Zoom participants are not visible as waiting in waiting room

Hey @NewBroom super interesting, I would double-check that you and the participants are up-to-date running the latest version of Zoom. Also, you can try in-meeting disabling and reenabling to see if you're prompt to admit participants in. the waiting room under the 'security' tab. However, if it's automatically enabled, you will see something like this ⤵️

Host View (On Desktop)

Participant View (On Mobile)

And our KB article, on Waiting Rooms. Also, another useful tip while in-meeting/another notification -- click on 'participants' under 'More', make sure "Play Join and Leave Sound" is ✅

I’ve also got the same problem. I get an email saying I have participants in the waiting room but when I log on I am the only one in the waiting room. I’m using an up to date Zoom app on Windows 10. This problem has started in the last couple of weeks (mid Jan 2022). I’ve been using zoom since March 2020 and never had this issue before. It takes a combination of myself and my client logging in and out to get the meeting started which obviously wastes time and looks unprofessional. Any ideas how to fix it? Thanks

Hi all, this forum is much appreciated. I experienced the same problem today, which led me here--y'all aren't crazy, this is a real and frustrating problem. I wish I had solutions, but I do not (other than, as mentioned, disabling waiting room altogether). To try to troubleshoot the problem's source, I am curious from all who've responded here so far: was anyone by chance using the Slate CRM or another CRM, as the vehicle to have participants register for their Zoom event when they encountered this problem? I'm trying to determine if the problem I experienced had anything to do with the Slate CRM and Zoom miscommunicating with each other, or, if this is strictly just a Zoom-specific malfunction. I suspect the latter. But thought I'd ask in case perhaps others were sharing their Zoom URL through Slate (or another CRM) with guests instead of given the direct Zoom URL to guests. 

If it helps anyone, the problem I experienced was similar to the ones you all described: people were telling us they were in a waiting room, but Zoom did not show any waiting room (nor anyone inside a waiting room). I've hosted hundreds of Zoom Meetings and never had this happen before, as there has always just been a waiting room (even if it's empty). But this time Zoom showed no waiting room, even though clearly people were clearly waiting to be admitted because they told us they were.  I work for a university, and we were using the Slate CRM to have guests register in advance---and what's interesting is that Slate counted them as having "attended" the event (rather than just "registered"), which is more evidence that people were in an invisible waiting room that the host, for some reason, just never saw -- and therefore couldn't admit waiting guests from.  Super frustrating. We did also have a passcode enabled in our Zoom event. So I'm trying to determine if it's strictly just a Zoom malfunction/glitch, or if perhaps somehow there's miscommunication between Zoom and the Slate (or other) CRM given the passcode + waiting room security mechanisms in combination with the fact that Slate "changes" the URL that guests ultimately receive (guests never see the direct URL I make in Zoom, but rather, they get a modified URL that Slate sends them).  Best of luck to everyone navigating this puzzling "invisible waiting room" experience!

I'm appreciative of this forum, because I too am having the same issue. My Zoom version is up to date, yet I continue to sporadically get the email notification that someone is waiting in the waiting room, meanwhile there is only me in the Zoom room. I have attempted to follow the exact same link given out, logging out and logging back in, even restarting my computer, but to no avail. I  have not been able to pinpoint what causes it to happen, because as others have said, the link can be generated from Calendly (scheduling tool) or manually and will sporadically result in this problem. It looks terribly unprofessional. And I am hopeful that Zoom will read this and resolve the issue.

Just had the exact same problem.

It was a disaster.

There is a way that might be useful, I found out that if I launch the meeting in advance using the "Start Meeting" button on a previously received notification email that someone is trying to join zoom, then I can see the people in the waiting room.  

Solved it!

Hi there,

I had the same problem. With the same account, I was able to check my waiting room participants in my tablet, but whenever I was changing to my desktop computer, I was not able to see other participants. Enabling and disabling waiting room option under security tab was not a solution at all.

I managed to solve the problem by removing the tick of "start with video" box (in pop-up list under new meeting button) and putting tick in "use my personal meeting ID" box. It solved my problem for my computer and now I am able to see participants in waiting room. I hope this also works for you.

Hi, thanks for taking the effort to reach out! I tried what you said and it worked for now. Not sure how it could work because I don't see any logical link between the steps you took and the visibility of participants - it seems to be random. Maybe it works because it's a Tuesday, or because I am having a good hair day, who knows 🙂 
I will keep your solution at hand for now and test in in a meeting with a client I know well, so that it won't be a big issue if it still stalls. But thanks!!! 

I had the same problem this morning.. I have 640 students so I can't ensure they are using up-to-date software.  Had a student trying to join me to ask me some questions about their assignment.  On their end it said "waiting" but I couldn't see them in the waiting room. this was extremely frustrating. 

I encountered this problem for the first time today. My meeting participant emailed to say he was in the waiting room, but I got no notification. He exited and re-entered the room, but still nothing appeared on my screen. But since he was convinced he was in the right meeting, I went looking and found that when I opened the 'participants' tab, I could see that he was in the waiting room. 

I got no e-mail to say he was there (that only seems to happen when the participant arrives at the room before I launch a meeting), and  we were both wondering whether the other had forgotten the meeting. It was very annoying and cost us about ten minutes of waiting and finally hunting down the problem.

This has never happened before. I use Zoom all the time, and every other time that I had the waiting room enabled, I got a notification that popped up at the top of the Zoom window and stayed until I let the person in.

I was used Calendly to set up the Zoom meeting, and possibly that has something to do with it. But I haven't had that problem until today (and I didn't have the problem earlier today for another meeting that was set up the same way).

I also had my Zoom screen set to half my desktop screen instead of using the full screen, and am wondering if that had something to do with it.

I mostly don't use the waiting room feature, but for my Calendly meetings it is the default and I actually like being able to ensure that my participants only enter the room when I'm ready.

So, next time I will turn on the participants tab just to be doubly sure I see the notification. At least in this case, that seemed to work.