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Newcomer
May 18, 2022 7:27 AM UTC
Question

Black Box while screen share.

Hello,
when I host a Zoom meeting and start a screen share, the participants always see a black bar at the top. This is the zoom bar for me. Even if a pop-up window appears that another participant wants to join the meeting, the other participants see this as a black box. I've attached an image as an example. I've already looked through all the settings, updated the Zoom client, but I just can't get this to go away. I work on Windows 10 Pro. Can someone help or give a tip here? Thanks!

    20 replies

    Employee
    May 18, 2022 10:53 AM UTC

    Try going to your Zoom client settings > Share screen > Advanced and disable 'Use hardware acceleration to optimize video sharing". This is usually the culprit with Windows 10 devices.

     

    If this helped, please remember to click on the "Accept as Solution" button below.

     

     

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    Participant
    Nov 16, 2022 7:50 AM UTC

    i have a similar issue - SEE ATTACHED
    screen sharing does not have an advanced option. - SEE ATTACHED

    any other ideas? 

    thanks

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    Newcomer
    Jun 14, 2022 5:10 PM UTC

    Hello,

    When you start a screen share,  you can click on the left side of the control bar and drag it to a new location on your screen.   Zoom will save where you position the control bar for all future screen shares.   If you only have one screen, you can also use the Hide Floating Meeting Controls option shown below.  Hope this helps!

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    Newcomer
    Jan 26, 2023 4:23 AM UTC

    It doesn't work on my Windows 11. Still a BIG problem.

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    Newcomer
    Mar 7, 2023 9:47 PM UTC

    We use a product called snagit.  Turning off the snagit capture widget fixes the issue for us.

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    Newcomer
    Apr 6, 2023 2:42 PM UTC

    I have noticed that if I share with "optimize for video" box ticked it will cause black boxes, if it is unticked there are no blacked out sections on the shared feed. Might be worth checking if it enable and try it while disabled instead.

     

    See note from screen sharing feature:

    • When Optimize for video clip is enabled along with showing Zoom windows during screen share, any Zoom windows within the area that is shared will appear as a gray box, blocking the view of the shared content. We recommend disabling showing Zoom windows during screen share or using multiple screens so that Zoom windows can be dragged to another screen. 
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    Newcomer
    May 11, 2023 2:33 AM UTC

    I discovered by accident exactly what you stated as a solution. As soon as I unchecked "Optimize for video" , everything cleared up and was back to normal again.Wish I had seen your post long time ago. Thanks anyway.

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    Newcomer
    Sep 27, 2023 9:05 PM UTC

    I tried unchecking "Optimize for video" no difference.

    I think I have the same problem. I can share screen but when I interact (move my mouse) within any interface there is a lag that shows a smaller black box sometimes as my mouse reached an interactive interface area or the whole shared screen goes black when I click. A few seconds later the black clears and looks good. As I am Now typing in this box the shared screen is all black. When I click outside the text box it lags but my shared screen comes back.

    This is happening in my browser, my finder when I launch an application and any open application I try, both sharing desktop or application. The worst part is it worked just fine yesterday and last week.   Were you on a Mac or PC?

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    Newcomer
    May 9, 2024 6:58 AM UTC

    Just to clarify, is disabling "Optimize for video" something that the person doing screen-sharing has to do?

     

    Is there anything that the viewer -- the person whose Zoom screen is obscured by the rectangular black box -- can do?  I gather that some cases this problem is related to older ("legacy") operating systems. Is the glitch caused by the interaction of the "optimize for video" and an older operating system? If so, could the viewer improve the glitch by upgrading their OS? (I realize that there are limits on how much the operating systems on older computers can be upgraded.)

     

    Thank you!

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    mapwiz
    Explorer
    Explorer
    Jul 9, 2025 1:32 PM UTC

    The screen-sharer's computer is sending Zoom an image with the black boxes, and you're just seeing what is sent to Zoom, so there's nothing you can do on the receiving end.

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    Newcomer
    Sep 26, 2024 10:00 AM UTC

    Hola a todos luego de mucho buscar encontré un video sencillo pero con la solución que varios necesitábamos, aquí se los comparto porque sufrí lo molesto de este problema:

    https://youtu.be/LkFkUlCvo_Y

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    Newcomer
    Oct 28, 2024 4:13 PM UTC

    The only thing that helped me resolve it was going to 

    https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0063824

    and choose this option >

    • Secure share with window filtering (Windows): When selected, only the content in the window is shared. Any content that may be in the background during transitions, such as minimizing/maximizing the window or moving windows around, will never be shared.
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    Newcomer
    Nov 1, 2024 10:40 AM UTC

    I've tried everything, but this was the solution to my problem. Thanks! 

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    Newcomer
    Dec 16, 2024 7:48 PM UTC

    I found a solution for this problem. In Zoom workplace setting >> share screen >> Advanced >> don't check Use hardware acceleration for 

    When I did this, all black rectangles disappeared.

    I hope it will help you.

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