Share Video

[Tamre]

I’m just starting with Zoom. The only problem I’m encountering is as the host. I have some short videos that I would like to play on my screen and share with the participants. I’m testing this with a couple of computers in my own home and I can screen share a folder on the participant side, but when I click on the video to play it nothing changes on the participant screen. In other words, it’s still just the icon of the video not the video itself. I’m sure I’m doing something really stupid but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is.

thank you for taking the time to read this!

[hoodee23]

Hi Tamre,

Thank you for joining the Zoom Community!

It sounds like you’re sharing your screen correctly, but the video isn’t actually playing for participants. This usually happens when the video window itself isn’t selected for sharing or when the “Share sound” and “Optimize for video clip” options aren’t turned on.

Here’s how to fix it:
1. Start your meeting and click Share Screen.
2. In the window that appears, select the actual video player window (for example, your media player or browser tab), not just the folder where the file is stored.
3. At the bottom of that window, check these two boxes before clicking “Share”:
✅ Share sound
✅ Optimize for video clip
4. Once you start sharing, play the video — participants should now see and hear it smoothly.

If you still only see the video icon on the participant side, double‑check that you’re sharing the correct window and that the video isn’t minimized or hidden behind another window on your screen.