ProTip #4 - Help us help you on the Community!

[Bort]

When coming to the Zoom Community for troubleshooting help, our community of Zoom experts, Audio/Visual professionals, and other tech-savvy users might be able to help, but we often need more information to get a clearer picture of what the underlying issue is. This month’s ProTip is all about how to productively post in the Community and provide subject matter experts with the most helpful information, so that, in turn, a faster solution might be found.

Provide detail without giving away personal information

When detailing the issue you are having, it can often help us know the specifics of your device, such as the exact brand, model, OS version, and Zoom version you are experiencing the issue with. These details can help us track down issues specific to that Zoom app version, that OS version, that specific brand of computer, or a combination of all.

That being said, this is a publicly accessible forum, so any personally identifiable information  should never be exposed, such as full name, email addresses, phone numbers, meeting IDs, passcodes, company name, and login passwords. We want to protect your account and personal information, so personally identifiable information should only be shared through a private communication channel, such as contacting Zoom Support, and with the consent of the owner of that information.

Note: If you expose Personally Identifiable Information (PII) publicly on the community, your post will be removed to protect your personal information and Zoom account. 

Explain the circumstances around the issue

When explaining your issue, paint a full picture of what led up to and after the issue. Important details might include error codes or messages, screenshots of what is happening (with any exposed PII blacked out or pixelated), what you were trying to accomplish, other programs running at the same time, and how hot your device felt or how loud the fans on the device were, as this can tell us if your device was overheating. These details can help explain what caused the issue and allow for a more efficient resolution. 

What have you already tried to fix the issue? 

Have you turned it off and on again? We’ve likely all been asked this question before when talking to IT or other helpdesk, but knowing what you have already done to try to fix the issue is helpful. Knowing that you’ve already restarted your device, reinstalled the app, and/or any other steps you’ve taken to troubleshoot allows us to skip those suggestions and get to more advanced troubleshooting tips quicker.

We’re all here to help

Lastly, remember that we are here to help, discuss, and collaborate, so please have patience with everyone in the Community. We may be on different time schedules or only have a few minutes a day to help in the Community, so responses may not come immediately. If it's been a few days without a response from someone, feel free to tag them in another reply to see if they have any updates or other suggestions for you. For more urgent issues, please contact Zoom Support for official help. 

[Bri]

Great tip! Thanks for all you do @Bort  😎

[RN]

Amazing Tips here @Bort! 🚀

[IP-Man]

thank you for the helpful tips @Bort 

[Shaimaa]

Very detailed and useful thanks @Bort 

[Karey-Spirit]

I need help. I am hoping someone here is willing to give me the help I need. I submitted a ticket to zoom and all they did was say no one is available at this time and closed my ticket without explanation.

I signed into a zoom meeting from my laptop today 4-15-23 and received the message "an error occurred use your browser". Not knowing any better I did so. It said "enter name" which I did. and it said "all future meetings will be from the browser".

In the meantime I went on my cell phone and asked a participant to let me know when the meeting starts as my laptop screen still said the meeting had not started. 

I went to the original screen for the zoom meeting and used the new link created by the host of the meeting which worked and attended the meeting.

The problem is last night, 4-14-23, I used the UCSF.ZOOM.US/TEST and it worked. Today after zoom switched to my browser it did not work. I am in desperate need to know how to get zoom to switch back to zoom log in and NOT use my browser. I have a telehealth appointment coming up. It took me 2 years to get this  appointment. I am 80 and have no one to help me with tech help and cannot afford to pay for any as I am on a fixed income. Please help as soon as possible as I have to be able to use zoom from the zoom link for my telehealth meeting. Thank you for your help. my email is *********** 

How do I submit this? I do not want to cancel it. Obviously I don't want to reply to myself. Why aren't things easier? I see that it is auto-saved. 

[RN]

Hi @Karey-Spirit welcome to the community! First, it looks like you were accessing https://zoom.us/test which is a test meeting (in-browser) which automatically's assigns a meeting ID and password, as you will be redirected to launch the meeting from the browser:

• If you have the Zoom desktop client installed on your computer, click Open Zoom.us to launch Zoom.
• If you don't have the Zoom desktop client installed on your computer, click download and run Zoom to download, install, and then run Zoom.
• If you cannot download or run the Zoom desktop client on your computer, click join from your browser. 

Secondly, I would advise to look over this knowledge base article on Joining a Zoom meeting, whether you are joining a meeting with the invite link or manually enter the meeting ID and passcode. 

[Karey-Spirit]

RN thank you for your reply. Unfortunately your reply is confusing to me. I am not very tech savvy with the newest technology. I don't understand why the test worked one day and did not work the next. Especially since I got the message I did regarding the browser as I had never received that message before.

I watched the video and it had the mechanics of what to do, which I've successfully been doing to join meetings. But it did not give me a clue as to why I received the message regarding the browser and why the test did not work after that. It's frustrating as it leaves me in the dark so to speak. Not understanding and feeling as though it is something I may encounter again.

In any case it seems without human intervention the problem was resolved. The zoomtest works now. And started working yesterday. The miracles of the unknown intervened and corrected whatever needed to be corrected.

I am still confused, but am grateful the problem  is resolved, and thank you for taking the time to reply even though it was confusing. Have a good day.

[5Juliet55]

Unfortunately I do not have the time to read Zoom's never ending novels about how to navigate every single step I wish to take with Zoom.  Nor do I have the time to 'write' Zoom a novel to explain in detail what I am trying to accomplish.  It has taken me (8) eight long months to get Zoom to allow me to login.  Today I finally got logged in (although) there is nothing that actually shows me or my account so I am not confident when I logout that I will be able to log back into Zoom tomorrow without writing Zoom yet another novel.  If all Zoom customers have to write Zoom a novel each and every single day just to login, how is Zoom or the customers who wish to use your services accomplishing anything?  Now that I managed to login today I tried to go to step number 2 but I cannot.  When I joined Zoom many years ago, AI may very well have been in the construction phase but it was not being rammed down the throats of those of us who wish to use the internet.  I strongly suspect that AI is the reason I am having such difficulty using your site so how do I or anyone else who wishes to use Zoom benefitting from AI?  Personally, I happen to have a very high IQ and AI has not proved its value to me.  Nothing that begins with the word 'artificial' has ever proved its value to me so please leave any connections to AI out of this conversation until Zoom can prove its value.  'Prove' being the operative word here.  Thank you.

[Frank_TB]

@Bort 

I suggest one other addition to your helpful post.

Thread Hijacking 

Don't hijack another persons support thread. In most cases, it makes more sense to start your own support thread.

Most issues reported by users are similar, but different.  Asking for support in another users thread makes it harder to resolve an issue as each thread can become confusing with multiple people requesting help. This is especially true when the various forum participants are using different devices, don't have the exact same issue and don't pay attention to advice targeted at another forum participant.

Regards