Waiting Room Issues Persist Despite All Recommended Steps (Urgent Ongoing Problem)

[jcchao]

I have spent many hours over the past two days trying to resolve a serious issue with the Zoom Waiting Room function. Despite following every single step provided by Zoom Support (including enabling the Waiting Room at the account level, locking the setting, reinstalling the app, clearing the Zoom folder, etc.), the issue not only remains but has gotten worse.

Now, even when a client joins the meeting, I no longer receive any notification via Zoom or email. I’ve tested this repeatedly using different devices, including my iPhone. No matter whether I join first or let the client join first, there is no sign that someone is waiting to be admitted. The Zoom app window doesn’t show any participants waiting, and I get no email alert.

This has made it impossible for me to admit clients to meetings, and I risk losing them because of this. I’ve invested in Zoom for years to support my psychotherapy practice, but this issue is seriously impacting my work.

Is there anyone who has encountered the same issue? I would deeply appreciate insight or a solution from the Zoom Community. I’m starting to consider if I need to move to another platform.

[storyhub]

Did you open the participant list window to see those in the waiting room?

[jcchao]

Thank you to Storyhub for your support.

I spent three days intensively troubleshooting a critical Zoom issue where my clients couldn’t enter the waiting room, and I received no notifications in the app.

After trying all the recommended settings, the root cause turned out to be something I would have never suspected:
Zoom had silently unchecked the "Use my personal meeting ID (PMI)" setting in the desktop app's "New Meeting" configuration.

This caused Zoom to start using a different Meeting ID instead of my real PMI, even though my account still showed the correct PMI on the web. As a result, my clients were joining a non-existent or mismatched meeting space—and I couldn’t see them or get notified.

The issue was not caused by anything I manually changed, and there was no notification from Zoom that this setting had been altered. Once I re-checked “Use my personal meeting ID (PMI),” everything went back to normal: clients could enter the waiting room again, and I could admit them via the app.

This subtle but damaging setting change cost me several days and disrupted multiple client sessions. I’m sharing this here in case it helps someone else avoid the same frustration.