Zoom: Block or Allow participants from countries when scheduling your meeting

Posted on:  02/20/2021
Zoom: Block or Allow participants from countries when scheduling your meeting

Zoom has a nifty feature where you can block or allow participants from countries/regions when scheduling your meeting. For example, I'm in the U.S. and schedule a zoom meeting. I can block participants from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the UK. I can also go the other way when scheduling a meeting and Allow participants from different countries besides the U.S. to join my meeting.

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Block or Approve Other Countries

You can block or approve users from other countries, but you do NOT have to use this feature. If you don’t want to approve or block, don’t check the box when scheduling. One other nice thing about block or approve is what you do for one meeting does not automatically roll over to your next scheduled meeting. This works in both Zoom on the web or the desktop app when scheduling meetings.

Try it!

  1. Open the Zoom app
  2. Click Advanced Options
  3. Check, approve or block entry for users from specific countries/regions. If you don't check this box, Zoom works like normal. 
  4. Select Only allow users from selected countries/regions or Block users from selected countries/regions. If you select Only allow users from selected countries/regions, your country should show up automatically.
  5. If you allow, put in the countries that can join your Zoom meeting. If you click Block, type in the countries to block.
  6. Click Save when done.
  7. Continue scheduling your Zoom meeting.

Blocked message for Zoom Meetings

If someone from a blocked country tries to join your Zoom meeting, they see the message Unable to Join the Meeting. This meeting is not accessible from (country) at this time (Error code: 1142).

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Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. Chris runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Copilot, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers. Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events yearly, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at https://chrismenardtraining.com/linkedin or watch his videos on YouTube at https://chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.

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