Screen sharing failing to refresh viewers

[DavinChurch]

Whenever I am in a group meeting and I share my screen, everyone else cannot see any changes I am making to my screen. Nobody else has these problems and I cannot find any way to get around the problem. If I stop sharing and restart, or if I issue a Zoom command (including just switching the "sharing" status bar between top and bottom), everyone gets refreshed, but I cannot continuously do that with every word I type.

I am using the latest PC app but it also occurs if I stay on the browser. It happens whether I am sharing the application window or my whole screen. It happens with any application, including OS windows like Explorer.

However, I cannot ask for official support for this because I am still using Windows 8.1 and cannot change. (But this has been happening for years, even when 8.1 was still supported, and I am now needing this feature more than ever.) I have three monitors and am sharing only one of them. I have changed my "Share Screen" settings to include "Share all windows from an application", but it has the same problem with or without that setting.

What other information can I provide that might seem to be pertinent?

Does anyone have any ideas of something I might try?

[LindaMaria]

Ugh, screen sharing hiccups! It's like trying to show someone a movie, but the projector keeps freezing, right? Super annoying. So, your viewers are seeing a frozen image, not the live action? Let's troubleshoot that.

First things first, it's usually a network thing. Screen sharing relies on a stable connection to send a constant stream of your screen's data.

The Network's the Usual Suspect

Think of bandwidth like a pipe. If it's too narrow, the data can't flow smoothly. If you're on a crowded Wi-Fi network or if someone else is downloading a huge file, that could be the problem.
Wi-Fi can be a bit flaky sometimes. Even if you have a strong signal, there might be interference or temporary drops. If possible, try using an Ethernet cable for a more stable connection.
Sometimes it is just your internet speed. If your upload speed is very slow, screen sharing will have a very hard time.
Software and Settings:- The Other Culprits

Sometimes, the screen-sharing app itself can have a bad day. Try closing and reopening the app, or even restarting your computer.
If you're sharing a high-resolution screen, it requires a lot of bandwidth. Try lowering your screen resolution to see if that helps.
Most screen sharing apps have settings relating to video quality, and framerate. Check to see if lowering those settings helps stabilize the stream.
Display drivers can sometimes cause issues. Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.

[DavinChurch]

Thanks for the reply! I have checked out all the things you mentioned and quite a few others. I'm a programmer by profession so I understand where things are likely to go wrong.

Also look at the symptom details - it's not stopping and starting in mid-presentation, it's that NONE of the screen changes show up (consistently) unless I give Zoom an external command to do something, which forces it to refresh the screen once. So I have to type something which they don't see and then use a Zoom menu/action to cause it to refresh everyone's screen so they can catch up to what I typed. This is a big problem to everyone (making it effectively unusable) and isn't performance-related in any way.

However, I have narrowed down the culprit! The problem is somewhere in the Zoom app. If I refuse to use the app (multiple times) and manage to end up using the browser-only interface, then it all works fine. So something in the app itself is causing my problem. It's like the app isn't ever noticing that the screen has changed so it doesn't bother to send anything different.

I have been able to work with it inside the browser, but this is a bit of a pain for me as it takes at least three tries just to get it to come up (it keeps trying to insist on using the app) and then I can't use any of the app's more comfortable interface features. But I can live with it this way for now, as long as the browser doesn't quit working over time (which I'm half-expecting to happen). I just have to remember to start it up in a different way if I know ahead of time that I'm going to be screen sharing.