Why don't external people come to the Teams meeting?

Hayes Odette 0 Reputation points
2026-08-21T00:41:50.4866667+00:00

I want to create a meeting room where participants can meet for the meeting via the link without necessarily having to be there from the beginning. I have deactivated the waiting room, but the participants still end up in the waiting room and cannot start the meeting. What do I need to set to allow attendees to start the meeting?

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Meetings and calls | Schedule meetings
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  1. Alina Le 4,920 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-08-21T01:11:23.9+00:00

    Hello @Hayes Odette

    If external participants are still sent to the lobby and cannot start the meeting even though you've disabled the waiting room, there is usually an additional Teams policy involved.

    I would like to provide below steps for you to double-check agai at your end to see where the issue is:

    1/ Verify the Meeting Lobby Settings

    • Open Microsoft Teams- > Go to "Calendar".
    • Click on your meeting -> select "Meeting options".
    • Review the following settings: "Who can bypass the lobby?"
    • Set this to: "Everyone"

    This setting allows participants to enter the meeting directly instead of waiting in the lobby.

    Meeting options in Microsoft Teams

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    (As you mentioned, you may have already completed these steps. However, I would like to provide the detailed instructions so you can review them again, help prevent any miscommunication, and ensure that all necessary steps have been completed to resolve the issue.)

    2/ Verify the Teams Admin Center Policy

    Even if the meeting is configured to allow everyone to bypass the lobby, external participants may still be unable to start the meeting unless the Teams meeting policy permits anonymous users to start meetings.

    *Check the Meeting Policy

    • Open the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.
    • Click on "Show all" and navigate to: "Meetings" -> "Meeting policies"
    • Open the policy assigned to the meeting organizer (often Global (Org-wide default)).
    • Under Meeting join & lobby, verify the following settings:
      • "Anonymous users can join a meeting" -> Set to: "On"
      • "Anonymous users and dial-in callers can start a meeting" -> Set to: "On".
      • "Who can bypass the lobby" -> Set to: "Everyone"

    These settings allow anonymous and external users to join and start meetings without requiring the organizer to join first

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    IT Admins - Manage lobby options in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn

    3/ Test with a New Meeting

    If the Teams policy was changed recently, the existing meeting may still use the previous settings.

    • Create a new Teams meeting.
    • Set Who can bypass the lobby = Everyone.
    • Invite an external participant.
    • Ask the participant to join before the organizer joins.

    Kind regards,

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  2. AI answer

    2026-08-21T00:42:05.2+00:00

    To let external attendees join directly and start the meeting without the organizer being there, these settings must be in place:

    1. In the meeting’s Meeting options, set Who can bypass the lobby? to Everyone.
      In Teams: Calendar > select the event > View event > Options > under Meeting access, change Who can bypass the lobby? to Everyone > Apply.
    2. If the attendees are anonymous users or dialing in, they can still be held in the lobby until a verified participant joins, even when Everyone is selected, depending on the meeting policy set by the IT admin.
    3. To allow anonymous participants to start meetings, the IT admin must enable the policy for anonymous users to start a meeting. By default, Anonymous users and dial-in callers can start a meeting is Off, which means anonymous participants and dial-in callers always wait in the lobby until a verified participant starts the meeting.
    4. External access must also be enabled correctly depending on how those attendees join:
      • Guest access in Teams for guests
      • External access for people in trusted organizations
      • Anonymous meeting join for anonymous participants If any of these are turned off, that type of external participant can’t join regardless of lobby settings.

    So, turning off the waiting room alone is not enough. For external people to start the meeting themselves, the key combination is:

    • Who can bypass the lobby = Everyone
    • Required external access setting enabled for their participant type
    • IT admin enables anonymous users to start meetings if they are joining anonymously
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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