Microsoft Teams: Muting All The Participants Without Allowing Them To Unmute

[joef1665]

Dear All,

Is there any option in Microsoft Teams to mute all the participants without allowing them to unmute back? I mean, Is there is any option for the speaker to mute all the students, and then unmute them back when I want them to speak? 

Thanks again! 

[#2]

Hi @joef1665

See here

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams/stopping-participants-from-unmuting-themselve...

Currently, you can't. Whilst Microsoft have made improvements such as joining the meeting muted, and being able to mute someone, Members of Teams meetings can unmute at any time. Policing is therefore needed. There are multiple uservoices for it including this:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/36709033-mute

I would recommend voting to push it up the agenda. Microsoft are very aware of this requirement, and with the development of muting whilst joining I would imagine you may see it on the roadmap relatively soon in the future. Microsoft is also working on other classroom style virtual functionality such as raise hand

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/35262385-add-a-raise-your-hand...

You could look at potentially using Live Events in Teams to do this, which are like Ted talks where one person talks and the attendees do Q&A - however, it's not what you need. As a former teacher in secondary I know you need the default to be muted then you unmute either individuals or to the audience as required

As said I believe this will come soon, but not soon enough for Covid-19 which is here now

Hope that answers your question

Best, Chris

[#3]

@ChrisHoardMVP

Hi Christopher, 

Thank you so much for your prompt reply, I really appreciate it. 

Regarding the Live Events, could you please give me more details? 

Do you think it can be applied in classrooms? or what are the pro & cons of this option? 

Sincerely,

JOE 

[#4]

Hi Christopher,

Thank you so much for your prompt reply, I really appreciate it.
Regarding the Live Events, could you please give me more details?
Do you think it can be applied in classrooms? or what are the pro & cons of this option?

Sincerely,

JOE

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Hi @joef1665

Live events are one to many broadcasts. Like a TED Talk or a lecture: you can read more here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-live-events/what-are-teams-live-events

Only the presenter can speak, but attendees can Q&A.

You would need A3/A5 licencing to set it up. Pros - no noise, no interruptions, can have large amounts of attendees. Downside, less interaction, harder to setup. In a classroom format I would go with better policing rather than a Live event - as a former secondary school teacher I would have an assistant/LSA to be muting anyone whilst I am talking. That's how Microsoft do it today whilst they develop the appropriate features

Hope that answers your question

Best, Chris

[#6]

This function is easy in ZOOM, but difficult in MS Teams.

[#7]

Right now my students in Teams are able to mute each other and even mute me. Is there a function to turn off the abilities for students to mute each other? I can see this as a really big problem in the future. Or if it notified me who was trying to mute someone else, I could deal with it that way. But as it is right now, I have some crafty students muting people who are speaking and it is turning into a "who done it?" scenario. @ChrisHoardMVP 

[#8]

In einer meiner Klassen ist das auch ein riesen Problem. Ich fände es auch sehr sinnvoll, wenn die Lehrperson eine Art Logbuch zur Hand hätte, in dem sie nachlesen kann, wer wen stumm geschalten hat. Das Logbuch wäre auch sinnvoll für eine Anwesenheitskontrolle.

[#9]

@DylanElemTeacher 

Dear Help,

I am running a class and one student is muting other students on and off and also me at times. How can I stop this?

[#10]

I’ve been told of a solution. You schedule the meeting in the Teams calendar then click on the meeting in the calendar. Go to “meeting options”. This will take you to an online website. Then on the “who can present” drop down menu, change it to “only me”. This will take away all muting capabilities. It also takes away screen sharing though but there are ways to make individual students into presenters. Remember to cancel the meeting in the calendar after you are done with video otherwise students can rejoin the video without you.

[#11]

@ChrisHoardMVP 

People calling in don't get muted like users logging in from PCs. Is this a bug?

[#12]

... and if there isn't, it would be grately appreciated! When I am in conference with my 21 adult students, there is a constant background noise from their children now staying at home. When I mute them all, it's about 20 seconds before the background noise is back, and however much I ask them to mute themselves, it does not help ...

[#13]

@ChrisHoardMVP I second (third?) the request to push "hard-muting" options in Teams. Today, we are using a Skype meeting to broadcast periodic in-house audio meetings to internal staff only. NOBODY gets to unmute themselves, and the only live mic is the presenter one (which is actually 50-mics mixed down and fed as a mic input to Skype).

We would like to re-create this scenario in Teams.

[#14]

To those on this thread:
As a teacher as well I agree and desperately want this option please!

The voting @Christopher showed us is closed. I did some searching and didn't see a post to get upvoted for a universal presenter mute option. So I created my own! See below. Share it, get it voted. Let's get this option developed ASAP so we can best serve our students during this time!

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/40130068-two-mute-capability-u...

[#15]

This Feedback has more of a following and is still open. Please give it a vote if it's something you'd like implemented.

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/40130068-two-mute-capability-u...

edit: I didn't see this feedback already shared above by the creator no less. please upvote them and their post.

[#16]

I have voted too - there are similar ones around on Uservoice. Microsoft are definitely aware of this but more than that I can't say at this time

Best, Chris

[#17]

MS close eyes and ear (arrogant posture) to customers needs:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/36709033-mute 

[#18]

Hi @ChrisHoardMVP,

accordingly to this MS doc, the 'LIVE EVENT' feature is available to:

• An Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, or E5 license or an Office 365 A3 or A5 license
• A Microsoft Teams license
• A Microsoft Stream license

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/teams-live-events/plan-for-teams-live-events 

[#19]

I would like to suggest that everyone copy this URL and post on their posts about Teams on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MicrosoftTeams).

We have business customers asking about that. 

[#20]

@DylanElemTeacher

we have users complain about meetings without anyone - since they came later than the stablished hour (user mistake/problem).

The main question is: If the meeting had a stablished hour to start and to end, why user are able to enter later??? Make no sense!!!