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General troubleshooting tips

  • Updated

My Camera and Microphone aren't working

By clicking on the room name button in your room, you can select the microphone or camera you'd like to use for your meeting under the Device tab. However, in some cases, Whereby won't detect a camera or microphone, the devices could be blocked, or the device selection won't save, as demonstrated in the image below. In these cases, there are a few things you can do to get everything working again!

First Steps 

Update Your Browser

The first thing to check is if your browser is up to date. We support the two most recent versions of our supported browsers, so double-check that there isn't an update for the one you're using! There are links below that walk you through updating your browser if you don't know how to: 

Accidentally Block Permission?

When Whereby first asks permission to access your camera and microphone, you may have chosen "Block" instead of "Allow" by mistake. 

dialogue box of your cam and mic are not active. Whereby wants to use your camera and microphone. Allow or Block?

In this case, please press the camera icon in the browser's address bar to undo the block, then press "Try Again." The icon looks slightly different on different browsers, but here are some examples:

Chrome browser address bar, highlighting camera icon on right

Firefox browser address bar, highlighting cross-out camera icon on left

Clear Your Cache and Cookies

Finally, it's possible that this is caused by a stale mic/cam permissions cookie, or possibly because of another application that's taking priority access over Whereby.

In this case, we recommend clearing your cache and cookies for your entire browser and then restarting your computer. Sometimes a reset of your system environment will resolve these types of issues, so this is a "catch-all" solution before further investigation is required! Instructions for clearing your cache and cookies for our supported browsers are linked below:

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I can't see/hear everyone in my meeting

Since Whereby is browser based, it is important to make sure that everyone's set up is up to par with our set up. If there are black frames or someone cannot be heard, it might be related to permissions, browser, device  or network.

Below are some tips on how to resolve this issue: 

Network 

The most common reason for these issues is related to network connections not being established between you and your guests.

For most users, this is related to network security, for example a VPN or a firewall.

  • If you have a VPN try disabling it and reconnecting to the room.
  • If you have a firewall, try configuring it with our basic setup recommendations.
  • Try connecting via an alternative network, such as a mobile hotspot.
  • Check that your Network meets all of our recommendations Network Requirements

If you are still running into issues and you are on one of our paid plans, please send us a message directly from your room or dashboard by selecting the "help" button.

Permissions

Remove any background effects and noise reduction features that you have active.

It could be possible that another platform is taking microphone access so a quick way to fix this is to clear your cache and cookies. Below you can find further instructions depending on the browser you are using

Browsers

Make sure your browser is running on the latest version. You can check Chrome,Firefox and Opera for updates.

There have been reports in the past where similar issues happen when a connection is made through a Safari or Edge browser. For good practice, we recommend using some of our more seasoned veterans such as Chrome or Firefox to see if the issue persists. 

While Edge & Safari are supported browsers of our technology (WebRTC), these browsers are still somewhat new to providing support to that technology and the WebRTC community has a few bug reports open with their development team that we are advocating to get fixed. Unfortunately since we are 100% browser based we are at the mercy of these dev teams to for some bug fixes on their side.

Devices

To ensure that your laptop/computer CPU can process media, you'll need to:

  • Turn off any software running on your computer that you do not need for streaming. Close all unnecessary browser windows, tabs, and any video intensive software.
  • Check Hardware Acceleration is enabled on both your browser and computer hardware. If it is, try turning it off and seeing the result. If it is not, try turning it on. On certain devices, this setting can cause issues.

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What should I do if I'm experiencing connectivity problems?

It's a good idea to try out a few different networks to rule out the possibility of a WiFi issue. Switching to a different router, mobile hotspot, or trying an ethernet connection may resolve the issue, so this is the first recommendation. 

You can also enable mobile mode by clicking on the Meeting Settings cog in the top right corner of the room. From there click on advanced settings and toggle on mobile mode. This essentially will decrease the data usage on your computer which will help the platform cope with slower internet speeds. 

If you're not able to resolve the issue, be sure to look at our troubleshooting article.

Using Wifi or Ethernet

Poor WiFi connections are the biggest cause of quality and connectivity problems with Whereby. In many cases, the connection may be fast and stable enough at the modem, but a bad router or excessive traffic on the router can cause problems in the call. In an office environment for example, a router may be overloaded due to the number of computers connecting. So if this is the case, we recommend using Ethernet. 

 

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