Zoom, Skype Technical Q&A here:

[Qapla]

 

 

Quote

Current Release

August 20, 2021 version 5.7.6 (1055)

Download type: Manual
Download here: Download Center

Changes to existing features

• MSI flag required for Outlook IM Integration on MSI deployments
  Due to a potential conflict with components shared with other Microsoft products, such as Skype and Teams, the integration for Outlook status syncing will not be automatically available with MSI deployments. This must be deployed by admins with the existing MSI/GPO option IntegrateZoomWithOutlook. The exe version is unaffected, as it already required admin credentials to be enabled.

New and enhanced features

• General features
  • SSO logout notifications 
    Set by admins in the web portal, users are forewarned when they will be automatically signed-out of the desktop client and mobile app. Warnings can be provided at login, 24 hours, 1 hour, and 5 minutes before logout.
• Meeting/webinar features
  • Transfer meetings between devices 
    Seamlessly transition meetings from mobile to desktop and back to mobile, allowing you to take advantage of the mobility of the mobile client and the more feature-rich desktop client to suit your needs. This feature will not be immediately available, as it is dependent on a web release currently scheduled for August 21, 2021, and will be rolled out to customers over time.
  • Optimize for video auto-detect 
    When Optimize for video clip is enabled but no video is detected, the client will automatically disable this feature to provide better visual quality of the shared content, then automatically re-enable when video is detected again.
• Meeting features
  • Limit screen sharing for meetings with external participants 
    Admins can apply restrictions to specific users or to groups through web settings to prevent these users from screen sharing when a guest participant (a user external to the host’s account) joins a meeting. These users will still be able to screen share when there are no guest participants.
• Chat features
  • Chat sidebar enhancements 
    Further quality-of-life enhancements to the chat sidebar, including easy and clear designation if a channel is public or private. For the desktop clients, fewer chats/channels are shown per group, as well as the ability to expand to see more, in order to provide greater overall visibility of all chats and channels.
  • Relocation of Search bar 
    The Search bar in the client has been relocated to the left side of the client.
• Phone features
  • Privacy feature for shared lines 
    If enabled by an account owner and admin, shared line group and shared line appearance members can lock their current call. This prevents others from picking up a held call, listening, whispering, barging, or taking over the call.

  • Company phone number while in a call 

    Phone users can view their own company number and extension while in a call. Previously, only the extension was displayed.

Resolved Issues

• Minor bug fixes
• Security enhancements
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding rotating the Surface Pro and the user’s video not rotating as well 
• Resolved an issues for a subset of users regarding the client crashing when no camera is detected 
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding the sharing toolbar being difficult to move when multiple screens are arranged above one another 
• Resolved an issue regarding inaccurate MSI package details 
• Resolved an issue for a subset of users regarding video sharing being prevented when connected through a proxy and bandwidth is restricted by MSI configuration 

 

[jwhess]

On 8/17/2021 at 8:26 AM, Qapla said:

This is interesting.  My Zoom updated a few days ago (around 8/12) and then again yesterday.  It id the same version number 5.7.5 except for the numbers in parentheses.   it was (939) but now it is (1020). Must not have been worthy of a decimal point....🙂

 

[jwhess]

6 minutes ago, jwhess said:

This is interesting.  My Zoom updated a few days ago (around 8/12) and then again yesterday.  It id the same version number 5.7.5 except for the numbers in parentheses.   it was (939) but now it is (1020). Must not have been worthy of a decimal point....🙂

 

Now it just updated again (in the last few minutes).  We are going from 5.7.5 (1020) to 5.7.5 (1055)...What is going on?  3 micro-updates in the last 8 days?

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by jwhess

[AH173]

On 8/5/2021 at 12:13 PM, AH173 said:

I haven't seen this before. I think it's a setting that was probably checked by mistake or a default upon upgrade for organizational account. 

With this latest update it seems that what I had experienced with zoom not showing my main zoom window (49 participants) and only showing the 2nd monitor display when showing images/video -that my cobe the video organizer has experienced it also. Hopefully he will see if my suggestion will work to have everything show about 3 or so updates ago.

 

I have noticed that my cpu resources zoom is taking up too much from prior. Up to 50% of cpu resources is being used even while I am assigned a co host who takes care of room entrance or lower hands and mute responsibility. It was not like that before.

 

[Hinata]

The auto-detect feature for optimise video could be useful. The A/V servants who switch between sharing moving and still media (i.e. videos and images) may no longer need the hassle of clicking on and off that checkbox. Just keep it on indefinitely, and it will auto detect.

 

[Floyd]

13 hours ago, Hinata said:

The auto-detect feature for optimise video could be useful. The A/V servants who switch between sharing moving and still media (i.e. videos and images) may no longer need the hassle of clicking on and off that checkbox. Just keep it on indefinitely, and it will auto detect.

 

We just leave it on. I don't see any degradation with still pictures, not enough to detract.

[jwhess]

All of my devices just updated Zoom to version 5.7.6 and this was across all of my Windows, Apple and Android devices.

[jwhess]

Zoom sent a notice out this morning that as of November 1, 2021 there will be a requirement to update the Zoom application.  they gave reasons and schedules and will provide notices but i was thinking of those "ordinary" publishers who downloaded zoom and really know nothing about the app.

 

There may be an upcoming need for the technicians in the congregation to help or assist those "non-techies" to keep updated.

 

After September 1st, the oldest Zoom version acceptable will be 5.5.0 (stay tuned, I am sure more is to come).

 

Dear Valued Customer, 
We are writing to share upcoming changes to Zoom software releases designed to optimize security and platform performance that may require action. 
Beginning November 1, 2021, customers will be required to update their Zoom software... or at minimum software version 5.5.0, prior to November 1st. Starting in September

[Qapla]

 

[Hinata]

13 hours ago, jwhess said:

Zoom sent a notice out this morning that as of November 1, 2021 there will be a requirement to update the Zoom application.  they gave reasons and schedules and will provide notices but i was thinking of those "ordinary" publishers who downloaded zoom and really know nothing about the app.

 

There may be an upcoming need for the technicians in the congregation to help or assist those "non-techies" to keep updated.

 

I actually noticed that Zoom does not have auto update feature like most programs. I have to manually go to “check for updates” every time there is an update, and download it to make sure it was updated.

 

I was checking this post frequently but it was only a few days ago when I noticed my Zoom was never updated actually. And I tried to find if there is a way to make program to update automatically but there doesn’t appear to be one.

 

I would say unless someone was bothered to, they definitely wouldn’t check for the updates.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Hinata

[jwhess]

In the past, if publishers did not update or didn't know about updating they might use a Zoom product that was a year or two old.  We still had people raising the "blue" hand in meetings.  But now it seems that won't work anymore.  they say that version 5.5.0 is the oldest that will function (and they will check on startup).

[Qapla]

Several people I know do not update on a regular basis - then, when they get three or so updates behind they get a pop-up telling them they need to update before they can join the meeting with a button to click on to update.

 

I try to keep mine updated and I check my FIL's computer regularly to keep him updated since he doesn't know how to do it.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Qapla

[jwhess]

I was able to  update my Android device today to 5.7.7 but my Ipad and the Iphone still have  version 5.7.6

[TylerD]

3 hours ago, jwhess said:

I was able to  update my Android device today to 5.7.7 but my Ipad and the Iphone still have  version 5.7.6

iOS will update soon. The iOS release requires Apple approval and may take a few additional days to appear in the App Store.

[Floyd]

My Android devices update automatically.

[onBoard17]

Random question (sorry if already addressed)...our org account doesn't allow for profile pictures to be shown and some friends seemed to find a loophole with that and have a image display (sometimes animated) as their video. Sometimes the attendant needs to stop the 'video' based on the content but is there anyway to disable that as well? Thanks!

[AH173]

If the setting was correctly applied in the organizational account, then there shouldn't be a loophole.

 

Unless they are using obs software.

 

If I were our meeting the cobe or me would disable the video of that participant.

 

[TylerD]

31 minutes ago, onBoard17 said:

Random question (sorry if already addressed)...our org account doesn't allow for profile pictures to be shown and some friends seemed to find a loophole with that and have a image display (sometimes animated) as their video. Sometimes the attendant needs to stop the 'video' based on the content but is there anyway to disable that as well? Thanks!

This is a problem I haven't heard of before.

 

22 minutes ago, AH173 said:

Unless they are using obs software.

This was what I was thinking of as well, but it is bit of a high tech loophole. The OBS virtual webcam, which is a different video source that can be selected in Zoom instead of the actual webcam. This can not be blocked if that is what they are using.

 

These friends need to be aware to not display profile pictures. The branch requires that no profile pictures to be displayed at the meetings. It is in the guidelines.

Also,

Quote

If one chooses to display his video, he should be modestly dressed and ensure that what appears in the background reflects the respect and dignity appropriate for a theocratic event.—2 Cor. 6:3, 4; 1 Tim. 2:9, 10.

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by TylerD

[Qapla]

Unless "Virtual Backgrounds" are disabled then some may have a background that some will object to. Our Congregation is quite tolerant of the various VB that are used - so far no one has used something objectional.

 

Even if the VB are disabled, some have purchased actual "backdrops" with a nice picture on it and use that instead of a VB ... the only way to stop that is to turn off their video.

 

My camera has a cover for the lens so, at times, instead of turning my video off and leaving the black square with my name - I just close the cover and my VB is still visible

[AH173]

19 minutes ago, TylerD said:

This can not be blocked if that is what they are using.

I would think that Co host or host can stop anyone's video. 

[TylerD]

1 minute ago, AH173 said:

I would think that Co host or host can stop anyone's video. 

This is true, but it would have to be done each meeting. What I was referring to is, there is not a specific option to enable to disallow a certain video source from being used such as a virtual webcam.

[jwhess]

2 hours ago, Floyd said:

My Android devices update automatically.

I check daily and manually update those still in the que.

[Minaise]

On 8/3/2021 at 3:37 PM, Cool Cat said:

So basically they are telling us it's a Microsoft issue and not a zoom issue and that hopefully Windows 11 will fix it. They are also saying that macs are better quality sound wise with zoom.This could explain why some are not hearing the issue at their meetings. Some brothers may be using a Mac so are not hearing the pops and crackles

Hello,  I literally signed up in order to share what we have learned about the distorted sound during the sharing of the songs. As for everyone else this showed up fairly recently. To be more exact in May of this year we noticed it first with one brother's machine in our AV team, at first we suspected there was something wrong with his setup, so we worked on that initially.

 

However over time it "spread" to other machines in our AV team, finally my Windows machine also started acting the same way. Fortunately I recalled having updated Zoom that very day. So this lead me to suspect there was something in a certain update that changed it. 

 

We then started to downgrade version by version (as we didn't know how many updates we had jumped over or what version we had been on previously) until we reached 5.6.1 once I installed that on my "Media PC" Windows machine the sound was perfect again. We have since downgraded the other three Windows machines that also serve as media players during our meetings, with the same result in every single case. All of us have also upgraded either by mistake or on purpose since then and the distortions returned in every case, as well as we have gone back to 5.6.1 to regain the clean sound once again.

 

Early on when we realized the issue, you could easily go to the Zoom's release notes page and download any version by clicking on the numbers: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201361953-New-updates-for-Windows however at some point this was disabled. 

 

After a little research and digging I was able to figure out the format Zoom uses for their download links and found the one for 5.6.1 from their website: https://cdn.zoom.us/prod/5.6.1.617/x64/ZoomInstaller.exe

 

While I don't like the idea of using an outdated version of Zoom for security reasons, but I wanted to share this with all of you so you could possibly benefit from this information. Now unfortunately Zoom just announced that you will soon not be able to use Zoom if your version is too old, so it's just a matter of time (by end of the year or so?) until we can no longer use this 5.6.1. version, this is also another reason that made me sign up and share this here in an attempt to possibly figure out how we can work with Zoom to resolve this issue that does annoy many of us.

 

I want to add that my "Media PC" Windows machine is only used for the meetings, and my main machine is a Mac, and I do indeed hear all the sound distortions on the Mac, the Win10 Media PC actually has no sound input or output devices of any sorts connected to it internally nor externally, this has turned out to be a very good solution for a number of reasons.

 

While I have also seen the comments above about how we are blessed with what we are enjoying compared to what some brothers in some areas have to settle for, naturally we would also never find anything with subpar audio or video quality on JW.org and also figuring out things like this might in some way be of assistance so some of us in helping even where the latest technology might not be very easy to access. This last part is just my personal opinon. 

 

Sorry to have made this so long! Hopefully including the links above is ok, I guess I will find out soon enough.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Minaise
Adding part about using a Mac

[jwhess]

I appreciate the information Br. Klas mentioned above.  But with Zoom mandating updates it will only last until about January next year before version 5.6 fails.

[More4me2do]

Dear Brother Klas, thank you for doing this research and to ensure me that I was not imagining this. I have thoroughly concluded that this is on Zoom's end as I have eliminated all possible options that could cause this on my end by using Zoom's internal video player and NOTHING else is running on my 10th generation Intel i-7 Win 10 laptop.

 

However, I played an opening song for a CLM meeting a few weeks ago 30 minutes before the meeting started with only 7 connection and it played flawless. 30 minutes later at 7:30pm with 120 connections the distorted sound and the pop and crackling was ever present.

 

To solve this I believe the best way forward is to contact the branch since they pay for our licenses and their ability to get a result is far more likely then we as individuals handling it with Zoom support. In view of the downgrading being only a viable option for a few months I believe the complaint to the branch is our best option forward.

 

Again thank you for solving this mystery.