i-Pad and Zoom.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I host a Zoom meeting. One of us is 99 years old - but still manages pretty well, living on his own, with help for shopping etc. Sadly, rather far away from where I live.

He manages to join the meeting OK using his i-Pad, but can no longer un-mute himself. Which he used to be able to do OK.

I've changed the global settings for the meeting from joining muted to joining unmuted - which seems to work for others, but not him.

I don't have an i-Pad, or know anyone techie who has one to ask.

Are there any settings local to the i-Pad that would prevent it being unmuted on Zoom using the usual button on the screen?

As host of the meeting, I can mute anyone. But not unmute them - merely request they unmute.

[Brian]

Has he given the Zoom app access to the iPad mic? There is a ‘soft’ button / slider in Settings for each app to give them access to the Mic, camera etc.

Generally, apps ask for / request for access but don’t it.

It is possible he has restricted access or it isn’t unknown for the switches to be changed for no obvious reason.

[Tim+]

There’s a distinctly non-intuitive pop up message that comes up after you’re asked if you want to use video. It talks about giving permission for Wi-Fi or something, but *doesn’t* mention that this is essential for sound. You have to select “no audio” or “Wi-Fi”.

For anyone a bit unfamiliar with the vagaries of iPads it’s not surprising that folk get confused by the choice. It ought to ask “audio” or “no audio”

Tim

[Theo]

It's asking if you want to join via Wifi or via dialin on a landline phone or something else. But even if you say 'wifi or mobile internet' that gets incoming audio.

I think Zoom remembers the microphone mute from the previous time, but on iOS there's also a setting:

1. Open the Zoom app
2. At the bottom press the three dots marked 'More' (this is the settings menu but they don't label it settings)
3. Press Meetings
4. Here's some useful settings:

a. Move 'Auto Connect Audio' from 'Off' to 'Wifi or Cellular Data' (should remove the 'do you want to use a landline' popup) b. If 'Mute My Microphone' is enabled, slide it across to disable it c. 'Turn off My Video' may be off or on, depending on whether you want it by default.

It's not really an iPad thing, it's just the Zoom app being peculiar. However I agree it's confusing if you don't know what things like 'Wifi or Cellular Data' are.

Theo

[Dave Plowman (News]

I do tend to use a variety here - depending on circumstances. And Zoom seems to select them automatically. If I'm using a headset, unplug it, Zoom reverts to the internal system. But this is a Windows laptop - I dunno anything about Apple products.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Settings on my Zoom app in the audio part allow you to join a meeting muted or unmuted. I assume this is universal being part of the Zoom app? Big snag is getting someone who understands things to look at this i-pad. I have spoken to a neighbour who helps him out, but sadly didn't really understand the problem.

[Theo]

Yes, I assume it's the same across the platforms that Zoom runs on.

One of the things that really annoys me about iOS, (and Android in its early days too although I think things are better now) is it doesn't have a way to allow somebody to remote control it in the mode of Teamviewer etc. That means it's very hard to remotely support someone with technical issues like this.

Theo

[Tim+]

But has probably saved a lot of folk from various scams… Swings and roundabouts.

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

Could be the recent IOS update. Many things in settings can change during an update.On the whole it uses sensible defaults, but sometimes not. Probably no other way out than to go to the apple store or ask on their helpline, or maybe you have a 6 year old kid you can ask. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I was impressed the other day with Google Meets on the PC, but do not know if there is a version for the Ipad, certainly it exists on Android. Brian