How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting

Microsoft Teams has really turned opinions in its favor as a great Slack and Zoom alternative for business organizations. It gets the job done for most people, and there’s really little reason to look outside of the Microsoft ecosystem if you want a video-conferencing and team collaboration tool that just works. If you’re hosting or attending a Microsoft Teams meeting and wondering how to record it, we show you how to record a Microsoft Teams meeting.

Who can record a Microsoft Teams meeting?

Microsoft allows recording all Teams meeting for future viewing. However, if you are using the free version of Teams as a personal user or a small business owner, then the ability to record a meeting is not present for you. You will need to subscribe to a Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan (or other higher plans) to access the feature.

Next, if you get access to Teams as part of a business organization, then your IT administrator needs to enable recordings for the organization. Some businesses disable this setting to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the meeting. If you are an independent user, then the setting should be enabled by default.

There’s some further nuance on who can start and stop a recording. The meeting organizer and other people from the same organization can start and stop a recording. But people from other organizations, meeting guests, and anonymous attendees cannot start or stop a recording. The recording will also need to be manually shared with individuals outside of your organization.

If you need more control over who can record, you can subscribe to the Teams Premium plan. With this plan, meeting organizers can manage who can record the meeting when scheduling the meeting. The available options for who can record a meeting are organizers and co-organizers, or organizers and presenters.

How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting on desktop

Recording a meeting is very simple, and here’s how you can do so:

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites of recording a meeting as mentioned above.
• Start the meeting, or join an existing meeting in your organization.
• In the top-right corner, you will spot the three-dot menu button for More actions. Click on it and choose Start recording.
• This will begin recording the meeting. Turning on the recording will also turn on transcriptions. Note that everyone in the meeting will get a notification that recording and transcription have started.

Further, note that you cannot create multiple recordings of the same meeting.

How to stop recording a Microsoft Teams meeting on desktop

Stopping the recording of a Teams meeting is as easy as starting one. Here’s how you do it:

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites of recording a meeting as mentioned above. Further, ensure that you are in a live meeting, and that meeting is being recorded.
• In the top-right corner, you will spot the three-dot menu button for More actions. Click on it and choose Stop recording.
• The meeting will now stop recording.
• Alternatively, you can also click Stop transcription to stop the live transcription only.

How to record a meeting in the Teams mobile app

The process for recording a meeting in the Teams mobile app is the same as it is on desktop.

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites of recording a meeting as mentioned above.
• Start the meeting, or join an existing meeting in your organization.
• In the bottom bar, you will spot the three-dot menu button for More actions. Click on it and choose Start recording.
• This will begin recording the meeting. Turning on the recording will also turn on transcriptions. Note that everyone in the meeting will get a notification that recording and transcription have started.

How to stop recording a meeting in the Teams mobile app

And as expected, the process to stop a meeting is the same as well.

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites of recording a meeting as mentioned above. Further, ensure that you are in a live meeting, and that meeting is being recorded.
• In the bottom bar, you will spot the three-dot menu button for More actions. Click on it and choose Stop recording.
• The meeting will now stop recording.
• Alternatively, you can also click Stop transcription to stop the live transcription only.

Note that recordings will stop automatically if everyone leaves the meeting. If the person who initiated the recording leaves the meeting, the recording still continues and other users will have to stop the recording.

What is recorded in a Teams meeting?

Teams meeting recordings captures the audio, video, and screen-sharing activity within the meeting.

Teams meeting recordings do not capture elements like whiteboards, annotations, shared notes, or content shared in the stage view by apps. If you’re running a PowerPoint Live presentation, then the video or animation embedded within will also not be recorded.

When you play back the recorded meeting, you will not be able to see more than four people’s video streams at once. This is not a dealbreaker per se, but it helps to keep your expectations aligned with the output.

Where are recorded Teams meetings saved?

Recordings are saved at two key locations depending on the type of meeting. If the meeting was a channel meeting, it gets saved to SharePoint. It will show up in the meeting chat or channel conversation.

For all other types of meetings, the recording is saved on OneDrive. It will be saved in the account of the person who initiated the recording and will be present within OneDrive in the top-level folder called Recording.

Note that you will need to share the recording with external participants manually by adding them to the shared list. As expected, the recording will also count towards the owner’s used OneDrive storage, as there is no exemption.

Meetings recorded within an organization will often have an expiration date. Please save the meeting externally before the expiration date.

Can I record a Teams meeting if I am not the host?

You can record a Teams meeting as a non-host only if you belong to the same organization as the host, or if your host has used advanced permissions present in the Teams Premium plan.

If you are not the host and do not meet the conditions above, Microsoft does not allow you to officially record the meeting.

However, you can use a screen recording app to record the contents of your screen, which can then include the Teams meeting. Here are some recommended screen recording apps on Android to let you record a Teams meeting. Ethically, you should inform the participants of the meeting that they are being recorded.

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