Is Zoom Down? How to Check Zoom Status and Fix Connection Issues (2026)

Originally published on API Status Check — your real-time monitoring dashboard for API and service outages.

Nothing disrupts your workday faster than Zoom refusing to connect. Whether you're rushing to join an important client call or hosting a webinar with hundreds of attendees, is Zoom down? is the urgent question you need answered right now.

With 300+ million daily meeting participants worldwide, Zoom outages affect everyone from remote workers to Fortune 500 companies. A single hour of downtime can mean missed sales calls, delayed project meetings, and frustrated customers trying to reach your support team.

This comprehensive guide will show you exactly how to check if Zoom is down, understand common Zoom issues and their fixes, learn about Zoom's outage history, and discover how to get instant alerts when Zoom experiences problems—before your next meeting starts.

🔴 Check Zoom Status Right Now

Before troubleshooting your connection or rebooting your router, verify whether Zoom is actually experiencing a platform-wide outage.

The fastest way to check Zoom's current status is through our real-time monitoring dashboard:

→ Check Zoom Status Live

Our monitoring system tests Zoom's infrastructure every 60 seconds from multiple global locations, tracking:

• Zoom Meetings availability and performance
• Zoom Phone connection quality
• Zoom Webinars functionality
• Zoom Chat message delivery
• API endpoints response times
• Regional outages by geographic location

If you see a green "operational" status, Zoom is up and the issue is likely on your end (see our troubleshooting section below). If you see red warning indicators, Zoom is experiencing confirmed problems.

How to Check if Zoom is Down (4 Reliable Methods)

When Zoom won't connect, you need to quickly determine whether it's a widespread outage or a local issue you can fix yourself. Here are four proven methods to check Zoom's status:

1. Use API Status Check (Real-Time Automated Monitoring)

The most reliable method is automated monitoring that tests Zoom continuously, not just when you check manually.

API Status Check provides:

✅ Real-time testing every 60 seconds from multiple continents

✅ Historical uptime data showing Zoom's reliability over time

✅ Instant alerts via email, Slack, or Discord when outages occur

✅ Regional status to see if the issue is specific to your location

✅ Response time graphs to detect performance degradation before full outages

✅ API monitoring for developers building on Zoom's platform

Why automated monitoring beats manual checking: You'll receive an alert the moment Zoom starts having issues—often before Zoom's own status page acknowledges the problem. For businesses running customer-facing Zoom integrations, this early warning can save you from support ticket floods.

2. Check Zoom's Official Status Page

Zoom maintains an official status page at status.zoom.us that reports on their service health.

What you'll find:

• Current operational status for all Zoom services
• Active incident reports with updates
• Scheduled maintenance windows
• Historical incident timeline
• Subscription options for email/SMS alerts

Important limitation: Like most vendor status pages, Zoom's official page can be slow to acknowledge outages. During the early minutes of an incident, it may still show "All Systems Operational" while thousands of users are experiencing problems. Third-party monitoring tools typically detect issues 5-15 minutes faster.

Best practice: Check Zoom's status page for official incident acknowledgment and resolution updates, but use third-party monitoring for early detection.

3. Search Twitter/X for Real-Time Reports

When Zoom goes down, users immediately flock to Twitter/X to report it. The phrase "Zoom down" often trends within minutes of an outage beginning.

Effective search strategies:

• Search "Zoom down" and filter by "Latest" (not "Top")
• Look for tweets from the past 5-15 minutes
• Check if #ZoomDown is trending
• Search location-specific terms like "Zoom down [your city/country]"
• Follow @Zoom and @ZoomSupport for official updates

How to interpret the results:

• Under 50 tweets in 15 minutes: Likely isolated issues, not a widespread outage
• 50-200 tweets in 15 minutes: Possible regional or service-specific problem
• 200+ tweets in 15 minutes: Confirmed widespread outage

Pro tip: If you see recent tweets like "Is anyone else having Zoom issues?" with dozens of replies saying "yes," it's almost certainly a real outage.

4. Test Multiple Connection Methods

If you can't join a Zoom meeting on your desktop app, try alternative access methods to isolate the problem:

Connection test checklist:

Decision tree:

✅ Web works + ❌ Desktop fails → Desktop app/firewall issue
❌ Web fails + ✅ Mobile (cellular) works → Your WiFi/network problem
✅ Phone dial-in works + ❌ Everything else fails → Internet connection issue
❌ Nothing works (all methods) → Zoom is likely down

Testing strategy: Start with the web browser test (zoom.us/test) since it bypasses app-specific issues. If that works but your desktop app doesn't, you know the problem is local, not with Zoom's servers.

Common Zoom Issues and Quick Fixes

Not every Zoom problem means the service is down. Here are the most common issues users encounter and how to resolve them quickly:

Issue #1: "Cannot Connect to Zoom" or "Connecting..." Stuck

What it means: Your device can't reach Zoom's servers.

Common causes:

• Firewall blocking Zoom's connection ports
• Corporate network restrictions
• VPN interference
• Outdated Zoom client
• DNS resolution failure

Quick fixes:

1. Check your internet connection first

• Can you load zoom.us in your browser?
• Try loading another website to confirm internet works
• Restart your router if connection seems unstable

2. Disable VPN temporarily

• Many VPNs interfere with Zoom's connection
• Disconnect VPN and try joining again
• If that fixes it, enable VPN split tunneling for Zoom traffic

3. Update Zoom to the latest version

• Click your profile picture → Check for Updates
• Download from zoom.us/download if needed
• Restart Zoom after updating

4. Check firewall settings

• Windows: Settings → Privacy & Security → Windows Security → Firewall & network protection → Allow an app → Zoom
• Mac: System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Firewall → Firewall Options → Add Zoom
• Required ports: TCP 80, 443, 8801-8810; UDP 3478-3479, 8801-8810

5. Clear Zoom cache and restart

• Windows: Press Win+R, type %appdata%\Zoom, delete all files except the "data" folder
• Mac: Go to ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us and delete contents
• Restart Zoom

6. Try joining via web browser

• Go to the meeting URL in your browser
• Click "join from your browser" link
• This bypasses desktop app entirely

Issue #2: Audio Not Working (Can't Hear or Be Heard)

Symptoms: You've joined the meeting but can't hear others, or they can't hear you.

For "I can't hear anyone":

1. Check if you're unmuted and audio is connected

• Click the audio icon in the bottom-left
• Make sure it shows "Mute" (not "Join Audio")
• Look for speaker icon with slash—click to unmute speaker

2. Check your output device

• Click the up arrow next to audio icon
• Select the correct speakers/headphones
• Click "Test Speaker & Microphone"

3. Verify system volume

• Check your computer's volume isn't muted
• Check physical volume controls on headphones
• Try maximum volume to test

For "Others can't hear me":

1. Check microphone permissions

• Windows: Settings → Privacy → Microphone → Allow Zoom
• Mac: System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Microphone → Check Zoom
• Restart Zoom after granting permissions

2. Select correct microphone

• Click up arrow next to Mute button
• Choose your microphone from the list
• Speak and watch the input level meter

3. Test with another app

• Try recording your voice in Voice Recorder (Windows) or Voice Memos (Mac)
• If that doesn't work either, it's a hardware/driver issue
• If it works there but not Zoom, check Zoom audio settings

4. Disable automatic adjustments

• Settings → Audio → Uncheck "Automatically adjust microphone volume"
• Manually set input volume to 70-80%

Issue #3: Video Lag or Frozen Video

Symptoms: Video is choppy, pixelated, or freezing during meetings.

Common causes:

• Insufficient internet bandwidth
• CPU overload
• HD video enabled on slow connection
• Too many participants with video on

Quick fixes:

1. Test your internet speed

• Visit fast.com or speedtest.net
• Zoom requires: 1.8 Mbps up/down for HD video, 600 kbps for SD
• If below these thresholds, that's your problem

2. Disable HD video

• Settings → Video → Uncheck "Enable HD"
• Also uncheck "Enable HD for received video"
• This immediately reduces bandwidth usage

3. Turn off video temporarily

• Click "Stop Video" during meeting
• Turn back on when connection stabilizes
• Saves significant bandwidth

4. Close bandwidth-hogging applications

• Shut down streaming services (Netflix, YouTube, Spotify)
• Pause cloud backups (Dropbox, Google Drive)
• Close unnecessary browser tabs
• Stop downloads

5. Switch from WiFi to Ethernet

• Wired connections are more stable than wireless
• If Ethernet isn't possible, move closer to WiFi router

6. Disable virtual backgrounds

• These require significant CPU processing
• Remove background blur or virtual background
• Use plain background if possible

Issue #4: Can't Join Meeting (Error Code 3113, 104101, or 1132)

Symptoms: Meeting won't start, error codes appear, or you get kicked out repeatedly.

Solutions by error code:

Error 3113 (Can't connect to audio):

• Follow "Audio Not Working" fixes above
• Try "Phone Call" audio instead of "Computer Audio"
• Check if another app is using your audio device

Error 104101/104102 (Your internet connection is unstable):

• This is a bandwidth issue—see "Video Lag" fixes above
• Switch to phone audio only (disable video)
• Ask others to turn off their video

Error 1132 (Failed to join meeting):

• Verify the meeting ID is correct
• Check if the meeting has started (early join might be disabled)
• Try joining via the web client instead
• Contact the meeting host to verify you're not blocked

Error 5003 (Cannot connect to server):

• This is a network/firewall issue
• Follow "Cannot Connect to Zoom" fixes above
• Try a different network (mobile hotspot) to test

General troubleshooting for any error:

• Update Zoom to the latest version
• Restart your computer (not just Zoom)
• Try joining from mobile app or phone dial-in
• Contact meeting host for alternative connection method

Issue #5: Screen Sharing Not Working

Symptoms: Screen share button is grayed out or sharing shows black screen.

Quick fixes:

1. Check permissions (Mac only)

• System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Screen Recording
• Check the box next to Zoom
• Must restart Zoom after granting permission

2. Check meeting settings

• Host may have disabled screen sharing for participants
• Ask host to enable: "Participants can share" in security settings
• Or ask host to make you co-host

3. Close other apps using screen capture

• Screen recording software (OBS, Loom, etc.)
• Remote desktop applications
• Other video conferencing apps
• Only one app can typically capture screen at once

4. Try advanced sharing options

• Click "Advanced" in share screen dialog
• Try "Portion of Screen" instead of full screen
• Try sharing a specific window instead

5. Restart Zoom and your computer

• Sometimes screen sharing gets "stuck" after wake from sleep
• Full restart clears these issues

Zoom Outage History: When Has Zoom Actually Gone Down?

Understanding Zoom's outage history helps put current issues in perspective. Here are the most significant Zoom outages over the past few years:

August 24, 2024 – Authentication Service Outage

Duration: ~2 hours

Impact: Users couldn't log in or start new meetings, but existing meetings continued

Affected regions: Global

Root cause: Database connection failure in Zoom's authentication service

Resolution: Zoom's engineering team rolled back a recent deployment

Business impact: Approximately 50,000+ affected users during peak business hours in North America and Europe. Many users could still join meetings via direct links but couldn't access their Zoom dashboards.

May 17, 2023 – Partial Service Disruption

Duration: ~4 hours

Impact: Intermittent connection issues, failed meeting joins, audio/video quality degradation

Affected regions: Primarily US East Coast

Root cause: Third-party cloud provider (AWS us-east-1) experienced infrastructure issues

Resolution: Zoom rerouted traffic to backup data centers

Lessons learned: This outage highlighted Zoom's dependency on cloud infrastructure providers. Users on the West Coast experienced minimal issues, demonstrating the value of geographic redundancy.

September 12, 2022 – Zoom Phone Outage

Duration: ~3 hours

Impact: Zoom Phone service completely unavailable; Zoom Meetings unaffected

Affected regions: Global

Root cause: Voice gateway infrastructure failure

Resolution: Manual failover to backup voice systems

Notable detail: This was a service-specific outage—Zoom Meetings worked fine, but Zoom Phone subscribers couldn't make or receive calls. This illustrates why monitoring individual Zoom services separately is important.

August 15, 2022 – Major Global Outage

Duration: ~6 hours

Impact: Complete service disruption—no meetings, phone, chat, or webinars

Affected regions: Worldwide

Root cause: DNS configuration error during routine maintenance

Resolution: DNS settings rolled back, gradual service restoration

Impact analysis:

• Estimated 30+ million interrupted meetings
• Over 100,000 DownDetector reports within first hour
• #ZoomDown trended globally on Twitter for 8+ hours
• Some Enterprise customers reported data loss in Zoom Chat

This was Zoom's most severe outage since the pandemic-era traffic surge of March 2020.

January 20, 2022 – Zoom Webinars Crash

Duration: ~90 minutes

Impact: Users couldn't join or host webinars; regular meetings worked

Affected regions: US and Canada

Root cause: Media server capacity overload during unexpected traffic spike

Resolution: Additional server capacity deployed

November 9, 2021 – API Rate Limiting Issues

Duration: ~5 hours (intermittent)

Impact: Third-party integrations failing, scheduling apps broken

Affected regions: Global

Root cause: Overly aggressive API rate limiting after security update

Resolution: Rate limit thresholds adjusted

Developer impact: This outage primarily affected Zoom API users—calendar integrations, scheduling tools, and custom applications. Regular Zoom users were largely unaffected, demonstrating why developers need dedicated API monitoring.

Outage Frequency Summary

Based on historical data from 2020-2024:

Overall uptime: Zoom maintains approximately 99.95% uptime across all services, which translates to about 4-5 hours of downtime per year. While this is considered excellent for a platform of Zoom's scale, those few hours can be critical if they occur during your important meetings.

Trend observation: Zoom's outages have become less frequent but more impactful as the platform has grown. Early outages (2019-2020) were often capacity-related during rapid scaling. Recent outages (2022-2024) are more often due to deployment errors, third-party dependencies, or configuration mistakes.

What to Do When Zoom is Down: Alternative Solutions

When Zoom is experiencing a confirmed outage, you need backup plans immediately. Here's your action plan:

Immediate Alternatives for Video Conferencing

1. Google Meet

• Free tier: Unlimited 1:1 meetings, 1-hour group meetings
• Setup time: <1 minute with Google account
• Best for: Quick transitions, teams already using Google Workspace
• How to start: Visit meet.google.com, click "New meeting"
• Pros: No app download required, works in browser, free screen sharing
• Cons: Fewer features than Zoom, 100-participant limit on free tier

2. Microsoft Teams

• Free tier: Unlimited meetings up to 60 minutes, 100 participants
• Setup time: 2-3 minutes (requires Microsoft account)
• Best for: Organizations using Microsoft 365, formal business meetings
• How to start: Download Teams app or use web version at teams.microsoft.com
• Pros: Excellent Office integration, robust security
• Cons: Interface learning curve, performance issues on older hardware

3. Whereby

• Free tier: 1 room, unlimited meetings, up to 100 participants
• Setup time: Instant (no account needed for guests)
• Best for: Quick calls, no-download requirement for participants
• How to start: Create free room at whereby.com
• Pros: Zero friction for guests, beautiful interface
• Cons: Limited free tier, fewer features than Zoom

4. Jitsi Meet

• Free tier: Completely free, unlimited meetings
• Setup time: Instant (no account required)
• Best for: Privacy-focused users, open-source advocates
• How to start: Visit meet.jit.si, create meeting
• Pros: No account, no app, no tracking, fully encrypted
• Cons: Variable quality on public instance, basic features

5. Phone Conference Bridge (Old-School Backup)

• Services: UberConference, FreeConferenceCall.com
• Setup time: Instant
• Best for: Audio-only meetings when all else fails
• How to use: Get free conference number, share with participants
• Pros: Works on any phone, no internet required
• Cons: Audio-only, no screen sharing

Communication Plan Template

When Zoom goes down, send this message to participants:

Subject: Meeting Update - Zoom Outage, Switching to [Alternative]

Hi team,

Zoom is currently experiencing an outage. We're moving today's meeting to:

[Google Meet / Teams / Whereby]:

Link: [insert link]

Meeting ID: [if applicable]

Password: [if applicable]

If you can't access the link, call in:

Phone: [backup dial-in number]

See you there!

Pro tip: Have this template pre-written with your backup platform links already filled in. Store it in a note or email draft so you can send it instantly when needed.

Long-Term Resilience Strategies

For regular meeting hosts:

1. Always include backup dial-in numbers

• Every Zoom meeting has a phone dial-in option
• Include it in all invitations, even if you plan to use video
• Phone lines work even when Zoom's data services don't

2. Maintain accounts on 2-3 platforms

• Have active accounts on Zoom + at least one backup (Google Meet, Teams)
• Familiarize yourself with each platform's basic features
• Test screen sharing, mute controls, and recording on each

3. Save your meetings as recurring appointments with alternatives

• List backup platform link in meeting description
• Include it in calendar event details
• Participants will see it automatically if Zoom fails

For businesses and organizations:

1. Multi-platform licensing

• Don't put all eggs in one basket
• License Zoom for primary use + backup platform (Teams, Webex)
• Cost is minor compared to impact of meeting cancellations

2. Documented failover procedures

• Written guide for admins on switching platforms during outage
• Pre-configured backup meeting rooms
• Communication templates ready to send
• Assigned responsibilities (who sends alerts, who sets up backup)

3. Regular backup platform testing

• Monthly "fire drill" where team practices switching platforms
• Ensures everyone knows how to join backup platform
• Reveals integration issues before real emergency

4. Monitor Zoom status proactively

• Use API Status Check to get alerts before your meeting
• Know about issues 15-30 minutes ahead of time
• Gives you time to notify participants and switch platforms

How to Get Notified About Zoom Outages (Before Your Meeting Starts)

Reactive checking—visiting status pages when Zoom won't connect—means you're already late to your meeting. Proactive monitoring gives you advance warning so you can switch platforms before anyone joins.

Why Automated Monitoring Matters

The problem with manual checking:

• You only discover issues when you try to join
• By then, it's too late to notify participants in advance
• Creates last-minute scrambling and professional embarrassment

The advantage of automated alerts:

• Know about Zoom issues 15-30 minutes before your meeting
• Time to email participants with backup plan
• Appear prepared and professional
• Can even reschedule if needed

Real-world scenario:

Without monitoring: You click your 10:00 AM Zoom link at 9:58 AM. It won't connect. You panic, Google "is Zoom down," waste 5 minutes confirming, scramble to send Google Meet link, meeting starts 15 minutes late, clients are annoyed.

With monitoring: At 9:30 AM, you receive alert: "Zoom experiencing connection issues." You immediately email participants: "Zoom having issues this morning, let's use this Google Meet link instead: [link]." Meeting starts on time at 10:00 AM, everyone impressed by your preparedness.

Setting Up Zoom Monitoring with API Status Check

API Status Check provides enterprise-grade Zoom monitoring with multiple notification channels:

What we monitor:

• ✅ Zoom Meetings – Connection tests every 60 seconds from 5 global locations
• ✅ Zoom Phone – Voice quality and call connectivity testing
• ✅ Zoom Webinars – Registration and streaming functionality
• ✅ Zoom Chat – Message delivery and real-time sync
• ✅ Zoom API – Endpoint availability for developers and integrations
• ✅ Regional status – US East, US West, EU, Asia-Pacific separate monitoring

Alert channels:

📧 Email Alerts

• Instant email when Zoom issues detected
• Includes severity level (degraded performance vs. full outage)
• Links to detailed incident page
• Updates as incident progresses and resolves

💬 Slack Integration

• Real-time alerts posted to your team Slack channel
• Color-coded severity (yellow warning, red critical)
• @channel mentions for critical outages
• Resolution notifications when service restored

📱 Discord Webhooks

• Similar to Slack, for Discord-using teams
• Customizable alert formatting
• Role mentions for urgent notifications

🔗 Custom Webhooks

• Send alerts to any platform via HTTP POST
• Integrate with PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or custom dashboards
• JSON payload with full incident details
• Build custom automation workflows

🔔 RSS Feeds

• Subscribe in your preferred RSS reader
• Passive monitoring for less critical use cases
• Historical feed of all incidents

Email Alert Configuration

Setup process:

1. Create free account at apistatuscheck.com
2. Navigate to Zoom service page
3. Click "Add Alert"
4. Enter your email address
5. Choose alert threshold:
   • Any degradation (most sensitive, best for critical meetings)
   • Partial outage (balanced, filters minor issues)
   • Complete outage (least noise, only major incidents)
6. Save

You'll receive emails for:

• 🚨 Incident start – "Zoom experiencing connection issues"
• 📊 Updates – "Issue ongoing, Zoom posted update"
• ✅ Resolution – "Zoom service restored"

Email customization:

• Choose specific Zoom services (Meetings, Phone, Webinars)
• Filter by region (only alert if US-based data centers affected)
• Set quiet hours (no alerts overnight unless critical)
• Digest mode (summary email once daily instead of instant alerts)

Slack Integration Setup

For teams managing Zoom on behalf of clients or coordinating large organizations:

Setup process:

1. In API Status Check dashboard, click "Integrations"
2. Select "Add Slack Integration"
3. Click "Authorize API Status Check" to connect your Slack workspace
4. Choose which channel receives alerts (#ops, #alerts, #zoom-status)
5. Configure which services and severity levels trigger alerts
6. Save

Slack alert example:

🔴 ZOOM OUTAGE DETECTED
Service: Zoom Meetings
Severity: Major
Region: US East
Started: 2:47 PM ET

Users reporting connection failures and "cannot connect to server" errors.
Status page: https://status.zoom.us
API Status Check: https://apistatuscheck.com/status/zoom

Collaboration benefits:

• Entire team sees alerts simultaneously
• Can discuss workarounds in thread
• Coordinator can @channel notify about backup plan
• Creates incident record in Slack history

Advanced Monitoring: Custom Webhooks

For developers and SRE teams building automation:

Example use cases:

• Automatically switch video conferencing provider in your app when Zoom is down
• Post incident to internal status page
• Create PagerDuty incident and page on-call engineer
• Log to incident management system (JIRA, Linear, etc.)
• Update "System Status" widget on your website

Webhook payload format:

{
  "service": "zoom",
  "status": "outage",
  "severity": "major",
  "started_at": "2024-02-14T14:47:32Z",
  "message": "Zoom Meetings experiencing connection failures",
  "affected_regions": ["us-east", "us-west"],
  "affected_services": ["meetings", "phone"],
  "incident_url": "https://apistatuscheck.com/incidents/zoom-2024-02-14"
}

Webhook setup:

1. Generate webhook URL in your receiving system (Zapier, Make, custom endpoint)
2. Add webhook URL in API Status Check dashboard
3. Choose POST or GET request method
4. Optionally add custom headers (authentication, etc.)
5. Test webhook to verify connectivity
6. Save configuration

Resolution webhooks:
When the incident resolves, you'll receive:

{
  "service": "zoom",
  "status": "operational",
  "severity": "resolved",
  "resolved_at": "2024-02-14T16:23:18Z",
  "duration_minutes": 96,
  "message": "Zoom services fully restored",
  "incident_url": "https://apistatuscheck.com/incidents/zoom-2024-02-14"
}

Multi-Service Monitoring

Don't just monitor Zoom—track all your communication dependencies:

If Zoom goes down and your backup is Google Meet, you'll want to know if that's also down before recommending it to participants.

Comprehensive communication stack monitoring:

• ✅ Zoom (primary platform)
• ✅ Google Meet (backup #1)
• ✅ Microsoft Teams (backup #2)
• ✅ Slack (team chat)
• ✅ Gmail (notification emails)
• ✅ AWS (if your services depend on it)

Scenario: Friday afternoon, you get an alert: "AWS us-east-1 degraded performance." You know Zoom uses AWS. Five minutes later: "Zoom Meetings experiencing latency issues." You proactively email upcoming meeting participants: "Zoom may be slow this afternoon, backup Google Meet link: [link]."

Result: Zero disruption to your meetings because you were warned before problems became critical.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I know if Zoom is down for everyone or just me?

Check API Status Check's Zoom monitoring page for real-time status, or search Twitter for "Zoom down" to see if others are reporting issues. If Zoom's web client (zoom.us/test) works but your desktop app doesn't, the issue is on your end. If nothing works and Twitter shows hundreds of recent reports, Zoom is likely down.

Does Zoom have an official status page?

Yes, Zoom maintains status.zoom.us showing operational status for all services. However, Zoom's official page often lags behind third-party monitoring by 10-30 minutes in acknowledging outages. For faster detection, use automated monitoring tools like API Status Check.

How long do Zoom outages typically last?

Most Zoom outages resolve within 1-3 hours. Minor issues (single feature or region) are often fixed in under 30 minutes. Major global outages can last 4-8 hours, though these are rare (1-2 per year). The longest recent outage was August 2022's 6-hour incident.

Can I get notifications before my Zoom meeting starts?

Yes. API Status Check monitors Zoom every 60 seconds and sends instant alerts via email, Slack, or Discord when issues are detected—typically 15-30 minutes before Zoom's official acknowledgment. This gives you time to notify participants and arrange backup platforms.

Why does Zoom go down?

Common causes include: infrastructure issues at cloud providers (AWS, Oracle Cloud), deployment errors when Zoom pushes updates, database failures in authentication or meeting services, DNS configuration mistakes, unexpected traffic spikes during major events, and occasionally DDoS attacks. Most outages are infrastructure or deployment-related, not security incidents.

What's the difference between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Phone outages?

Zoom operates multiple independent services. Zoom Meetings can be down while Zoom Phone works fine, or vice versa. During service-specific outages (like September 2022's Phone-only outage), one service fails while others remain operational. This is why monitoring each service separately matters—especially if your business depends on Zoom Phone for customer calls.

Will clearing my cache fix Zoom connection issues?

Only if the problem is on your end. Clearing Zoom's cache (delete contents of %appdata%\Zoom on Windows or ~/Library/Application Support/zoom.us on Mac) can fix corrupted local data causing connection problems. But if Zoom is experiencing a platform-wide outage, cache clearing won't help—the issue is on Zoom's servers.

Should I switch to a different video platform permanently?

Not necessarily. Zoom maintains 99.95%+ uptime, comparable to Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. All platforms experience occasional outages. Instead of switching entirely, maintain accounts on 2-3 platforms as backups. Include backup meeting links in invitations so participants know where to go if primary platform fails.

Can I monitor Zoom's API separately from the main service?

Yes. API Status Check monitors Zoom's API endpoints independently from the main Meetings/Phone services. This matters for developers building Zoom integrations, scheduling tools, or custom applications. API rate limiting, authentication failures, or webhook delivery issues can occur even when Zoom Meetings works perfectly.

How do I set up automatic failover to backup platforms?

For enterprise deployments, you can create webhooks that trigger when Zoom goes down:

1. Set up monitoring with API Status Check
2. Configure webhook to your automation platform (Zapier, Make, custom app)
3. Webhook triggers backup meeting creation (Google Meet, Teams)
4. Automated email/Slack message sent to participants with new link

For individuals/small teams, maintain backup links in calendar events and have a pre-written email template ready to send manually when alerts arrive.

Conclusion: Stay Ahead of Zoom Outages

Zoom outages are rare but inevitable. The difference between professional preparation and embarrassing scrambling is knowing about issues before they affect your meetings.

Key takeaways:

✅ Check status first – Visit apistatuscheck.com/status/zoom before troubleshooting

✅ Fix common issues – Most "Zoom down" reports are actually local network, permissions, or firewall problems

✅ Have backup platforms ready – Maintain Google Meet or Teams accounts, include backup links in invitations

✅ Get proactive alerts – Monitor Zoom automatically to receive warnings 15-30 minutes before outages impact you

✅ Know Zoom's history – Outages average 1-2 major incidents per year, usually resolved within 1-3 hours

Don't wait for the next outage to catch you unprepared.

→ Start monitoring Zoom status now – Get instant alerts when Zoom goes down, track uptime history, and never miss another meeting due to unexpected outages.

Free plan includes:

• Real-time Zoom status monitoring
• Email alerts for outages
• Historical uptime data
• Multi-region status tracking

Sign up for free →

Last updated: February 14, 2024