Help for Clients with Attend Anywhere Call Problems

When we are working remotely, unfortunately there is only so much your counsellor can do to help with the setup at your end. These suggestions will hopefully enable you to tackle some of the more common problems we have encountered. Please let us know if your situation is not covered.

I’m having trouble with my connection…

If you seem to be ‘in the call’, but one of you is not seeing or hearing the other properly, first use the ‘Refresh’ button in the top right (which appears when you move the mouse/touch the screen). This saves you having to leave the call and go through all the steps of logging in again.

The person who is not seeing or hearing the other should use the button first. If this does not work, the other should then try it.
Be patient, it can take a few seconds to disconnect and reconnect again – don’t rush it and click again too soon, as you’ll just reset the process.

The login procedure gets ‘stuck’ at the microphone test…

The microphone test only appears if you have accepted the pop up to allow this. This should appear on your screen relatively quickly once the call set up gets to this stage.
If you are not seeing the pop up (or have declined it previously) you will need to refresh your cache and cookies settings, close the browser and try again.
A guide on how to do this can be found here: www.vc.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/clear-browser-cache-13.pdf.
It is important that no other apps are using the microphone at the same time: close all other programs that might be using it (e.g. Teams, WhatsApp, etc.)

My screen is blank when I log in…

When do you get a blank screen?
1. If it’s when you click the ‘Start video call’ button on the PF webpage, then you may have scripts blocked or some other ‘safety’ mechanism on your browser. Try temporarily disabling any security software.
2. If it’s after you’ve been through the 5-step login procedure and successfully entered the Waiting Area, it might be a problem with your camera or the connection.
  1. A camera problem should have shown up during the login procedure when it ‘tests’ the image.
  2. If that was fine, then it’s probably the connection and you should try the green ‘Refresh’ button in the top right of the screen (which is hidden until you move the mouse or touch the screen)
Have you been using other software that uses your camera on the same device? Apps like Skype, Zoom, Teams (especially Teams) etc. can ‘reserve’ the camera and microphone and ‘lock’ other apps out.
1. Test your camera on another website, e.g. webcamtests.com
2. Are your other apps still working fine with the camera? If yes, you need to Sign Out and Quit all those other apps (not just ‘close’ them, as often they are still there in the background).
Does your browser (Chrome or Safari) have ‘permission’ to access your camera? Check your setting on your device.
Did you click ‘allow’ when boxes came up asking if Chrome/Safari could access the camera? (You might think you did, but did you?!) Check your settings in Chrome or Safari.
Do you have something covering the camera lens? Don’t laugh, it happens! Some laptops have a little cover that people forget they have slid across earlier. Some people don’t know where their tablet’s camera is, and have it propped against a book that just overlaps the screen enough to obscure it, etc.
Have you recently checked that the camera and microphone work properly in another app?
1. If so, see 2!
2. If not, why not? 😊

The picture or sound breaks up or is pixelated all the time…

This is very often to do with ‘bandwidth’, i.e. ‘how much’ internet is available to your device.

Firstly, try the Refresh button, , as this may reset your connection to a faster route.
If you are using a mobile device and/or wifi, check that your connection speed is at least 4 Mbps, using a site or app such as Speedtest.net. If it’s not, then…
1. Use a wired connection if possible
2. Use wifi rather than 4G (or 4G rather than wifi, whichever is faster)
3. Move closer to your router
4. Close any other apps that might be accessing the internet, on your device or elsewhere
5. Upgrade your internet!
Check out who else is using the internet and/or your wifi at the same time as you are trying to have counselling, and ask them to stop for 50 minutes…
1. Family watching iPlayer or other catch-up on the TV?
2. Other people streaming YouTube or TikTok?
3. Frenetic gaming on the Xbox etc.?

There is an echo on the sound…

An echo can sometimes be heard when sound from your speakers is picked up by the microphone and relayed back to the other user…
1. Turn your speaker volume down as low as you can (and still hear)
2. Turn your microphone sensitivity down as low as you can (and still be heard)
3. Try using headphones or an in-ear headset that connects to your device and mutes the built-in speakers

My phone switches to the rear camera when we connect…

Use the camera-switch ‘button’ within Attend Anywhere, rather than the setting on your phone. The buttons only appear when you touch the screen, and should look something like this:

(This is an iPhone, so an Android may look a bit different.)

Your FAQs don’t cover my issue…

There are various help and troubleshooting pages provided by NHS Attend Anywhere which may help:

The minimum specification for What You Need to use Attend Anywhere
How to set up your camera and microphone – nhs.attendanywhere.com/setdefaultdevice
Attend Anywhere’s technical Toubleshooting Guide
The general guide for callers – nhs.attendanywhere.com/callers

Please tell us if you are having difficulties not covered by this guide.

This is not a ‘help service’ and unfortunately we cannot respond to your specific issues, but your comments will help us develop this guide and our service to you.