What your guests are seeing
Guests who see this message have done everything right. They left their name and email at the door, waited in your lobby and were sent through to the meeting, only to find it was not running. The message usually reads Meeting has not started, sometimes with the code 3008.
In the room that runs today, the meeting platform is Zoom, and the message comes from it. Zoom is a trademark of Zoom Communications, Inc. BrandedRooms is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Zoom.
The good news is that this is the friendliest error on the list. Nothing is misconfigured. Your developer app, keys and passcode are all working, or guests would have seen a different message. The fix is a matter of order.
Why it happens: two separate starts
Going live in a branded room is two actions, done in a set order. First, the host starts the meeting in the meeting app, signed in as the host. That is what makes the meeting exist. Second, the host presses Start the room in the control panel. That is what tells every waiting guest's page to open the meeting.
Pressing Start the room alone opens the doors to a meeting that has not begun. Your room cannot start the meeting on your behalf, by design: it only signs guests in as attendees, never as the host.
The fix, in order
If guests are seeing the message right now, do this.
- Open your meeting app and sign in as the host of the meeting saved in your room settings.
- Start that meeting. Check that it is the same meeting, not a different one from your calendar.
- Go back to your host control panel and press Start the room again if the room shows it is waiting.
- Watch the attendee list or a guest test window to confirm pages switch to the meeting by themselves.
- If a guest is still stuck, ask them to refresh the page once. Their details are kept, so they go straight back to the lobby.
Join before host: when it helps
The meeting platform has a setting called join before host, which lets attendees enter the meeting before the host arrives. Turning it on also removes this error, because the meeting can begin without you.
For most branded rooms we suggest leaving it off and simply starting the meeting first. Your branded waiting room already holds guests with your name, a countdown and an add-to-calendar button, so there is no need to let them into an empty meeting. Join before host is worth considering when someone other than the host opens the event, such as a moderator who arrives early, or when you run a casual community call where people like to chat before you appear.
A host routine that prevents it
The simplest prevention is a habit. Fifteen minutes before your start time, open the meeting app and start the meeting as host. Check your camera, microphone and the screen you plan to share. Then, at your start time, press Start the room. Guests come in muted, the moment feels deliberate, and nobody meets an error at the door.
If you co-host, write down who starts the meeting and who presses the button. When both people assume the other did it, this is the message guests see. Put the two starts at the top of your first event checklist, in order, and run them once during your test.
On the day, the control panel helps you here as well. Its join problems list shows any guest whose page could not open the meeting, so if a handful of people hit this message while you were starting up, you will see it and can welcome them warmly once they are in.