When you have problems with Zoom connectivity, like the "your connection is unstable" error, the following tips may help solve the problem. Most Zoom connectivity problems fall into one of three categories: Internet Connection, WIFI Connectivity and System Resources.
This is generally where most people believe the problem lies. It is about both down and up speeds, with up being the more important of the two. I find 2mbps down and up will generally provide for a quality Zoom experience. Having more than this is better of course, because you have peaks and valleys in your connection speed and can experience a 50% drop in speed almost instantaneously at times.
If you are on a cable connection, this is a shared connection by default and speeds will vary dramatically at different times of the day.
If on fiber or VDSL/ADSL then not quite as bad as long as backhaul bandwidth is big enough to handle the load
Check your connection with a speed test app/site. Some of these include:
This is is most often the culprit when you have connectivity problems in Zoom. Bottom line, a wired connection will always be better than a wireless connection. The following steps may help improve your situation:
If your router has ethernet ports on the back, purchase an ethernet cable and attend a Zoom meeting while on a wired connection. If the first cable doesn't work, try a second before giving up ;-)
If you can’t get a wired connection, try a different physical location for a bit and see if that helps.
Download a wifi analyzer app on your phone and map the rooms of your home/office. It is surprising what you find when you wander around testing the signal strength.
If your router has multiple antennae, change the angle of them so they aren’t the same.
Wireless headsets/ear buds – I have seen these create issues too, so check that these are working correctly.
Something that most folks don’t even consider is the impact that a lack of system resources can have on your Zoom experience. If you have too many other applications running in the background or if you have hundreds of tabs open in your browser, there is the potential that Zoom performance will be impacted. In addition to regular system resources, various Zoom features can impact your system too. Check out the items below to see if they will help solve your connectivity problems.
Turn off your camera if your audio gets choppy.
Turn off your camera when screen sharing.
Click on the up arrow to the right of the video icon, click on Video Settings, and turn off the following options:
Enable HD
Touch up my appearance
Adjust for low light
Turn off virtual backgrounds. Virtual backgrounds can use lots of system resources. You can do this by clicking on the up arrow to the right of the video icon > Video Settings > Background & Filters > choose None for virtual backgrounds and video filters.
Reduce the number of simultaneous video streams – Some computers can run 50 at a time. Just because you can, should you?
Check hardware acceleration settings on your computer. Sometimes having this on or off can create problems, especially in some browsers.