I had a meeting with three professors via Zoom today and I couldn't get my screen to work. It was like a seance and I was the spirit. My primary supervisor didn't look happy, probably because it's the fourth Zoom technical malfunction I've had this year.

Has anyone else had similar problems? I feel so foolish for not testing it before the meeting.

I am sorry for this. It is bad but I bet it happens many times since Covid in most professions. The phrases of the year "you are muted", "Sorry I was muted", "You are cutting". If the sound was OK, this is already not bad. There were even worse instances where people did not know they are not muted or did not camera is on. Just try to test it in advance with a friend next time to increase the chances of good quality call.

I have had a few online meeting missteps. I was on organising committee meeting recently and my uni computer started auto-updating while I was mid-sentence. I then moved quickly to another uni computer, logged back into the meeting and found out that the computer didn't have a mic or recognise mine. So for the rest of the meeting I could only talk via the chat which was a bit awkward. Also, at my home during the day the internet is a bit patchy and I have had my internet crash several times mid meeting.

Although, I don't think it is a major issues if you tell them what your issue is and try to fix it. Not to be IT support but do you know the causes of your issues? Saying that you have bad internet or an old computer gets you a lot more sympathy than simply apologising.

This can happen for a number of reasons: clashes with other platforms if you also have Teams or other programs requiring your cam/mic running in the background, your webcam may need replacing, your version of Zoom may not have the latest updates etc.

Usually if it's a simple glitch, it can be resolved by leaving the call and returning immediately.