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Screen sharing doesn’t work

When you’d like to share your screen but get slapped in the face with an error message (or you don’t see anything at all).

Tim avatar
Written by Tim
Updated over a week ago

When you’d like to share your screen but get slapped in the face with an error message (or you don’t see anything at all), you can follow the steps below to get your setup working again in a heartbeat.

1. Update the browser

Make sure your browser is always up-to-date. This might sound trivial, but it can make a world of difference.

Google Chrome

Open the menu by clicking on the three dots at the top right of your browser and click 'Settings' > ‘About Google Chrome’ and choose ‘Update’, or type ‘chrome://settings/help’ in your address bar and select ‘Update’.

Microsoft Edge

Open the menu by clicking on the three dots at the top right of your browser and click 'Settings' > 'About Microsoft Edge' and choose 'Update', or type 'edge://settings/help' in your address bar and select 'Update'.

Mozilla Firefox

Open the menu by clicking on the three lines at the top right of your browser and choose 'Help' > 'About Firefox'. Any available update will be installed automatically.

2. Share a full screen for a presentation

When you’d like to share a presentation (e.g. Powerpoint) in presentation mode, it’s required to share your full screen. When sharing your screen you have that option, and if you’d like to share a Powerpoint in presentation mode, sharing a PowerPoint will not be enough. You need to share your whole screen. You’ll see when the screen turns black where you’d normally expect to see your presentation.

3. Using Mac OS Catalina or higher?

Ever since Mac OS version Catalina it’s required to separately give permission in your system preferences to allow your browser to be able to read your screen data and share it. To do this, go to 'System preferences' > 'Safety & Privacy' > 'Privacy', click on 'Screen recording' and make sure you allow Google Chrome to have access to your screen.

Please note! You need to restart the browser completely after this change. So close it completely and restart the browser.

4. No audio being shared

Audio is only shared if you're sharing a browser tab. If you want to share audio from a different application or your entire system, consider using video injections or RTMP streaming (with OBS).

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