Unstable internet causes audio loss but not video??

[JohnCross]

I've been getting some odd behaviour with Zoom that seems to go against what I would expect so i thought I'd post to see if anyone had experienced similar...

During video meetings I am frequently getting the audio dropping out and a notification of "your internet connection is unstable" appearing. What is unusual is that the video continues without any problem what-so-ever! Obviously video uses much more bandwidth than audio so I would expect the video to freeze, perhaps with the audio continuing.

I dont seem to get any other internet connection issues. I have a 100mb connection and can happily stream 4K movies. But even if the connection is poor - surely it would affect the Zoom video more than the audio? If the audio problem is related to the sound drivers or headphones, why would I get a notification about connection instability?

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? 

[EricG · Accepted solution]

Try taking yourself off Mute and see if you still have the issue.  We still have an issue that we haven't figured out yet and that is when we are on computer audio and muted, we will often have parts of the audio drop and get the unstable internet connection.  As soon as we unmute ourselves, the issue goes away.  This is in a large organization with both wired and wireless devices.

[JohnCross]

After a lot of experimentation this seems to be the root cause. Thanks ever so much for the help! I'll mark the solution as accepted.

[JohnCross]

I will definately try that as I am fairly diligent about muting when not speaking. If it works I'll report back here. Thanks!

[AChang]

I teach an aerobics dance class on Zoom and have recently been experiencing this problem of the sound dropping out intermittently for class participants. I have taught this class all through the pandemic and this issue has only recently become a regular problem. Video appears to be fine. Everything on my end continues without issue and it is only after class that I hear about all the problems! Wi-Fi connection is strong, have booted and rebooted many times but without successfully figuring out why music continues to drop. I will try to adjust settings in audio and see if that helps, but so far, no luck.

[emarcum]

I have had the same issues for months, but I only have this issue at work not when I WFH.  I have updated my zoom each time it is available and I am hardwired to our network.  I am however updated to the new Windows 11, do you have this version?  My IT dept thinks it is my computer or Adobe and want to remove this and gibe me another softwarre program. 

[EricG]

Everyone in our organization has this issue.  It seems to be a common issue of zoom users and I haven't seen a standard solution.  It's almost like the internet traffic for zoom is prioritized when a person is unmuted.  Sort of like qos - quality of service for voip phone lines).  I wish Zoom would help us find a solution to this.

[occoalex]

Did you find out a fix for this? I am also having this issue in my company with many of our users.

[JohnCross]

The only fix I have found is to un-mute for a while and then mute again until the audio starts dropping... rinse and repeat... Its far from ideal.

[emarcum]

The only fix I found to work, is to take myself off of mute for a little bit, maybe a minute and mute again.  then everything seems fine.