Articles on: Video Consultations

Troubleshooting your Video Consultation - for Clients

This guide should help you with any issues you may come across when trying to access and participate in your video consultation hosted on WriteUpp.

I can't join my video consultation

To allow you to join your video consultation, your clinician will have provided you with a secure access link, most likely within an email or a text message. A few minutes before the scheduled time, click on the link and you'll be taken to the online "room" to wait for your clinician to initiate the session.

If you are early, you will need to click the ‘Join Meeting’ button to access the waiting room.

NOTE: You can only join the meeting within 5 minutes of the start time. If you are unable to click ‘Join Meeting’, grab a cuppa and come back a little closer to the appointment start time!

Once in the waiting room, enter your name and click ’Ready to Join’, so that your clinician knows you have arrived:

Keep it short and use the name that the host is expecting - they may not admit you to the call otherwise!

Can't find your link? Don't worry! Simply contact the clinic you're due to attend (remotely!) and ask them to resend it. They'll be able to find it and send it over to you by your preferred delivery method, so you can access your session.

My devices aren’t working in the waiting room

Have you checked that video and audio permissions were granted?

The browser you are using needs access to your camera and microphone. When you join the online waiting room, you'll need to allow the browser access to both your microphone and camera. Without this access, the clinician won't be able to see or hear you. The message you see will depend on what browser and device you're using, but generally you'll be asked to Allow access or to Deny/Block access.

If you accidentally deny access, you'll need to find the relevant settings in your browser and change the permissions to allow access to both your camera and microphone. Some browsers, like Chrome, will display an icon in the URL indicating that access has been denied:

Clicking on this will allow you to change the permissions and proceed with the call.

For any other browsers, there's usually something in settings or permissions to control this - a quick Google search should lead you in the right direction.

In the Waiting room, before the call starts, you should test your camera, microphone and speaker devices to ensure they are all working. You can switch devices using the dropdowns and then to test:

Microphone - ensure the microphone icon is toggled on and speak out loud. Does the bar move to show that sound is being picked up?
Speakers - click on the Speaker icon to play a test dingle. Can you hear it?
Camera - click on ‘Start Preview’ to turn on your camera and start the video feed. Can you see yourself? Use the arrow icons in the top left corner of the preview to switch to a mirrored view of yourself, if preferred.

Make sure the volume on your device is turned up. Sometimes this is too low and you won't be able to hear the dingle.

Have you been using wireless headphones/earphones recently? It might be worth checking that these aren't still connected, or use the selectors to choose the correct devices.

We can't see or hear each other on the video call

First, check that you have granted permissions on the browser you’re using (more on this in the above section). You should also check the video/microphone icons displayed within the feed, in case they've been switched off in error. A diagonal line through either of these icons indicates that your video/audio is off. Easy fix - just click on it to turn it back on:

If the host has either their mic or camera turned off, you will see an icon indicating this at the bottom of their video stream.

Have you got the correct devices selected? You can use the device selectors to switch your camera, microphone and/or speakers mid-call. Click on the ^ symbol next to the relevant icon to open the device selectors:

If there is a problem with your video and/or audio when the call first connects, click on the ^ symbol next to the camera/microphone icon and click to restart it.

Still having issues? Click on the ^ symbol next to the Troubleshooting icon to open the Troubleshooting panel. This will provide you with live tracking for audio and video streams. If these are “Bad”, there could be an issue with the devices you are using.

If none of the above apply, it may be worth leaving the call using the ‘Leave Call’ icon in the bottom toolbar, and then requesting to rejoin. This should refresh the connection when the host accepts you back into the call room.

Top tip: Use the Chat icon in the bottom left of the toolbar to open the chatbox. Here, you can message the host about any problems you are experiencing.

Other things to check

What browser are you using? Is it up to date?

The video consultation platform will only support the most up to date and 2 previous versions of a browser. For example, if the most up to date version of Google Chrome is 139, versions 139, 138 and 137 will be supported.

You can find out how to check what version of a browser you are using here, and more information on the browser requirements for video consultation here.

If you're accessing the consultation via a mobile device, you'll be able to check your app store for any available updates to the browser apps.

The most important things to note are:

If you're using Microsoft Edge/Chrome/Safari/FireFox, make sure you're on the latest version
If you're using an iPhone or iPad, try using Chrome if you are having issues on Safari
Video consultations are not supported on Internet Explorer
What is your internet speed? Are you using a wired connection via an ethernet cable, WiFi or mobile data?

Generally, we'd recommend a speed of more than 10mbps. If you are having issues with poor quality video or sound, please run an internet speed test on the device you are using to access the video consultation: https://www.speedtest.net/

If you are using mobile data, are you on 3G or 4G? How many bars of signal do you have?

Are you using any adblockers, antivirus or malware software?

These tools may interfere with video consultations, however, in most cases you can whitelist services (like ours) so that they are unaffected. To do this you will need to check the documentation for your adblocker, antivirus or malware software.

Do you have any extensions installed on your browser?

The video consultation platform uses a browser to browser connection, which can be impacted by other things that you may have running in your browser, like extensions and ad blockers. They can generally be found by opening your browser settings and choosing Extensions or similar. Can you toggle them off and try the video consultation again?

Get in touch

Still having issues? Speak to the host of the video call and give them all of the information you can provide, including:

What browser and hardware are you using? Are they up to date?
Are you using WiFi or mobile data? If WiFi, what is the upload and download speed you are seeing? If mobile data, how many signal bars do you have?
Are you using any adblockers, antivirus or malware software?
Have you checked if the video/camera permissions are granted?
Are you able to conduct a call via another platform? (Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp)

The more details you can provide, the more likely it is that we can find a solution!

Updated on: 21/08/2025

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