Missing webinar option in Teams | Robert Dyjas - blog (2023)

Learn how to check why you can't schedule webinars from your Teams client. Some of the reasons are not documented in the Microsoft documentation.

Claim

To follow the steps below, you need a few tools and the necessary access level:

• PowerShell: consult elinstallation instructionsif you don't have it yet

• Microsoft Teams modulySharePoint Online Administration Shell

• An account with a global administrator or at least the roles listed below:

  • Teams Communications Manager eller Teams Services Manager
  • SharePoint administrator

Check if you can schedule webinars

Before we get started, let's check if you can schedule webinars:

1. Sign in to Microsoft Teams. Choose from the menu on the leftcalendar(1).
2. In the calendar view you havenew meetingbutton. The button is located at the top right under your profile picture.
3. The button to schedule a new meeting may have an arrow (2) next to it. If there is no arrow, you cannot schedule webinars. If you have the arrow, click it and you should be able to schedule a webinar (3):

There can be a number of reasons why the webinar option is missing from the Teams client. Let's break them down.

Webinars are not yet implemented

The first reason may be that the new webinar functionality is not yet available for your organization. let's checkMicrosoft 365 Roadmap for Webinar Features.

As of this writing, webinars are not available forGCC tenants, which you can see in red below. It's not clear if we should expect that for GCC High and DoD tenants.

Conclusion: If you are not on a US government lease, webinars are already available to you.

License

based onPresentation of webinars in Microsoft TeamsAvailability of webinars may vary depending on the license you use:

These new features will be available inMicrosoft 365 E3/E5,Microsoft 365 A3/A5, yFly Microsoft 365 Gobierno G3/G5.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscriptions will include all of the above features for up to 300 participants.

And the last sentence is also interesting.

And for the rest of 2021, we're offering a promotional period where all Teams users can try features with their existing subscription.

What exactly does that mean? There is a thread on the Microsoft Tech Community that has the explanation:The availability of the Teams webinar feature on business plans. One of the answers quotes the answer from Microsoft technical support (credits toAndres Gorzelanyto point this out):

However, we confirm that the webinar is included in the Business Standard and BusinessPremium licenses.it doesn't have the smart buttonas you will see in the business license. We recognize that there is room for improvement, especially in the documentation, and we also apologize for the confusion.

So really, the only thing you're missing is the button. You still have the option to record.

Use

It's not clear if non-business plans still have the ability to scale the webinar to a live event if it receives more than 1,000 attendees.

The registration options must be visible in the meeting calendar window:

Team meeting policy

Ok, we have already confirmed that our organization will have webinars. Now let's checkSet up webinars in Microsoft TeamsArticle. We want to see if we meet the prerequisites.

After checking the article, we can see that we need to check the following parameters in the Teams meeting policy:

• AllowMeetingRegistration
• Allow scheduling of private meetings

We don't need to checkWho can register?value. The ability to schedule webinars should be available regardless of value.

To verify the values ​​specified in the Teams meeting policy, we need to use PowerShell. The setting we are looking for is not visible from the Teams admin center. Let's check it out then, shall we?

1. Connect to Microsoft Teams

   To manage the policies, we need to log in with our administrative account. note thatadministrativestands for Microsoft 365/Teams administrator. No elevated permissions are required for the machine.

   Open PowerShell and run:

   power Shell

   Connect-MicrosoftTeams

2. Follow the instructions to log in with your account.

3. Check which Teams meeting policy is assigned to your account. To do this, run:

   power Shell

   Get-CsOnlineUserFirst name.lastname@contoso.com|select object -Expand Ownership Teams Meeting Policy

4. If you get a blank result, it means the account is assigned to the global policy. If you get any names, save them. You'll need it in a second.

5. Specify the policies with their required properties. Run the following cmdlet:

   power Shell

   Get-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy |select objectidentity,AllowMeetingRegistration,Allow scheduling of private meetings

6. Check the global policy or the one with the name you noted. If both properties haveRIGHTYour settings are correct:

7. If any of the properties sayFALSEyou may need to change it usingSet-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy:

   Warning

   Be careful. If you change the global policy, you change the settings for the entire organization!

   margin

   # Set Policy Name# Spring Label: For custom policys# For global policy use empty string ''$policyName = 'PolicyNameGoesHere'Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity $policyName -AllowMeetingRegistration $true -AllowPrivateMeetingScheduling $true

Availability of Microsoft Lists

Another prerequisite for webinars is to haveMicrosoft listerTurned on. Webinar registration data is stored in personal lists on the organizer's account. Therefore, our tenant must have it switched on.

Let's check the configuration of our tenants according toControl settings for Microsoft listsarticle:

1. Open PowerShell windows and run the cmdlet to connect to the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

   Substitutecontosowith your tenant's name (the former.onmicrosoft.comon your default domain).

2. Follow the instructions to log in with your account.

3. Run the following cmdlet to see if Lists is disabled:

   power Shell

   Get-SPOTenant | select object -UdvidProperty DisablePersonalList Creation

4. If the result isFALSE- Are you feeling well.

5. If you don't see anything, it may mean that your SharePoint Online shell is out of date. Update it with:

   power Shell

   update module 'Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell'

6. If the value ofDisable personal list creationesRIGHT- your organization has Lister disabled. To enable it, you can use the cmdlet shown below.

   Warning

   Be careful when changing the settings for the entire organization!

   power Shell

   Set-SPOTenant -Disable personal list creation$true

Team Policy for Live Events

Some of the requirements for webinars are not documented. I mentioned it at the beginning of my article. Now is the time to learn more about it.

You may have heard that webinars can be scaled to live events. This happens when you reach 1000 callers. But would you expect to turn off Live Events to hide the button to schedule webinars?

If you can't schedule live events, you won't see the button to schedule webinars. However, the option to check in will still be activated from the meeting calendar window.

The behavior corresponds to what happens if we have a non-business license:

Let's check if our organization has the correct Live Event setup.

1. We should now be connected to Microsoft Teams PowerShell. If not, let's reconnect using:

   power Shell

   Connect-MicrosoftTeams

2. Check the Teams meeting broadcast policy assigned to your account. To do this, run:

   power Shell

   Get-CsOnlineUserFirst name.lastname@contoso.com|select object -ExpandOwnership TeamsMeetingBroadcastPolicy

3. If you get a blank result, it means the account is assigned to the global policy. If you get any names, save them. You'll need it in a second.

4. Specify the policies with their required properties. Run the following cmdlet:

   power Shell

   Get-CsTeamsMeetingBroadcastPolicy |select objectidentity,Allow broadcast scheduling

5. Check the global policy or the one with the name you noted. YesAllow broadcast schedulingis set toRIGHTYour settings are correct:

6. AndAllow broadcast schedulingCubeFALSEyou may need to change it usingSet-CsTeamsMeetingBroadcastPolicy:

   Warning

   Be careful. If you change the global policy, you change the settings for the entire organization!

   margin

   # Set policy name# Skip tag: For custom policies# For global policy use the empty string ''$policyName = 'PolicyNameGoesHere'Set-CsTeamsMeetingBroadcastPolicy -Identity $policyName -AllowBroadcastScheduling $true

Conclusion

The lack of a button to schedule webinars can be caused by several factors. Even by consulting the Microsoft documentation, you may not know all the requirements.

Things get more complicated if you have a non-business license. The experience you get is different than what you see in the help articles.