The recipient of my video call cannot see me, but I can see myself in the bottom corner

Hi goatjean! I'm Therese, a Skype Independent Adviser and consumer of Microsoft products here to assist you.

I am sorry if you are experiencing this, let me help you. If both cameras (laptop and phone) are not working when initiating a video call to your contact, I suspect that the issue is not on your end at all. Have you tried calling a different contact/s?

Moreover, it can also be the strength of your internet connection. Yes, it may look like 100% good on your end, but the recipient will not experience the same. A poor internet connection can cause dropped calls, delays, and poor-quality audio and video. Your internet connection – or your friend’s – is the most likely culprit.

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind regards,
Therese`

Hi goatjean! I'm Therese, a Skype Independent Adviser and consumer of Microsoft products here to assist you.

I am sorry if you are experiencing this, let me help you. If both cameras (laptop and phone) are not working when initiating a video call to your contact, I suspect that the issue is not on your end at all. Have you tried calling a different contact/s?

Moreover, it can also be the strength of your internet connection. Yes, it may look like 100% good on your end, but the recipient will not experience the same. A poor internet connection can cause dropped calls, delays, and poor-quality audio and video. Your internet connection – or your friend’s – is the most likely culprit.

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind regards,
Therese`

Hello Therese,
Thank you for such a quick reply and all of the additional info.  I have not in fact tried to initiate a call with another recipient, I will do that, but so far this is the only skype contact that I have lol, I am new to the app. 

As I had stated, I am relegated to my ATT cellular data, which is always a strong/fast connection in terms of streaming etc.  But I did go to a wifi location and initiated a call there on actual wifi and had the same results. 

I do not think that the person that I am calling has this problem with other calls that they conduct on skype but I will ask. 

For what it's worth, I am in Louisiana and the person that I am attempting the video calls with is in Hong Kong.  On previous attempts at video calls on whatsapp, our images were visible, but were usually frozen, pixelated, broken etc, and calls were dropped often.  But it was obvious that there an issue with the connection/signal...the overall quality was just extremely poor.  

However, in this case, I can see her completely fine, crystal clear and myself in the corner.  But she is even seeing a broken image of me etc.....it is just the circle with my initials in it as if it were a regular voice call I guess.   Anyway, thank you again and I just wanted to provide some additional info in case it could be helpful. 

I will ask her if she has issues with other skype calls that she makes, but I was under the impression that she doesn't, because she is a frequent user and was puzzled as to why she could not see me.

Thanks again and have a great Sunday!
Chris

Hello Chris,

Thank you for the information you provided.

We can isolate this by performing some troubleshooting steps. Try to reset the Skype local settings on your laptop. Kindly follow the steps carefully:

1. Open Task Manager and end the process of all Skype.exe
2. On your keyboard, press and hold Windows key + R to open the RUN box
3. Type %appdata%\microsoft and press Enter
4. Locate Skype for Desktop folder
5. Rename the folder to Desktop_old

By the way, I just want to confirm, does the other person use Skype for Business application or just the regular Skype app?

Hi Therese,
I apologize for the delay in responding.  I did confirm that the other person is just using regular Skype, not Skype for business. 

Unfortunately I have not tried to make any video calls from my end to other recipients, I will hopefully be able to do so shortly and get back to you to report if they are having the same problem of not being able to see me. 

Also, I was mistaken regarding the recipient in Hong Kong...I am the only person that they have attempted to Skype with.  I thought that they were a frequent user but apparently it was the use of Whatsapp, not Skype.  I also asked if they could try to make a Skype call with someone else to see if the problem existed still, but unfortunately all of their contacts use WeChat, Whatsapp etc and other apps in that part of the world apparently and not Skype. 

I am unable to use Whatsapp because it is no longer supported on Windows 10 mobile as of January 14 and I much prefer Skype anyway. 

The other person did share their screen with me and I noticed that it is a 3G network.  I can send a screenshot to you if you would like to see if there is more info that you could gleen from it.  The signal strength appears to be maxed out for what it's worth.  

I don't know if the 3G could be effecting their ability to see me?  It is perfectly fine on my end as I had mentioned.  They are in a high rise in Hong Kong and I just assumed that it would be a world class 4G network there. 

Also, I have not renamed the desktop folder yet, would that cause me to lose any content or message threads that I have in Skype?

Thanks again Therese and I will provide more info as soon as I have some.  Have a great day!
Chris