seeing. Can't activate the audio on the cell phone because of severe feedback issues.  Have to take the cell phone into another room to check the audio if that is necessary.  We also found that not setting the PPt to "full screen" on the projection at our meetings allows for easier control of the PPt and other shared screen files during the meeting. The PPt still shows up as a full screen for our remote Zoom attendees when we do that. The attendees at the meeting don't seem to mind that the PPt does not fill the whole screen.  

[AndyH1960]

Thanks for sharing. I’ll have a look at that as well as your previous response. Andy 

[R2c]

This issue is occurring when running Powerpoint for Mac (office 365) on Mac OS  Monterey and Zoom 

version 5.10.1 (5839).  using a 2nd screen. Seems PowerPoint always uses two displays even if preferences for slide show with 2 displays in not selected.  Also tried rebooting and all software is up to date.  When I start share in ZOOM, all is OK, but once I launch presenter view and Powerpoint goes to two screens, the attendees are locked into the previous screen and while my slides advance they see only the initial locked display. If I exit presenter view then attendees seen my slides update in edit mode.  If I present from my windows laptop computer (also with two displays) then Powerpoint presenter view works correctly and I see the slides advance from my Mac. May need to re-install ZOOM on my Mac.

[Galtha58]

One of the possible cures for using Zoom with a Mac that I got from MS support was to download and use the MS Edge browser and force the computer to use that as the default instead of the native Safari browser. The idea seems to be that MS Edge is likely more compatible with PPt than Safari. Not sure if that would make a difference and I don't like or use MS Edge hardly at all. But might be worth a trial run to find out if that would help resolve your current problem. 

[Galtha58]

I am not familiar with Macs. However, I suspect that one of my previous comments about PPt settings might fix your issue. I would try the "Slide Show > set up slide show > show type > Browsed by individual window setting > Save" first and test to find out if that takes care of your problem. 

[R2c]

So finally uninstalled zoom and the reinstalled zoom and finally this fixed the issue. I can now use display mode, see my notes and next slice, and the attendee sees my slides advance. So it was a zoom/Apple issue. 

[Galtha58]

Great news R2c. I tried that solution early on with Windows 10 machines and it didn't work for me. Glad that it worked for you. These software issues can be very frustrating and can consume a lot of time.