Troubleshoot Meet network, audio, & video issues

Use the tips and info in this article to troubleshoot Google Meet network and audio/video quality issues for your business or school.

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Troubleshoot audio & video quality

Measure latency
Video quality is highest when round-trip latency between the client and Google is lower than 100 ms. Meet media quality is reduced if latency is 300 ms or more. To measure latency, you can:

Ping the Google Meet media front-end server for at least 4 hours.
> ping lens.meet.l.google.com
PING lens.meet.l.google.com (74.125.143.127): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 74.125.143.127: icmp_seq=0 ttl=47 time=25.424 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.143.127: icmp_seq=1 ttl=47 time=25.271 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.143.127: icmp_seq=2 ttl=47 time=26.262 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.143.127: icmp_seq=3 ttl=47 time=26.085 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.143.127: icmp_seq=4 ttl=47 time=26.219 ms

If your latency is too high, use the traceroute utility to print out the network path. This path should be as short as possible. On Chromebooks, enter:

> tracepath lens.meet.l.google.com

Check data regions

Admins can choose to store data in a specific region. Users outside that region might experience higher latency. For details, see Data regions: Choose a geographic location for your data.

Measure & optimize bandwidth
You can use third-party, network-monitoring tools to identify bottlenecks for Meet traffic. Meet traffic can be identified by its protocol and port range.
If your network does not allow network-monitoring tools, identify bottlenecks by:
  • Running a test meeting.
  • Using a WebRTC test tool.
Users experience poor audio quality
To troubleshoot poor audio quality, check users' audio devices and look for network issues.

Check users' computer & mobile device peripherals

  • In the user's Meet settings, make sure the correct microphone and speaker are selected. For details, go to Change your computer’s video and audio settings.
  • If the user is on a Mac, go to System Preferences and then Sound and then Input and uncheck the Use ambient noise reduction box.
    This option is not available on all Macs. 

Troubleshoot the speakermic

  • If you're using a Chromebox for meetings, use a speakermic for the best audio.
  • Put the speakermic close to meeting participants and in their direct line of sight.

For more details, go to the Meet speakermic Quick Start Guide.

Review custom camera or microphone setups

  • If the space is prone to echos, do not use the camera's microphone.
  • Make sure that the microphone and speaker volume and gain are set correctly. Too much gain or sensitivity can cause an echo or audio stuttering.
  • Make sure the mic and speaker are connected to the same audio clock.
  • Make sure no non-linear blocks are in the signal path.

Best practice: Use a headset with a boom microphone. Headsets can isolate background noise and prevent audio leakage.

Check for network issues

If the audio drops for a long period of time, the problem might be an unstable network. If the problem goes away when participants mute themselves, it's likely an issue with the audio peripherals. Try to narrow down the issue as much as possible, like to a location or network segment.

Users have no audio
Tell your users to:
  • Make sure that the microphone or speaker is not muted. If Audio  next to the person's profile image is not moving, Meet is not receiving audio from that user.
    If a user is muted, you'll see Mute on  next to their profile image.
  • Make sure the microphone or speaker is not muted on their device.
  • Check that the correct microphone and speaker are selected. If a wireless headset is selected but not used, it can look like audio isn't working.
  • Check that the speaker volume is not muted. Do you hear anything when More  next to the participant's image is moving?
  • On macOS Mojave 10.14 or later,  you have to allow Chrome and Firefox to access your microphone. Otherwise, Meet will not include audio from your device.
    To allow access to your computer's microphone:
    1. Go to System Preferences and then Privacy & Security.
    2. Select Microphone.
    3. Next to Chrome or Firefox, check the box.
Users experience poor video quality
Bad video quality can be due to network issues or poor lighting in the room. To identify the problem:
  • Make sure that the sender and receiver devices have enough CPU power and memory.
  • Narrow down the issue's location as much as possible.
  • Identify whether the issue is on the sender or receiver side. If all viewers are receiving poor video quality from the same participant, it's likely to be a sender-side issue. 
  • Reduce bandwidth usage by setting the default for video quality.

Troubleshoot sending issues

Troubleshoot receiving issues

Troubleshoot connecting to Meet

Users can't join meetings

Make sure users:

  • Are using a supported browser. For details, go to Use a supported web browser.
  • Entered the correct meeting code or clicked the correct link.
  • Are invited to the meeting. Users can't join anonymously unless an administrator contacts Google Workspace support to request an exception.
  • Are using a valid meeting code. 
    • If you are the meeting organizer, you can create a new meeting.
    • If you are a participant, you can ask the meeting organizer for a new meeting code.

If these solutions don't help, make sure the meeting owners' accounts are current.

Users are dropped from meetings

Users can be dropped from meetings due to:

Users can't find Meet in Gmail

If people in your organization can't find Meet in Gmail:

Still need help?

If you have access to the admin console, you can use it to Contact Google Workspace support.

Related topics

 


Google, Google Workspace, and related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. All other company and product names are trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

 

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