Can't admit "present" participants who arrive a few minutes early

[MMB5]

Repeatedly when I've received an email "NAME has joined your meeting" ... a few minutes before the scheduled start time ... and started the meeting early, that person does not pop up as in the waiting room, to admit.

Often it's ~1 minute into the scheduled time before Zoom gives me the prompt that allows me to admit them. (And they are there -- they didn't leave -- waiting for me to admit them.)

Even when I've started the meeting on-time, the same delayed ability to admit them (despite their being present, per a Zoom email) has existed.

I DO want to keep using the waiting room. So stopping that is not a "work-around" for this issue.

Has anyone else experienced and resolved this issue?

Many thanks!

[Ray_Harwood]

Hey, @MMB5,

Most often, this is because the person who joined early realizes you’re not there and they leave, returning later. The email can be delayed; the user might exit seconds after the email is sent. Lots of explanations.

My personal solution: I’ll open the meeting and let them in when I’m ready, and I’m often early, rarely late myself.  Plus I created a custom video for the Waiting Room to keep them entertained. 
https://vimeo.com/697071215/fc8af659b0 

See this Zoom Support article for more customization options:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/4905283822733-Enabling-and-customizing-the-Waiting-Room 

[MMB5]

@Ray_Harwoodthank you for that feedback. I know some times people drop off after coming on.

My concern is different -- I have had people tell me they stayed online and were waiting to be admitted -- but I was not prompted to be able to admit them early / at the meeting start time ... sometimes only a minute into the scheduled meeting.

If you have feedback on that scenario too, I'd welcome it!

Many thanks!

[Ray_Harwood]

My pleasure.  All I can say is that I've never personally had a verified issue with someone waiting in a Waiting Room and not being visible to the Host.  I can think of a few more scenarios (scenaria? 🤔) where there could be some confusion... the first that comes to mind is someone has clicked a link to another meeting and is waiting in the wrong Waiting Room (I've had that happen... they clicked the link for last month's meeting).  But the one issue I have had before is that I forget there's a Waiting Room and don't have the "Make a ding sound when someone enters" turned on... so it takes me a while to let them in.  But that's just my old age/lack of attention -- not really your issue!

Bottom line... if you think your experiences with this are frequent and continual, create a Support Ticket directly to Zoom staff :
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/requests/new 

Us volunteers in the Zoom Community don’t have access to account information or visibility into technical stuff enough to troubleshoot.  Zoom Staff may help you with this request... but be prepared for the usual starting regimen of update your Zoom client, remove and reinstall it, etc.  If they were getting a significant number of tickets on this, they'd be working on it already... so their assumption is going to be that the problem is on your end.  Sorry... that's just how it is!

But if you come up with a specific scenario where this really does occur -- repeatability being the key to designating a "real issue" -- then let me know and I'll do what I can to escalate it to Zoom Staff.