Audio problems with Zoom phone only - meetings works fine

[mitchmcc]

Hi

This problem is somewhat intermittent but is more often a problem than not.

When using Zoom phone on the desktop app, I can neither hear nor be heard. The desktop app works fine for meetings and using the 'test microphone' and 'test speaker' options works successfully.

I have deleted and reinstalled Zoom. (And rebooted multiple times). 

Using Windows 11.

The Zoom app on my cell phone works fine.

Thanks for your help

Mitch

[Vinnie]

Hello @mitchmcc, without more information it is difficult to tell except that it seems to be an issue with your computer resources so you need to check CPU and MEMORY resources during a call to verify.

Fortunately, Zoom Phone provides all the tools you need to confirm with 100% certainty (or almost ) if the issue is Internet, CPU, and/or Memory.

ℹ️Unfortunately the Audio Test from the App (Mic and Speaker) is aimed to check the devices itself and not the actual "voice call" transmitted over the network, as in "simulating a call over Internet" against the Zoom Cloud for an end-to-end test.

One more thing before jumping to the testing, I will share my experience with Windows 10 and Windows 11: I normally have a many  of Browsers and App Windows opened (Chrome is very memory-hungry) and with a Laptop using just 16GB RAM or less, I almost always have issues with phone calls due to 90-98% memory utilization and I had to upgrade to 32GB which even when the Memory shows Red in the test, the audio quality issue is gone.

• You said the audio is fine on your Mobile Zoom App, but not the Desktop Zoom App: If both devices are connected to the same Network/Internet, it should discard Internet is the issue as you have both devices sharing the same transport network. If you are in 4G/5G on your mobile when testing, then connect it to the same Network/Internet and test again. If the issue appears in your mobile so you need to look into your Network devices, and Internet connection and concentrate mainly there to do further testing.
• If the previous step was not an issue, then here are two things you can do:
  1. Checking the Computer Resources from the Zoom App:
     • On the Zoom App itself, take a look to the Statistics values for CPU and Memory
       •  
  2. Via a "synthetic call" test from your Zoom Web Portal (Network Diagnostics) and/or from you Zoom App; take a look at this great article from Zoom about how to use those tools: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0058114 
     • Go you your Zoom Web Portal:  PERSONAL > Phone > Network Diagnostics 
     • Run a test and take a special look to results for Packet Loss (avg. and max.) and Jitter (avg. and max.), both should be small values; in general within 1-digit % for Packet Loss and less than 40 ms for Jitter. 
     • In general, crackling noises are more associated with Packet Loss, Choppiness and Voids are more associated with high Jitter; high Latencies (over 150ms) are shown in the form (typically) when both sides talk to each other because of long delays.
     • Identify what is the issue you experienced (maybe attach a recording of the issue here) and compare with what is happening with what I explained about the Jitter/Packet-Loss testing.
  1.  

Let us know how it goes.
If this helps address your issue/question, please click the button (Accept as Solution).

[mitchmcc]

Hi Vinnie 

Thanks for the detailed response. On the Zoom app statistics shows CPU 1.8 GHz Cores 8.  Memory 7.39 GB.

Sorry, I hope I'm not being obtuse but I couldn't find network diagnostics under Personal>Phone. The 4 tabs are History, Voicemail, Recording and Settings. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks

Mitch

[Vinnie]

8GB RAM is the bare minimum recommended by Zoom to run smoothly.  If you have multiple apps opened and doing multitasking you need more. I have mentioned, not even 16GB is enough with heavy multitasking, and I am talking by experience. Only you know how you use the computer but with 8GB your computer is under-resourced, and that affects the audio quality significantly. I am using today 32GB because of my heavy multitasking.

If you don't in your Zoom Portal that option shown below, I wonder if there is something missing in your account to enable that option. You can always use the one built-in in the Zoom App as the link I sent you described: Where you able to use that one? After the picture shows how to launch it.

The network connectivity tool can be accessed by the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D
• macOS: Cmd+Option+Shift+D

⚠️What is important to look is the percentage of used memory and CPU during a call

CPU, Cores and Memory is not the most important part, but the % used, especially on the memory side. On the Zoom App