Error 12029: "We couldn't connect you to this meeting" in Skype for Business 2016 or 2015

Symptoms

A Microsoft Skype for Business 2016 or 2015 session that's running on Windows 7 fails to join a Federated meeting with a partner who is running Skype for Business Server on-premises.

When this problem occurs, you receive the following error message:

We couldn't connect you to this meeting because of a network problem. Please try again. If the problem continues, contact your support team.

If you select Show Details, the message window shows error code 12029.

Note

This problem affects both the MSI and C2R versions of Skype for Business 2016 and Skype for Business 2015

Cause

This problem occurs because Windows 7 is not configured to support the TLS 1.2 protocol, and the Federated partner disabled support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in their on-premises environment.

Error "12029" is a WinHTTP error code that indicates that a socket connection failed because encrypted communication could not be established.

Resolution

To resolve this problem, enable TLS 1.2 support on Windows 7. To do this, follow the guidance in the following Knowledge Base article, and then, restart the computer:

Update to enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 as default secure protocols in WinHTTP in Windows

Note

To resolve the problem, you must also make sure that the Skype for Business installation meets the minimum version requirements, as specified in the following Skype for Business Blog article:

Preparing for TLS 1.0/1.1 Deprecation - O365 Skype for Business

More information

Still need help? Go to Microsoft Community.