Your internet connection is unstable

[dm50]

A few weeks ago I started getting “Your internet connection is unstable” messages during meetings, and it was true – I froze momentarily for others and they froze for me.

So I called the cable company and a tech support rep said he saw the problem, could fix it remotely, and did. Only it happened again. So I called again and the rep said I needed to replace my modem. So I did and it happened again. So I called again and they sent someone out, who said the coax cable had degraded and he replaced it. And it happened again.

So I made a fourth service request and the guy replaced the new modem with a newer modem. And it happened again.

I’m at my wit’s end; at this point, I can’t believe the problem is the cable connection. But what else could it be?

I use Windows 11 with a new Dell laptop and a single wired connection to the net; I always reboot my laptop, modem and router (though the latter doesn’t play a role) before each Zoom session; I’m always Host or Co-Host and sometimes use ScreenShare but sometimes don’t and always have the problem, whether I’m using audio/video or not; the problem usually lasts just a few seconds (but is very disruptive); I don’t use high resolution; I update Zoom weekly; Speedtest – DL 370, UL 23, Ping 12/27/9.

[Jameswalter]

Test your Internet Connectivity
When the internet connection is slight chances of encountering an unstable Zoom connection are strong. To confirm whether this is the case, try to open the same website using an alternate device to check if there’s internet connectivity. If not, connect with your Internet service provider for assistance.

Fix 2 – Use the Network Troubleshooter
To auto-detect and fix problems encountered on Windows, there’s a built-in Troubleshoot provided. You can use it to resolve the wireless and other network adapters issues.

Press Windows + S and type troubleshoot > click Troubleshoot settings.
Click Additional troubleshooters.
Look for Network Adapter. Click on it and click Run the troubleshooter.

Regards,
James

[dm50]

Since a problem with the Zoom connection pretty clearly means a problem with internet connectivity, I used the troubleshooter first thing, moving on (as mentioned previously) to replacing all my equipment, including router and coax cable. No luck.

[Jane23]

I have the same problem but with a macbook air. Have you tried a powerline adaptor? 

[Jane23]

Hello! I upgraded my internet speed and router and also submitted a ticket for support from Zoom. Here's the reply I got. Hope this helps.

Step 1
 
What you need to do here is to open the Finder on your Mac. From Finder, click on Go on the top and from there, paste the directory which is ~/Library/Preferences/ZoomChat.plist
 
This will directly open the folder and you will see the file ZoomChat.plist in the folder.
 
Step 2
 
You can go ahead and delete the plist file from the folder. Please make sure you quit the Zoom Desktop application first before doing these steps. Once you are done with these steps, kindly go ahead and perform this solution.
 

1. Properly uninstall the desktop client by following the steps in the How to uninstall Zoom article
2. Install the latest version of the desktop client from https://zoom.us/download
3. Verify if you are installing the correct zoom client based on their mac chip model. We have standard clients and Macs with Apple Silicon chips.

 
I have attached a screenshot for your reference.
 
If you have any additional questions or concerns, feel free to reach us back or visit our help center page at support.zoom.us.

[Lizb]

what are the instructions for windows

[miiko]

Like DM50, I have been experiencing this very irritating problem: poor quality video, video freeze, erratic delays when screen sharing, severe degradation of voice quality

Colleagues and customers have commented on the lag and the significant degradations in sound quality, particularly when screen sharing. It is so bad that it is affecting my sales.

The problem occurs entirely randomly on a call, even when I have switched off apps such as Miro and Fathom and am not recording on Zoom
In video settings, I have switched off optimise quality settings, as well as the use of hardware acceleration
I have followed the guidance to make adjustments to the video for IRIS graphics cards to use Direct3D9
My laptop is a 2023 highest-spec Lenovo Thinkpad with 32Gb of RAM. Neither the CPU, Memory utilisation, GPU are at anywhere near critical levels.
My connection is hardwired gigabit ethernet, so I am seeing stable speeds of 700Mbps up and down with 2ms delay.
I have set up to connect to local Zoom data centres in each geography that I call to
I have tested the presentations I am typically sharing with various versions: powerpoint, google slides, pdf. Same result

I have tested the same setup with both Around and Google Meet. video quality is perfect, no video freezing, instant rendition when sharing, voice quality is perfect

My conclusion: it is not me, or my machine, it is most definitely Zoom. If the service does not reach the quality one should reasonably expect, why should I pay for it?

[miiko]

An update: The Zoom L2 technician suggested we try to connect using a full-tunnel VPN. This is a useful test as the connection bypasses the ISP.

I used ExpressVPN but you may be using a different service.

I connected to a location which was in the same geography as my nearest Zoom servers, which was Amsterdam.

Result: perfect performance, with no audio degradation or video lag!!
Conclusion: the Zoom issue resides with the ISP. My ISP changed the DNS servers from its own to use Google servers but the poor audio and video performance remained when not using a VPN to connect.

Hope I wrote up this experiment clearly and that it may help towards resolving one or two cases

[RNM]

I've been suffering a similar problem - freezing - but more significantly the zoom app crashing multiple times during a session.  Occasion message "internet connection unstable".   I switched over to my laptop on the same internet connection without the same problems so I don't believe the message - except to imagine that Zoom is having trouble within my desktop machine.   I've lots of internet experience and not seen this elsewhere.   I'm now trying the complete uninstall and clean of Zoom client and reinstalling.....  We'll see.  I suspect something within my desktop machine is interfering with the stability of the program.  It seems to happen more when I add another function in - the chat window, for example....

[ascarpitti]

Was this ever solved? I have the same problem! I've upgraded my service to a faster speed, replaced the router and modem and I've had a technician out 3 times. Still I cannot go more than a few minutes without freezing or losing audio and video.

[trishb]

I am having the same problem. my ISP says it is not them/not their problem. I have no idea how to solve this now. 

[PA7]

I feel your pain.  My life has been upended by this; I have to go to my appointments now in person.  Medical providers are frustrated, don't want to use the telephone, because now Zoom culture is established.  I check in here every now and then and nothing new that will help me.  Zoom refuses to deal with me because I'm not a paying customer and the community seems generally frustrated, lots of money spent on IT help, same stories that I've heard before.  Even being a technical genius doesn't help.

[miiko]

I have been working through this issue, including via a dialogue with a L2 technician at Zoom

I didn't realise you could look at the performance of the session
(Not in a call) Go to your picture on the application home page (top right)
Click on Settings, then Statistics
Then open a test call.
When you click on the various tabs: Overall | Audio | Video | Sharing  you can see what is happening
Then suggest you use NPerf before you open Zoom, when in the call generally, and when screen sharing, to see what happens. Typically, you might see packet losses in audio and / or video

Then you could test to see if a wired or a wireless connection makes any difference.
Finally, you could see whether using a mobile hotspot as your wireless connection makes any difference!
For me it does. My wired broadband connection runs at approaching 1GBps and the wireless speeds using the same broadband service are around 700Mbps, with around 4 ms latency on average. Yet the problems happen.

My mobile hotspot runs at less than 50Mbps up and down. NO LAG. NO FREEZING. NO JAGGY VOICE.
Only problem - I run video calls most of the day and my monthly data allowance is just 100Gb

I have checked with my internet security (Bitdefender) to see if there is something there causing the delay. Maybe open Task Manager when you are running a Zoom call, to see if there is any heavy processing going on that might be causing the delay.

After that, I will get in touch with my ISP. I will invite them to demonstrate the stability of their network provision

Thanks for reading. I hope there were some useful suggestions in there.

[jason1id]

Hi miiko,

Is your problem with zoom already resolve, i have same issue here and using other vicon not issue with my conenction.

Please update if already resolve and what we must to do.

[miiko]

Hi Jason1id
I have been in touch with my ISP.
They made changes to the router but has not resolved the issue on wired and wireless connection. The only modality that works is for me to use a mobile hotspot (different network)

[trishb]

Thank you for all this detail. I have tried these things and also can see all that is running when Zoom is open. i got new mesh router, new modem, new laptop.  A ISP tech worked with me for a long time to try to identify what was going on. I actually do think that MSFT Defender may be interferring.  I closed or paused everything running, including Outlook when on calls. Zoom had been using up about 50% of my memory. I recently ran calls on Teams and webinar on Webex with total stability.  I, too, concluded it was Zoom unfortunately - as i still think it is the most versatile.  Interestingly, the most recent thing I've done is to free up memory - by deleting A LOT of old emails, archiving emails, and uninstalling a lot of random crap that comes with laptops these days. The amount of stuff they put in startup is sort of crazy. By freeing up more memory and/or CPU - Zoom has been stable these last few days.  I'm disappointed to realize that I probably needed a lot more memory than 16GB + Intel EVO i7. My last laptop had 16 GB and I had no issues.  😞   

Did I read it correctly that Zoom is now saying you really need to have 700 Mbps ISP speed to run Zoom? 

[buddiegande]

I have been having these unstable internet connection messages for a long time but only happens when using Zoom. Nothing else apparently running on Windows 10 laptop using wifi to a router with fibre input at 500mbps.  I am at a loss as to how to sort this.  Everything points to it being a Zoom problem, whether it is interacting with something else.  Any advice please. 

[buddiegande]

I have not had the 'unstable internet' message for 2 weeks now.  I have not changed anything and I am using the same laptop in the same place with no other activity.  To me it only confirms that the problem was a Zoom one.  It would be interesting to hear comments from someone in the Zoom organisation.

[PA7]

That's great to hear.  We'll see how it goes the next medical appointment.  Thanks for sharing!

[zodedo]

I'm unclear on what you're saying with "look at the performance of the session (Not in a call)". If we go to our "picture" while not in a call, where are you saying to look? In My Account?

If I log into zoom dot com, clicking on my picture at the top right doesn't show "Settings" or anything about the performance of the session. If I then click my name, then Profile, clicking my picture there only lets me modify the picture.

If click in my picture while in a meeting, there's nothing about Settings (not even in the 3-dot menu).

I found this help page here that seems to describe what you are describing - https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0070504 - but it refers to the Zoom desktop client... whatever that is. I'm having the "Unstable network connection" pop-ups frequently during Zoom meetings (where people connect with mic and camera) on the browser version (app dot zoom dot us), but I'm unable to find any connection issue with anything else. Speed tests show fast up/down Mbps as normal. None of my other devices, even Zoom on mobile, are having connection issues. The problem appears to be with the Zoom website browser client, which rarely gave me problems in previous years.

The help page refers to downloading the desktop client here: https://zoom.us/download

However, that offers "Zoom Workplace for Windows" (it seems overboard just to have video meetings and check connection statistics for them), "Zoom Workplace for mobile" (not what I want because I need to do desktop meetings on a big screen with a mouse/keyboard and my dual monitors for work), "Zoom Plugin for Microsoft Outlook" (I don't use Outlook), "Zoom Extension for Browsers" (uh, I've had too many stability/security issues with browser extensions, and I can't tell if that'll show me connection statistics anyway), "Zoom Rooms for Conference Rooms and Touchscreen Displays" (not what I need), and "Controllers for Zoom Rooms" (also not what I need).

There's then a link below for Zoom Downloads for IT Admins, which shows downloads for "Zoom Workplace" (Plugin for mobile device screen sharing included, not what I need), "Zoom Rooms Client" (Allows an administrative installation of Zoom Rooms for Windows via MSI installer, uhh, probably not what I need), and "Remote Control for Zoom Contact Center" (not what I need).

So anyway, I don't know how to see why this is happening or what to do about it.

[dm51]

Dealing with the unstable internet messages and another issue – a beep audible to everyone on the Zoom whenever anyone enters or leaves the meeting – I was told to get a second monitor and access Zoom through the second monitor, and that has worked. I can't remember where but I think this came from extended discussions on a different Zoom Community forum.

[BobGreece]

I have found a solution for me at least. I did a ping to www.zoom.us and found I was losing packets. Then I did a ping to my router 192.168.1.1 and found I was losing packets there too! I unplugged a power-line that I had connected to the router and all the problems disappeared. Zoom worked! Something to do with the power-line is disrupting my home network. I will search more to find exactly what it is.

[Anniam]

I kept having same issues and 99% of time with Zoom. Sometimes MS Teams was a little slow, but the most of the time it was Zoom just not connecting, often crashing-relaunching. It turned out my company VPN was having timeouts and disconnecting without me noticing. An update to the VPN resolved Zoom connectivity issues.

[kel656]

I have been having the exact same issue for me.  It started last week and i am on Windows 11 also.  What has worked for me to solve this is to open Zoom prior to joining a meeting, clicking on your user icon in the upper right corner and then select settings. Once in settings, go to the video section and underneath  your webcam device uncheck HD and check original ratio.  After that hit the advanced button, and change the video rendering method from auto to Direct3D9.  Then close out of settings and then close your Zoom app and relaunch it and then join your meeting as usual and you shouldn't see the Your internet connection is unstable message anymore.  Switching off HD forces your webcams video quality to 480p and using the Direct3D9 video rendering method just seems more stable than the Direct3D11 or GDI software video rendering method on Windows 11.

[DSegui]

Thanks for this suggestion @kel656 - seems worth a try.  I have made the configuration changes and will post after my next Zoom call (in about a week) whether it helped.