Troubleshooting reconnecting video

If a NearbySpy video call keeps dropping, freezing, or showing a "Reconnecting…" banner that never clears, the cause is almost always something the platform cannot see — a flaky network, a permissions block, a browser tab fighting for the camera, or an old session in the way. This article gives you a clean order of operations to work through.

Step 1 — Confirm the basics

• Use Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari on a recent version. Avoid in-app browsers (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram) — they have known WebRTC limits.
• Make sure no other tab is currently in a meeting using the same camera or microphone. Only one app can hold those devices at a time.
• Reload the page once. A clean reload solves a surprising share of "stuck" rooms because it forces a new media session.

Step 2 — Look at the connection

Real-time video needs roughly 1–2 Mbps in each direction for a stable two-person call. If you are on hotel Wi-Fi, public Wi-Fi, a corporate VPN, or a weak cellular signal, you will see frequent reconnect banners. Switch to a stronger network if one is available, or move closer to your router. If you must stay on a VPN, try disconnecting it briefly to confirm the VPN is the cause.

Step 3 — Re-grant camera and microphone

If the room loads but your tile is black or the microphone bar is flat, the browser may have blocked or revoked permissions. In your browser address bar, open the site permissions panel for the NearbySpy domain and confirm Camera and Microphone are set to Allow. Reload the tab after changing permissions. On macOS and Windows, also check that the browser itself has system-level permission to use the camera and microphone.

Step 4 — Sign out and back in

Stale sessions occasionally cause join failures. Sign out of NearbySpy, sign back in, and reopen the meeting link. If you arrived from an email link, click the link again so the system can re-issue a fresh meeting token.

Step 5 — Try a different device or browser

If a desktop call refuses to stay connected, try the same link on a phone, or vice versa. If one device works and another does not, the problem is local to the broken device — usually a browser extension, an antivirus or firewall blocking WebRTC, or a stale OS networking state that a reboot fixes.

Step 6 — Get help

If none of the above resolves it, gather these details and contact support: which browser and version, the device and operating system, the time the call dropped, and what the screen showed (a banner message, a black tile, an error code). Investigators can do this from the dashboard, and Clients can do this from the in-app feedback widget. See In-app feedback vs filing a support ticket for which channel to use.

If your call is currently scheduled and not yet started, you may also revisit Joining a video call as a Client or Scheduling and joining video calls as a sanity check before the meeting starts.