Troubleshooting Your Live Room

Kayla M.

Updated

Learn to troubleshoot your Community Live Room and Course Live Video if you are having trouble with your camera and/or microphone.

In this article:

First, check your systems and settings

Step 1. Refresh your window

Many common problems can be solved by hitting the refresh button on your browser. It's the equivalent of unplugging and plugging it back in.

If you are still experiencing issues, continue to the next steps.

Step 2. Update Your Browser

The next 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 available for the one you're using.

Click on the links below to walk through updating the following common browser:

Step 3. Check your permission settings

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

In this case, press the camera icon in the browser's address bar to undo the block, then press "Try Again."

Note:
The icon may differ slightly in appearance on different browsers.

Step 4. Clear Your Cache and Cookies

Finally, it's possible that this is caused by a stale microphone/camera 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 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:

Step 5. Check your system and browser settings

Confirm the Microphone/Camera settings for your operating system.

MacOs

In MacOS Mojave, Apple has introduced some system-level privacy controls for your mic and camera. These are great for privacy, but it is possible that your browser was mistakenly blocked from accessing your devices.

You can check on this and allow your browser to access them from the Security & Privacy section in your System Preferences.

To access these settings, do the following:

  • Click the Apple in the top left corner.
  • Then, select System Preferences.
  • Click into the Security & Privacy section.
  • Click Camera in the list of options, and select the box next to your browser to allow access.
  • Repeat the steps for your Microphone.
  • After doing this, restart your browser for the updates to take effect.

Windows

Confirm the Microphone/Camera settings for your browser.

Chrome

Mic and camera defaults can be accessed in a number of ways in Chrome, but the easiest is to copy the following links into your URL bar:

From these areas, you can manage Chrome's default camera/microphone and whitelist or block websites from accessing your camera and microphone!

Be sure that Whereby is listed under the Allow section.

Still not working? There are a few more steps you can try.

  • Adjust your Firewall. Some browsers are not able to connect through strict networks/firewalls. Also, there may be bugs in the browser causing problems with the connection. If you are experiencing this, try switching to another browser. Currently, Firefox is not supporting connections through very strict firewalls, so if you are on a corporate network, try to get all participants to use Chrome or Opera.
  • Browser Extensions. Interfering browser extensions: It is not uncommon for some third-party extensions to cause problems with some websites. Try using your browser through an Incognito tab or Private browsing window to test this. If all works normally then you know that an extension is causing an issue. Unfortunately, there is no way to identify which one easily. A process of elimination will need to be done on each extension to find the one causing the problem. 

What can I do if I can't see or hear everyone?

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

Clearing Cache and Cookies
It could be possible that another platform is taking microphone access. 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

Switching Browsers
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 and 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 for some bug fixes on their side.

Network Configuration
First,  we recommend reading through the troubleshooting article below to make sure your network meets all of our recommendations.

Network Requirements

If you are still running into issues, please notify Whereby by emailing support@whereby.com. 

I'm using a supported device, but still getting an error

Click here for a complete list of devices the live room supports.

I'm using a supported device, but still getting an error.

One possible reason you'd get an unsupported browser message in a supported browser is that JavaScript is disabled.

Instructions for checking on this will vary depending on which browser you're using, so see instructions for each below:

Google Chrome and other Chromium Browsers

  • On your computer, open Chrome.
  • At the top right, click More.
  • Then, Settings.
  • At the bottom, click Advanced.
  • Under "Privacy and security," click Content settings.
  • Click JavaScript.
  • Turn on Allowed (recommended).

Safari

  • Select Safari from the Apple/System bar at the top of the screen.
  • From the drop-down menu, select Preferences.
  • Select the Security icon/tab at the top of the window.
  • Check the Enable JavaScript checkbox under the Web content category.
  • Close the dialog box to save your changes.
  • Finally, refresh your browser.

Firefox

  • Open a new Firefox browser window or tab.
  • Copy the following then paste it into the Firefox address bar: about: config
  • Click the Enter key.
  • On the following page, click the button: "I'll be careful, I promise!"
  • Find the javascript. enabled row under the Preference Name heading.
  • Double-click anywhere within the javascript. enabled row to toggle the value from "False" to "True".
  • Finally, refresh your browser.
    If the instructions above don't work, it's possible that there's a setting in your configuration file that's causing this. See the instructions below to check on your configuration settings:
    • Open Firefox window and type " about:config" in your URL bar2 Search for the flag " media.peerconnection.enabled"3 Set the flag to True by right-clicking on selecting the Toggle option4 Quit and re-open your browser. After doing this you should be able to view the Whereby homepage normally.

Give your browser permission to share screen

This article explains how to give browsers permission to share screens by the operating system (OS).

If you're a Mac user, you might encounter problems while trying to share your screen. This is because your browser needs permission from the Mac Operating System (OS) to share the screen.

Fortunately, this can be solved quickly.

  • Open the System Preferences app.
  • Go to Security and privacy.
  • Choose the Screen recording permission from the left menu and make sure the box is checked next to the browser you are using.
  • If you are unable to change these settings, you must first click on the padlock at the bottom left.

If it still doesn't work, try unchecking and rechecking the checkbox.

Still have questions? Let us know your question below to have it added to the list or reach out to Support if you need additional assistance. Thanks for being the best part of Kajabi!

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