Why Fred did not join your meeting: Troubleshooting guide

If Fred from Fireflies isn’t showing up to capture your calls, don’t worry—we’ve got your back. Below are the most common reasons Fred might skip a meeting, and how to fix them.

Start with the Meeting Status page to investigate 🔍

Before jumping into troubleshooting, it's important to understand what might have gone wrong. The Meeting Status page on your Dashboard gives you a clear picture of what Fred attempted to do.

Here’s how to read it:

✅ Completed (no additional note): Fred successfully joined using your account. You’re all set!

✅ Completed + "Joined on behalf of xyz@domain.com": Fred joined from the meeting host's or a teammate's account. This means your fred was never supposed to join due to either your Auto-Join settings or Meeting Rules Set.

👉 Head to Section 1 or Section 4 to resolve this.

❌ No one let Fireflies into the meeting: Your Fred was sent but got stuck in the waiting room or lobby. It could mean

• It was manually restricted to join

• or could be because of lobby settings 👉 Go to Section 2

⚠ Google Meet: Unable to find “Admit” button

If Fireflies is in the waiting room but you don’t see the “Admit” button, it may appear under a “With potential risks” section in the participants panel.

This is part of a Google Meet security update and does not indicate any risk.

To admit Fireflies, click the three dots (⋮) next to Fireflies Notetaker and select “Admit entry.”

✅ Why do I see Fireflies as a “potential risk” in Google Meet?

This is part of a Google Meet security update that helps hosts review participants before admitting them and does not indicate any risk..

❌ Unable to Join: Meeting Requires Sign-In: The meeting required login and blocked Fred. This could take other shape as well like:

• 'login required' or 'user denied entry' or 'host declined recording permission'

• 'password required' (refer to Section 3)

•  'end-to-end encrypted meeting not supported'

• 'captcha required' or 'domain blocked'

👉 Go to Section 2 for setup tips.

• ⚠ Meeting audio too short to process: Fred joined, but the meeting was under 3 minutes and not saved.

  

Once you've identified the status, scroll down to the matching section below to find the right fix. 🛠

1. Start with checking your Auto-Join preferences

Fred would skip your meeting if your Auto-join is disabled i.e. it's set to "only when i invite fred@fireflies.ai". To enable, select "All meetings with conf link"

To change your settings, go to your Fireflies Dashboard or Settings > Meeting Settings > Auto-Join Preferences and confirm what's selected:

• All meetings with a conf link: Joins every call

• Only meetings I own: Joins only if you're the organizer

  Note: Fred will skip meetings not created by you, even if you're attending.💡 Example: You’re attending a call your teammate scheduled. Since it’s not “your” meeting (in calendar terms), Fred won’t join—even if it's on your calendar.

  📍 To confirm: Go to your Dashboard > Meeting Status

• Internal only / External only: Based on email domains

• With teammates: Joins meetings if teammates are present

• Only when I invite fred@fireflies.ai: Joins only if you add Fred manually

💡 Example: If "Only meetings I own" is selected but you're only a participant, Fred won’t join. Or if "With teammates" is on, Fred might join your team syncs unexpectedly.

⚙ Go through this for a detailed step-by-step guide: 📄 Auto-Join Settings →

2. Check your meeting platform settings if you see "Login Errors" (Zoom or Microsoft Teams)

Fred needs a few things to be set correctly on your video conferencing platform before the meeting link is created. If the link was generated before you updated your Zoom or Teams settings, Fireflies might still fail to join—even if everything looks right. The following are the admin settings that need to be configured by team admin.

🔧 Zoom settings to verify:

• Only authenticated users can join from Web client: Turn this OFF

• End-to-end encryption (E2EE): Turn OFF

• Waiting Room: Disable this

• Join before host: Turn ON

• Computer audio: Ensure it’s enabled for all participants

⚠ Important: Zoom settings must be configured before generating the meeting link. If not, Fireflies may not be able to join. Recreate the invite after fixing settings.

Visit 📄 Zoom setup checklist → for detailed steps

🔧 Microsoft Teams settings to verify:

• Guest access: Turn ON (default is OFF)

• Under Meeting Policies, the following settings should be ensured:

  • Lobby bypass: Allow guests to bypass lobby

  • Require a verification check from:Not Required

  • Anonymous users can join a meeting: Must be ON in both Meeting Settings and Meeting Policies (recent Microsoft 365 update)

💡 Test tip: Try opening your meeting link in an incognito window. If it asks you to sign in, your settings are likely blocking anonymous users.

Visit 📄 Teams setup checklist → for detailed steps

🔧 Google Meet Settings to verify:

• Go to your Google Workspace and select Google Meet in the left menu

• Scroll down and Go to Meet Safety Settings

• Select Domain and ensure that the option "All users (including users not signed in with a google account" is selected

  

Visit 📄 Google Meet setup checklist → for detailed steps

3. Check your calendar + invite details

Fred won’t join if:

• ❌ Your calendar isn’t connected to Fireflies

• ❌ The meeting invite doesn’t contain a valid video conferencing link

• ❌ You invited Fred after the meeting had already started

• ❌ Your Zoom invite includes a password but doesn’t share it in the correct format

✅ Fixes:

• Use the email address connected to your Fireflies account when creating events

• Ensure your Google or Microsoft calendar is synced with Fireflies (📄 What calendars are supported?)

• Double-check that your meeting invite includes a valid Zoom, Teams, or Meet URL—watch out for broken or incomplete links

• If your Zoom meeting has a password, include it in the body of the invite or in the Zoom URL (📄 How do I invite Fireflies to Zoom meetings that have Passwords)

• Enable Auto join or Add Fred before the meeting begins, not after since It will be too late for Fred to join

4. Check your Meeting Rules

Even if Auto-Join is ON, Meeting Rules always override it.

• Bar Rules: Could block meetings with keywords like “1:1”, "confidential", or domains like @client.com

• Join Rules: Could restrict Fred to only join meetings with keywords like “demo”, “review”, or certain emails/domains

Know everything about 📄 How to set Meeting Rules →

5. Check for integration issues

If Zoom, or Microsoft Teams isn’t properly integrated:

• Fireflies may not detect your meetings

• Auto-join and Add to Live Meeting may not work

📄 Connect Zoom to Fireflies 📄 Connect Microsoft Teams

6. Other common reasons Fred didn’t join

✅ Fred was removed manually by someone in the meeting → No notes captured

✅ Fred left before 3 minutes → Needs at least 3 minutes to record

✅ Calendar not connected → Reconnect Google/Outlook in Settings

✅ Outlook profile error → If account was recently deactivated and re-signed in with mismatched Outlook profile, you'll see login errors.

✅ Onboarding incomplete → Go to app.fireflies.ai/setup to complete the setup.

✅ Incognito login test → Try joining your meeting link in an incognito window. If you can’t access it without logging in, Fireflies won’t be able to either.

✅ Google Meet: Fireflies appears under “potential risk” → This is part of a Google Meet security update and does not indicate any risk.