External presenters unable to join green room

Question

I can promote an external speaker to a presenter role but they can't access the Green Room of a meeting.

Here are the steps I've taken:

1. I have created a Teams Meeting with Green Room enabled.
2. I have invited an external presenter to my meeting.
3. The presenter joins the meeting as an attendee.
4. I promote the presenter to presenter role.
5. In the green room, I can see the presenter but they are muted with their camera off
6. The presenter does not see the green room, from their laptop, they are still in the meeting lobby.

I've reproduced this with the presenter connecting via a browser (Edge) and via the Teams Desktop App with the same results both times.

Without using the Green Room, I don't have a problem with external presenters being able to present.

Has anyone else come across this issue. Is there something else I need to do to allow external presenters to join a Green Room?

Answer 1

Thanks for the response De Paul,

1. Ensure that the meeting options are set correctly. Go to Meeting options and verify that the Green Room is enabled and that the external presenter is listed as a presenter.

I can confirm that the Green Room is enabled. However, when creating the meeting, I am not able to add my external speaker as a presenter. In the past, I would wait for the external speaker to join the meeting and then promote them to a presenter. When the Green Room is not enabled, this works perfectly. However, when the Green Room is enabled, this is when I'm having issues.

2. Make sure that the option to allow external presenters is enabled. This can be done while scheduling the meeting or by editing the meeting details later. Refer to Allow anonymous presenters in a live meeting in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support [c58c-7b29-94d-a972].

I don't have the option to allow external presenter in my Teams Meeting. The link you have given refers to a Teams Live event rather than a Teams Meeting. Add external presenters only seems to be an option for Webinars but since I don't need or want people to register, I'm configuring this as a Meeting rather than a Webinar.

3. Verify that the lobby settings are configured to allow external presenters to bypass the lobby. Set the lobby policy to “Everyone” for a public webinar or “People in my organization” for a private webinar. Refer to Green room for Teams meetings - Microsoft Support.

I can confirm that the lobby settings allow everyone to bypass the lobby.

4. Ensure that the external presenter is using a supported browser (Edge or Chrome) or the latest version of the Teams desktop app. Sometimes, compatibility issues can prevent access to certain features.

I have had my external presenter use the Teams desktop app and Edge to connect, the results are the same.

5. Try removing the external presenter from the meeting and reinviting them. This can sometimes reset any issues with their access.

We've tried this with no success.

6. Ensure that the external presenter has the necessary permissions to join the Green Room. Sometimes, organizational policies or settings can restrict access.

I've checked with my IT and they can't see anything that would block an external presenter.

Answer 2

Thanks for submitting this post!

This is also a problem for us and creates a lot of confusion in the Green Room. We have to go live to work with external presenters, including ASL interpreters, language interpreters, and speakers.

Our DIY meeting organizers find this a usability block to using Microsoft Teams.

Answer 3

I'm checking in to this post. We are having an identical issue. We need to allow external participants to unmute and turn on their camera in the Green Room. We also need to invite external presenters in Teams Meetings.

Thanks!

Answer 4

Dear SLB135,

Many thanks for the response!

It sounds like you've been thorough in your troubleshooting, but the issue with external presenters and the Green Room in Microsoft Teams is still persisting.

Since you've tried multiple steps without success, it is likely due to another error that needs further checking on the server backend, because our forum lacks relevant knowledge and permissions it might be best to contact Microsoft support directly. They can provide more specific troubleshooting steps and investigate if there's a known issue affecting your setup. Please suggest IT team to create a service ticket in the Microsoft 365 admin center to support > Service Requests through navigation, as they have more access permissions than on this forum, and professional engineers will further help you.

Note: If you are not using admin account, please kindly ask your admin within your organization for help.

Thanks in advance for your understanding! Your patience and cooperation will be highly appreciated. Hope you all the best!

Answer 5

Dear SLB135,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you!

It sounds like you’ve taken all the right steps, but there might be a few additional settings or considerations to check.

Here are some suggestions to help resolve the issue with external presenters not being able to join the Green Room:

1. Ensure that the meeting options are set correctly. Go to Meeting options and verify that the Green Room is enabled and that the external presenter is listed as a presenter.
2. Make sure that the option to allow external presenters is enabled. This can be done while scheduling the meeting or by editing the meeting details later. Refer to Allow anonymous presenters in a live meeting in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support [c58c-7b29-94d-a972].
3. Verify that the lobby settings are configured to allow external presenters to bypass the lobby. Set the lobby policy to “Everyone” for a public webinar or “People in my organization” for a private webinar. Refer to Green room for Teams meetings - Microsoft Support.
4. Ensure that the external presenter is using a supported browser (Edge or Chrome) or the latest version of the Teams desktop app. Sometimes, compatibility issues can prevent access to certain features.
5. Try removing the external presenter from the meeting and reinviting them. This can sometimes reset any issues with their access.
6. Ensure that the external presenter has the necessary permissions to join the Green Room. Sometimes, organizational policies or settings can restrict access.

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, it might be worth reaching out to Microsoft Support for further assistance. They can provide more specific troubleshooting based on your setup.

If none of these steps work, let me know and we can explore other options. Please note that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can find a solution together. Thank you for your help.