How can I identify all the local attendees in a Teams meeting who are in a conference Room and only one is logged in?

Question

Only the remote users who are logged in, and the one who is logged into the computer in the meeting room are identified participants. There could be as many as 7 in the local conference room, but their attendance is not recorded. How best to go about including those who are actually in attendance beyond having the logged-in users shown?

Answer 1

Hi @Mike McGlinchey, 

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

The issue you’re experiencing relates to how Microsoft Teams tracks attendance. Teams identifies participants based on their individual sign-ins. If only one person logs in from a conference room device, Teams records only that user, even if several others are physically present. This design prioritizes digital identity over physical presence, which means local attendees in the room are not automatically captured in attendance reports. Manage meeting attendance reports in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 

Here are a few practical workarounds to help ensure all local attendees are properly included in your meeting records: 

1/ Consider kindly asking attendees to join the meeting individually from their own devices (laptop or mobile). Ask them to mute their audio and video to prevent any disruptions. This helps ensure that each participant’s name appears in the attendee list and the attendance report. 

2/ Next, try using the meeting chat to conduct a quick roll call. 

At the beginning of the meeting, kindly ask everyone in the room to enter their name in the chat. This provides a timestamped record of local attendees, which can be referenced later if needed. 

3/ After that, you can assign someone to keep a manual record of the names of in-room attendees. These can then be added to the meeting notes or shared in the chat to maintain transparency. 

4/ You might want to enable attendance reports in the admin settings to ensure accurate tracking of participant activity. 

If you’re an IT admin or meeting organizer, please make sure that attendance reporting is enabled in the Teams Admin Center. This feature allows you to download detailed reports showing who joined, when they joined, and how long they stayed. 

5/ Finally, you can make use of Microsoft Teams Rooms features to enhance the meeting experience. 

If your conference room uses Microsoft Teams Rooms hardware, you can enhance the meeting experience by enabling features like interactive whiteboards or spotlighting speakers. However, please note that these features do not automatically identify attendees who haven’t signed in. 

Moreover, Microsoft currently does not offer a built-in method to detect unlogged attendees in a physical room. This limitation affects both internal and external participants and has been raised in support forums and enterprise feedback channels. Until such features are introduced, combining digital sign-ins with manual tracking remains the most reliable solution. 

As a forum moderator, I hope you understand that I don’t have the ability to modify or escalate product issues directly. However, I strongly recommend submitting your feedback through the Microsoft Teams · Community portal. This is the most effective way to ensure your voice reaches the product team and can be considered for future improvements. 

You've clearly identified a real-world challenge, and your suggestion reflects a deep understanding of user needs - feedback like yours is truly valuable and helps shape the future of Microsoft Teams. 

Sharing your experience through this channel is one of the most effective ways to advocate for improvements that benefit both you and the broader community. 

Once you’ve submitted your feedback, feel free to share the link here. I’d be happy to upvote it to help increase its visibility. 

As community moderators, we kindly ask for your understanding that our access to internal development details is limited. Our primary role is to guide users toward the appropriate resources and support channels. While we may not influence product design decisions and have limited access to internal development details, we’ll continue doing our best to support you within the scope of our responsibilities.  

I hope you find this information helpful. 

Thank you sincerely for your understanding regarding this limitation. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out at any time. 

Hope everything goes wonderfully for you. 

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