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Loom is one of those tools that becomes genuinely indispensable until it breaks. Then it’s a special kind of frustrating — you’re trying to send someone a quick video and instead you’re debugging an extension conflict at 3pm when you have a deadline.
I’ve gone through every common Loom failure mode I could verify against current reports. Here are the 9 fixes that actually work.
TL;DR: Loom problems cluster around three areas: permission failures (camera/mic/screen access not granted), network/upload issues, and Chrome extension conflicts. Check permissions first — they’re the cause of 40%+ of Loom failures. Then check loomstatus.com for active incidents before you spend time debugging.
Fix 1: Check Loom’s System Status First
Before you spend time debugging your setup, spend 30 seconds checking whether the problem is on Loom’s end.
Go to loomstatus.com. Loom publishes real-time incident status here. If recording, upload, playback, or the extension is listed as degraded or experiencing an outage — you’re waiting, not debugging.
Loom has had notable incidents with their upload pipeline in particular. Recordings complete fine but appear stuck processing. The status page is the fastest way to know if that’s your situation.
If everything is green on the status page, move to Fix 2.
Fix 2: Recording Won’t Start — Fix Permissions
This is the most common Loom problem. The recording button doesn’t do anything, or it starts and immediately stops. Permissions are almost always the cause.
On Mac:
Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security. Check all three:
- Screen Recording: Loom must be listed here and toggled on. If it’s not listed, you’ll need to launch Loom first and then grant access when prompted.
- Microphone: Loom must have access if you’re recording with mic audio.
- Camera: Same — Loom needs this to record your face/webcam.
After making any permission changes, you need to restart Loom (or your browser if using the extension). Mac permission changes don’t take effect until the app restarts.
On Windows:
Go to Settings > Privacy > Camera. Confirm “Let apps access your camera” is on and that Loom (or your browser) is enabled. Do the same for Settings > Privacy > Microphone.
For screen recording specifically on Windows, Loom uses the OS screen capture API — which typically doesn’t require explicit permission. But if you’re on a managed corporate device, your IT policy may block screen capture applications.
For the Chrome extension specifically:
When using the Loom Chrome extension to start a recording, your browser handles the permission prompts. If you accidentally clicked “Block” on a camera or microphone request, Chrome remembered that. Go to Chrome Settings > Privacy and Security > Site Settings > Camera (and Microphone), find any Loom-related entries, and change them from “Blocked” to “Allow.”
Fix 3: Chrome Extension Not Opening or Loading
The Loom icon in Chrome doesn’t respond, or clicking it shows a blank white panel, or it shows an error message.
Step 1: Check for Chrome updates. Go to chrome://settings/help and let Chrome update if there’s a pending update. Loom extensions sometimes temporarily break after Chrome releases a new version, until Loom pushes a compatibility update.
Step 2: Reinstall the extension. Go to chrome://extensions, find Loom, click “Remove.” Then go to the Chrome Web Store and reinstall Loom fresh. This fixes corrupted extension data.
Step 3: Check for conflicts. Some browser extensions interfere with Loom. Known offenders include certain ad blockers that block Loom’s CDN requests, and other screen recording extensions that compete for the same browser APIs. Try disabling all other extensions temporarily and see if Loom loads.
Step 4: Try a different Chrome profile. Open Chrome, click the profile icon in the top right, and create a new profile. Install Loom fresh in that profile. If it works in the new profile and not your regular one, you’ve got a corrupted profile state — the fix is usually clearing Chrome’s cached data for your main profile.
Fix 4: Upload Stuck or Processing Forever
You recorded something, hit stop, and now Loom says “Processing…” for 20+ minutes. Or the upload bar got to 90% and froze.
Check your network connection first. A shaky Wi-Fi connection causes Loom uploads to stall. Loom uploads the full recording file — for a 30-minute 1080p recording, that’s potentially 500MB+ depending on compression. On a slow or unstable connection, this takes a long time and can time out.
Try switching networks. If you’re on corporate or school Wi-Fi that has content filtering, it may be throttling or blocking Loom’s upload endpoints. Switch to a mobile hotspot and see if the upload resumes.
Check upload size limits. Loom’s upload limits vary by plan. On the Starter (free) plan, there are limits on recording duration and storage. If you’ve hit your storage limit, new uploads queue until space is freed.
Loom desktop app vs. extension. If you’re consistently having upload issues with the Chrome extension, try the Loom desktop app instead. The desktop app has more stable upload behavior because it doesn’t have to work within browser network restrictions.
Wait it out for large recordings. Loom does server-side processing on uploads (creating thumbnails, generating transcripts, optimizing for streaming). A 1-hour recording can take 10–15 minutes of processing time after the upload completes. The “Processing…” spinner isn’t always stuck — sometimes it’s just doing real work.
Fix 5: No Audio in Recording
You recorded a video but there’s no sound, or the sound is from the wrong source.
Check Loom’s audio settings before recording. When you start a recording in Loom, there’s a settings panel before you hit Record. Verify that:
- Microphone is toggled on (not just enabled — specifically on)
- The correct microphone is selected from the dropdown
This sounds obvious but it’s frequently the issue. Loom defaults to your system default microphone, which might be your laptop’s built-in mic when you intended to use a USB headset, or vice versa.
System audio (computer sounds) requires the desktop app. If you’re trying to record what’s playing through your speakers — for example, capturing a video conference or music — that’s “system audio” or “computer audio.” The Chrome extension cannot capture system audio. You need the Loom desktop app, and you need to explicitly enable “System Audio” in the recording settings.
macOS mic restrictions. On newer versions of macOS, apps need explicit microphone permission every time they’re launched in some cases. If you denied the permission once and Loom stopped asking, go to System Settings > Privacy > Microphone and manually add/enable Loom.
No sound from screen share. If you’re sharing a browser tab and there’s no audio, check whether the tab you’re sharing has audio (the browser tab should show a speaker icon if audio is playing). Also, for tab audio capture to work in the extension, Chrome must have granted audio permission to Loom for that tab specifically.
Fix 6: Loom Desktop App Crashes or Won’t Launch
The desktop app crashes on launch, crashes mid-recording, or shows a spinning wheel indefinitely on startup.
Clear the app cache. This fixes most desktop app issues.
On Mac: Quit Loom. Open Terminal. Run: rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.loom.desktop. Relaunch Loom.
On Windows: Press Win+R, type %localappdata%\Loom\Cache, hit Enter. Delete the contents of the Cache folder. Relaunch Loom.
Reinstall the app. If clearing cache doesn’t work: uninstall Loom completely (including the cache), download the latest version from loom.com/download, install fresh. Takes 5 minutes and fixes a surprising number of persistent issues.
macOS Gatekeeper issues. If you see “Loom can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software,” this is a Gatekeeper message, not an actual problem with Loom. Right-click the Loom app in Finder, select “Open,” and click “Open” in the dialog. You only need to do this once.
Fix 7: Video Playback Not Working for Viewers
Someone says they can’t watch your Loom video — it buffers forever, shows an error, or just plays a black screen.
First: check loomstatus.com. Playback issues are often platform-wide incidents.
Share link vs. embed. Make sure you’re sharing the direct Loom link (loom.com/share/…) and not an embed code in a context that blocks iframes. Some corporate email systems strip embed codes.
Viewer’s network/browser. Loom video is served via CDN. If your viewer is behind a corporate firewall that restricts video CDN domains, they’ll see playback errors. They should try opening the link on their phone (different network) to confirm this is the issue.
Workspace access settings. If your Loom workspace is set to “Workspace members only,” people outside your Loom workspace can’t view it even with the link. Check your video’s sharing settings and set it to “Anyone with the link” if you need external access.
Video still processing. If you just recorded and immediately shared, the video may still be processing. Send the link after you see “Ready to share” in Loom.
Fix 8: Loom Not Working with Zoom, Teams, or Meet
You want to share a Loom recording during a video call, or Loom’s camera/mic conflicts with your video conferencing app.
Camera conflict. Your webcam can only be used by one app at a time. If Zoom has your camera open and you try to use Loom’s webcam recording simultaneously, one of them will fail. Close your video call first, record your Loom, then return to the call to share the link.
Screen share audio. If you’re trying to screen share a Loom video during a Zoom call, make sure “Share computer sound” is enabled in Zoom’s screen share settings. Otherwise viewers will see the video without audio.
Loom for Zoom integration. Loom has a native Zoom integration. Install it in Zoom (zoom.us/apps) to send Loom recordings directly in Zoom chat. If the integration stopped working, remove it and reinstall from the Zoom marketplace.
Fix 9: Notifications or Comments Not Working
You’re getting no notifications when someone watches your Loom or leaves a comment.
Check your Loom notification preferences. Go to app.loom.com, click your profile > Settings > Notifications. Make sure “New views” and “New comments” are enabled.
Email notifications might be going to spam. Loom sends notification emails from loom.com domain. Check your spam folder and add [email protected] to your contacts or whitelist.
Browser notification permission. If you use Loom in the browser, go to app.loom.com, click the lock icon in the address bar, and make sure Notifications is set to “Allow.”
Workspace notification digest. If you’re on a team plan, check whether your admin has configured digest notifications (bundling all notifications into one daily email) rather than per-event notifications.
When None of These Fix It
If you’ve worked through all of this and something specific is still broken, Loom’s support is at support.loom.com. The help center has detailed articles for each error type. For subscription or billing issues, their support is generally faster than for technical bugs.
One pattern worth knowing: some Loom issues are browser-version specific and get patched within a few days. If something broke suddenly after a Chrome update and nothing in this list fixes it, checking the Loom Community (community.loom.com) will show you whether others are hitting the same issue post-update.