If others cannot hear you, you cannot hear others, or audio is lost after returning from a breakout room, follow this guide.
- You cannot join audio in the main room
- Others cannot hear your microphone
- You cannot hear participants
- After leaving a breakout room and returning to main room, audio is silent
- Audio works again only after page refresh
- Browser microphone permission blocked
- Wrong input/output device selected
- Another app is using the microphone
- Temporary WebRTC/audio session drop during breakout room return
- Network/firewall instability affecting real-time media
- Click the headphone/phone audio button
- Leave audio
- Join audio again
- Run the echo test
If audio still fails, continue.
If issue started after returning from a breakout room:
- Refresh the BigBlueButton tab
- Rejoin the session
- Join audio again (Microphone or Listen Only)
This is the fastest recovery for stale audio state after breakout transitions.
- Click the lock icon in the browser address bar
- Set Microphone to Allow
- Reload the page
- Join audio
- Pick the correct microphone device
- Confirm output device/system speaker is correct
Close apps that may hold the microphone:
- Zoom
- Google Meet
- Microsoft Teams
- OS voice recorder tools
- Use latest Google Chrome (recommended)
- Also works on latest Chromium-based browsers
- Avoid outdated browser versions
- Use stable internet (prefer wired or strong Wi-Fi)
- Avoid restrictive public/corporate networks if possible
- Ensure UDP/WebRTC traffic is not blocked by firewall/proxy
- Confirm issue is user-specific or affects multiple users
- Ask affected user to refresh and rejoin audio first
- Check if failures are mostly after breakout return (pattern)
- If many users are affected, verify TURN/WebRTC infrastructure health
Collect these details before escalation:
- Browser + version
- OS + device type
- Exact step where failure occurs (join, echo test, or after breakout return)
- Whether refresh fixes it temporarily
- Network type (home/corporate/mobile hotspot)
Then proceed to:
Basic Troubleshooting Steps