Webex - Troubleshooting Guide when Hearing an Echo

Hearing an echo during a meeting can be very distracting and create chaos. Follow this troubleshooting guide to ensure your meetings run smoothly without an echo

Causes of an echo:

  • A participant has both the computer and telephone audio active.
  • The speakers on participants' computers or telephones are too close to each other.
  • There are multiple computers with active audio in the same conference room.
  • The audio is playing through your speakers/ mobile device into your microphone.


To minimize echo in a conference:

  • Mute all lines in the conference, then unmute only those participants that need to speak.

To identify the source of echo:

  • Mute all participants in the conference.
  • Unmute each participant, one at a time; then talk and listen if any echo from that location.
  • Once the echo source is found, apply the corrective suggestions below.

To correct an echo problem – recommendations apply to any device type:

  • Try lowering the audio output level from your speakers.
  • Try playing the audio from the conference through your headset earphones rather than through desktop speakers. For best results, high-quality headphones with integrated microphones are recommended. Set the audio output at a reasonable level.
  • Try moving your microphone or headset further away from your speakers.
  • Within a room, it is recommended that the microphone/s and speaker/s of one device be used. In that room, mute all other microphone and speaker elements from co-located devices such as laptops that joined that same meeting.
  • If within the room there is a strong background noise either from an audio masking noise generator or from say, a fan, please proceed as follows. For the audio masking noise generator, please reduce its level output. For say a fan, as possible please move the microphone to a more distant location from that noise source.

The following steps apply if you are using the 'Call using computer' or VoIP option to connect to your audio conference: 

  • Test your audio after each troubleshooting step below, and proceed to the next step if the echo still occurs.

To correct the problem:

  • Try moving your microphone or headset further away from your speakers.
  • Try playing the audio from the conference through your headset earphones, rather than through desktop speakers. For best results, high-quality headphones with integrated microphones are recommended. Headsets with standard 3.5 mm audio jacks usually work better than USB or wireless headsets.
  • In the Webex Meetings client the audio input control has evolved in such a way that the settings are adjusted automatically.


This is a Cisco product- for more information see https://help.webex.com



Keywords:
webex, meeting, meetings, sound, echo, feedback, reverb, reverberation, audio issues 
Doc ID:
89584
Owned by:
Shawn T. in Cisco Webex
Created:
2019-02-07
Updated:
2025-05-05
Sites:
Cisco Webex, DoIT Help Desk