How to allow participants to join a Zoom meeting before the host

In this article, we'll explain what you'll need to do to allow participants to join your Zoom meetings without you being present. This is very useful in situations where you may need to set up a meeting for a team or others, but you may not be able to attend.

Prerequisites:

• A valid Zoom account
• Host permissions for the meeting
• Note: If you want to use the Join Before Host time limit, this feature requires Zoom client version 5.4.0 or higher.

• If you turn on Allow participants to join before host in your meeting settings, it will be on by default for any newly scheduled meetings, but you will be able to uncheck it when scheduling a meeting.

How to enable on an individual basis, using the macOS or Windows desktop software client:

1. Open and log into the Zoom client.

2. Select the Home screen from the top menu bar:

3. Go to Schedule:

4. Navigate to the bottom of the menu and select "Advanced Options", then check off the box: "Allow participants to join anytime."

How to enable on an individual basis, using the Web-based client:

1. Sign in to zoom.us with your Zoom credentials.

2. Once signed in, navigate to Meetings and then "Schedule a Meeting":

3. Scroll to the bottom of the meetings page, then click "Show" to the right of options, finally check the box off next to "Allow participants to join anytime".