What To Do if Your Poll Everywhere Slides Won't Activate (Fall 2025)
Some faculty members have been experiencing an issue where they log in to Poll Everywhere in PowerPoint but their slides won't activate. This issue occurs when you attempt to open a PowerPoint file downloaded from the internet without first opening PowerPoint.
To avoid this issue completely, follow these steps:
- Open the PowerPoint program first
- Log in to Poll Everywhere
- Then download your PowerPoint file from (Canvas, Box, or Google Drive)
- Double-click on your downloaded file to open it (be sure to test a question)
NOTE: Until the vendor has a confirmed fix for this issue, please verify Poll Everywhere is working before each session. If a question will not activate, follow the steps below.
1. Before presenting, check to see if Poll Everywhere is working
Before the start of class, log in to Poll Everywhere in PowerPoint. There are two indicators to look for:
Check to see if the "Log in" button has switched to your Tufts username
After you log in to the Poll Everywhere PowerPoint plugin, the "Log in" button will show your Tufts username (eg: jsmith01). If you went through the login process, saw the login confirmation, but the button has not changed, that is an indicator of the issue.
Check to see if your Poll Everywhere slides are working
Navigate to a Poll Everywhere slide in your presentation and go into presentation mode to see if the slide activates. You will notice the following things if the slide is not active:
- Your Poll Everywhere link will not appear at the top of the slide.
- There are blue/grey squares in the corners of the slide.
- The bottom of the slide has a message that says, "Start the presentation to see live content..."
2. Close and restart PowerPoint
To get Poll Everywhere working correctly, follow these steps:
Close PowerPoint completely (all PowerPoint windows)
Reopen PowerPoint
Log in to Poll Everywhere in PowerPoint and check that the "Log in" button now shows your username
If the "Log in" button shows your username, the issue is resolved. To be sure, you can open a Poll Everywhere slide in presentation mode to verify the question is working.
