Zoom to the Mute Button

So, there are a ton of people who are using Zoom more than they ever have before and others using it for the first time. A few people have asked for help since it seems Zoom’s documentation can be unclear (if you are reading this Zoom, I know a company that can help).

So here’s a simple easy guide to mute functionality in Zoom.

First, open Zoom and click on meetings:

Next, select the zoom meeting you want to edit (this is possible to edit even if it is for a recurring meeting):

Then click edit:

A new window will pop up just for this meeting. I highly recommend you add a password and only share it with folks you intend to attend the meeting. There have been issues with internet trolls discerning the meeting IDs and “Zoombombing” meetings with horrible things.

Scroll to the bottom and click on Advanced Options:

A few options will open up. Click on “Mute Participants on Entry” and click “Save”:

Now, this gets us about 2/3rds of the way there. When they enter, attendees will be muted by default, but let’s say you have a situation where the meeting has started but there is someone typing or their dog starts barking while another group member is attempting to get an important point across.

You, as creator of the meeting, have the power to mute everyone in the meeting.

During the meeting,there will be a box at the bottom. One of the buttons is “Manage Participants”:

If you are not in Fullscreen mode, this will bring up a sidebar on the right. If you are in Fullscreen mode, it will appear over your screen. This will also list all the participants in your meeting. At the bottom, there are some options. To mute everyone, click “Mute All” (keeping in mind they all entered muted). To unmute, “Unmute All”:

There is also a button for more options, and I think this is where you’ll really hit what you need. There is the option to control who is and is not muted. Clicking “Allow participants to unmute themselves” will put control in your hands as the meeting organizer. This can be clicked (i.e. there is not a check appearing next to it) before other meeting attendees have arrived, thus they will enter muted and only you can unmute them.

You may also want to click Lock Meeting once all the attendees are present.

Finally, to Unmute someone, simply open Manage Participants and click on the image of the microphone with the redline through it.

As you scroll over it, a message will appear saying “Unmute”:

That should cover all the things on muting and unmuting. Remember, as Uncle Ben said in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, with great power comes great responsibility.

Mute with caution (and unmute with even more).

Special thanks to my buddy Paul’s dad who is organizing a meetup and needed this kind of help.