Tips to Avoid Getting Stuck in Teams Meeting Lobby

The MVP Simon Hudson's blog post has highlighted an intriguing scenario. The scenario revolves around the creation of a Teams meeting that the creator may be unable to join subsequently, causing confusion and frustration for the meeting planner. Hudson describes a common error message related to this issue, calling it the "message of doom."

The root cause of this issue lies within the Teams meeting add-in for the Outlook desktop. This add-in automatically loads at the start-up of Outlook provided certain requirements are met. One key condition is the capability to connect to the principal Exchange mailbox in the user's Outlook profile utilizing modern authentication. Although Outlook's flexibility is useful in various context, it can potentially cause issues when it addresses a meeting invitation to a different account than the organizer.

Such a situation then places the user in what Hudson calls the "Teams Meeting Lobby Hell." The ordeal occurs when not all of the participants can join the meeting automatically, particularly if the meeting organiser is the only one allowed to join without waiting in the meeting lobby. This restriction results in the inability to bypass the meeting lobby. The typical solution in such cases is to quickly create a new meeting in the right calendar and email everyone the new meeting details. This situation also arises when scheduling a channel meeting using the Teams calendar app or channel calendar app where the team becomes the meeting organizer.

Hudson suggests that incorporating an organization's logo into Teams meeting invites can aid in avoiding this issue as the logo would serve as a visual indicator for externally created meetings. However, this solution won't work if a meeting is scheduled in a calendar belonging to a group or shared mailbox in the same organization. This is another case where only the organizer can automatically join the meeting. The settings to customize Teams' email invitations are located in the Meetings section of the Teams admin center. After adjusting these settings, the creator can preview what the customized body of the Teams meeting invitation looks like to ensure it's fit for purpose.

Despite all its intricacies, Teams continues to be sensitive to the design and size of the organization logo. Interestingly, should the meeting details be altered, Teams will not incorporate the organization logo in the revised meeting invitation. This shows that Teams is initially designed with simplicity in mind, where the actual format depends on the client in use.

The moral of the story, as argued by Hudson, is to keep the workflow as simple as possible when dealing with interconnected software products, particularly Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Adding an organizational logo to meeting invites is recommended to help identify and personalize meetings.

Key Takeaways

When it comes to planning virtual meetings, the complexities offered by modern tech tools such as Teams can create unforeseen challenges. For instance, scheduling a meeting in a different calendar could lock you in the infamous meeting lobby. Although adding an organization logo to a meeting invite may not fix all problems, it adds a much-needed layer of clarity and corporate identity. When working with complex software products, it is always wise to stick with simplicity for a smoother user experience.

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Learn about Don’t Get Stuck in the Teams Meeting Lobby

Embarking on a Microsoft Teams journey can sometimes be intimidating, especially when faced with complex sentences, hard-to-understand instructions, and overwhelming technical terms. So, let's dive in and explore how you can master the use of Microsoft's communication platform more effectively, focusing particularly on the observation, understanding, and avoidance of various issues that may arise during its usage, in a simpler, layman's language.

Let's start with "Stuck in the Lobby" scenario. While setting up a discussion, an issue might crop up that prevents you from accessing the meeting you just initiated. This happens when you get a notification saying “When the gathering begins, we’ll inform individuals you’re standing by.” This inconvenience is not a malfunction, but a feature of Teams that functions as expected.

Problems might also arise with the Microsoft Teams add-in for Outlook. This add-in automatically activates when Outlook launches, provided certain prerequisites are met. The add-in can only establish a connection with the chief Exchange mailbox recorded in the Outlook profile through contemporary authentication. The add-in is always operational within the context of the primary mailbox. Hence, the major point here is that Outlook can only formulate 'private meetings' in your schedule; hence, channel meetings are unsupported.

However, issues might still crop up due to erroneous assumptions. For instance, assuming that the user is always connected to the Teams in their home tenant might lead to a situation where you set up a meeting in a different calendar, thus causing confusion, since a meeting set up in a calendar other than your own would mean you do not have the authority to manage the meetings.

This scenario might create a waiting room predicament where everybody is waiting for the meeting to begin and you can't proceed beyond the waiting room without the help of others. Hence, it's crucial to create a meeting in the right calendar.

Similar issues might arise when you organize a channel meeting using Teams calendar applications or channel calendar applications. Though in such cases, you have the authority to alter the meeting settings if required.

Adding your company logo to the meeting invite is one tactic that might help identify meetings created in another organization. Although this might not help if the meeting is scheduled in a group or shared mailbox within the same organization.

To modify the email invitations for Teams meetings, move to the Meetings section of the Teams admin center and navigate to Meeting settings, where you can tailor four components used by the Teams.

Note that if you modify the details of a gathering, Teams does not include the organization logo in the revised meeting invitation. However, the invitation contains all the crucial information, including the meeting identifier and passcode.

In conclusion, the key to a seamless Microsoft Teams experience is modesty. It is essential to schedule meetings in the appropriate calendar. Additionally, adding a logo to meeting invitations can break the monotony and add a visual appeal to the invite.

Immerse yourself in the data available to the Microsoft 365 tenant administrators through the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook to dive deeper!

More links on about Don’t Get Stuck in the Teams Meeting Lobby

People stuck in lobby in MS Teams

Mar 25, 2020 — I scheduled a meeting in Teams and all of the invitees were guests. I had the option set for everyone to bypass the lobby.

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Mar 19, 2020 — If someone is missing, leave the meeting and rejoin right afterwards. In most cases, the organizer then gets a popup that people are waiting in ...

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