Pexip Service app troubleshooting guide (web & desktop)

This guide provides information for troubleshooting common issues with the Pexip apps across both web and desktop platforms and issues installing the Activate Endpoint app. This is not intended to be a user guide and is not an exhaustive list of possible issues to troubleshoot. This article covers:

Known issues and limitations

Before embarking on troubleshooting or raising a support request, we recommend that you check to make sure the issue you are experiencing is not included in the lists of known issues and limitations. Please see Known issues and limitations with the Pexip apps for details.

PC specifications

A commonly overlooked area for issues with both web and desktop clients is the PC that is being used to run the clients. Video conferencing applications are resource intensive and there are minimum specifications for running both web and desktop clients on the PC.

Please see PC specification and network requirements for the Pexip apps for details.

Best practices for video conferencing

Video conferencing requires the RTP media streams to work in both directions without delay or interruption. If there are delays due to network congestion, packet shaping or bandwidth limitations then this will be evident in quality of the video and audio. Users may experience a break up of video and/or audio, lip sync issues or significant delays with content sharing.

We recommend that users use a wired connection in preference to a wireless connection. Wireless access points are subject to interference, congestion and signal limitations which may require packet re-transmits for the client or host to receive data, this will directly impact on the quality of real-time media.

Check to ensure that your bandwidth settings on the client can be supported by the network you are using. Setting the client to use 'High' quality bandwidth settings when the network cannot support the connection bandwidth will result in degraded performance due to packet loss.

You may need to close other applications running at the same time free up system resources, this is particularly relevant if the user's PC is similar in specification to the minimum required specifications.

Poor quality video and audio

A common issue for new deployments and users is a poor experience due to degraded performance of video and audio. If you have ruled out previously suggested areas to investigate being at fault, we recommend that you look at whether the media is being tunneled over TCP port 443.

Please see Tunneled media and call degradation for more details.

Safelisted domains

If you cannot connect to the Pexip Service at all via web or desktop you may need to look at network proxies and firewalls. In this scenario you will need to contact your network administrator to assist with changing the rules to accommodate Pexip's connectivity requirements.

If you are running an internet proxy in your environment then see Firewall rules and ports for the Pexip Service for more information about the requirements for proxies and safelisting Pexip calling domains.

Cannot log in to Pexip (higher security environments)

If you cannot log in to the Pexip app this could be due to a policy on any of the following: your browser, computer, web proxy, or firewall. We most commonly see this issue in higher security environments where CORS requests are being blocked. This is often identified by messages such as "Failed to load resource: net::ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT" in the browser's console.

To resolve this, ensure that traffic is allowed to *.pexip.me *.vp.vc *.vmr.vc *.videxio.net as described in Firewall rules and ports for the Pexip Service.

Unable to access camera or microphone

A common issue with any video conference client is the sharing of camera and microphone resources. This has largely become less of an issue, however it still occurs on some operating systems, particularly those running older builds.

  • In most instances this can be resolved by closing any other video client running on the machine such as Skype for Business.
  • Users may need to directly changes settings on their machines to ensure that audio and video device drivers are not disabled or are not showing conflict errors.
  • This issue sometimes requires a reboot of the machine to release the access to the drivers.

Unable to share your screen from a Mac

If you are running macOS Catalina (v10.15) or Big Sur (v11), the browser or app that you are using for Pexip must be given screen recording permission by your Mac, so that you can share your screen. To grant this permission:

  1. Close the browser or app.
  2. On your Mac, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy and select the Privacy tab.
  3. On the left pane, select Screen Recording.

  4. On the right you'll see a list of all the browsers and apps that have permission to record your screen. Ensure that the browser or Pexip app is selected.

    If the checkboxes are grayed out, you can make them available by clicking the padlock at the bottom left and entering your password.

  5. Open the browser or Pexip app. You may now need to grant screen recording permission within the browser or app.

Using the clients in a remote desktop environment

Pexip does not guarantee the performance of soft clients in a remote environment. Although there are examples of Pexip customers collaborating successfully over video in such environments, real-time communication over thin clients may present some challenges. We therefore recommend potential users with a remote desktop to test thoroughly.

For Citrix users, we also recommend installing the Citrix HDX optimization pack 2.1.

Unable to start the Pexip desktop app after restarting subscription (Windows)

After deactivating and then restarting a subscription, some users may be unable to start the Pexip desktop app. The issue particularly affects users who have transitioned from a trial to a paid subscription.

You can resolve the issue by following these steps:

  1. First, uninstall the Pexip app from your computer (as you would any other Windows application).

  2. From Windows Explorer, go to folder: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\My Meeting Video.

    • If you can't see the AppData folder, you may need to enable hidden files/folders. To do this, go to the View tab and ensure the Hidden box is checked.
  3. Open the AppData folder, and then delete the My Meeting Video folder.
  4. Now reinstall the Pexip desktop app and start the app as normal.

Log files

In some cases you may be required to provide log files to support for further investigation of your issues. Please see Collecting logs from the Pexip apps for how to obtain this information.

Installing the Activate Endpoint app on MacOS Catalina or Big Sur

When installing the Activate Endpoint app on MacOS Catalina or Big Sur, you may get the following error when trying to open the package file:

You can resolve this as follows:

  1. Go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General tab. You see a message that the Activate Endpoint app was blocked.

  2. Select Open Anyway and another dialog box appears confirming the package name and when it was downloaded. To start the installer, select Open.

Please note that you need to do this within about an hour of trying to open the endpoint-activation-desktop-osx.pkg file.