How to Record a Meeting in Zoom

Remote work has been around for a while now, and it seems to be here to stay. As one of the most popular apps, Zoom is a straightforward tool that does not complicate things unless you prefer them to be complicated. Thankfully, recording a meeting is possible on the world’s leader in videotelephony.

However, it may not be apparent for everyone from the off. With this in mind, here is how to record meetings in Zoom, along with a couple of other cool tips regarding the platform itself.

How to Record a Zoom Meeting on Tablets and Smartphones

As is the case with the vast majority of iOS apps, Zoom works in the same way on iPads and iPhones. However, there are a couple of discrepancies, though they are minuscule. Here is how to do it step by step.

1. Open the Zoom app on your phone/tablet.
   
2. Click Record at the bottom of the screen.
   
3. This will start recording the meeting. You will notice a Recording… icon show toward the top in the right of the screen.
   
4. To stop/pause the recording, tap the Recording… icon.
   
5. To share a recording that you have made, you have to stop it. Then, go to the My Recordings page on the Zoom website.
   

How to Record a Zoom Meeting on a Computer

Although most of the world is moving from desktop to mobile, Zoom meetings most commonly happen in front of a computer, especially when there is business to discuss. Recording Zoom meetings is possible on Windows PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. Although a Zoom app does not exist for Chromebooks, the in-browser web app is identical to the desktop app for Windows and macOS.

However, before you get into recording a meeting, you should set the default save location for the recordings.

1. To do this, open the desktop or web app.
   
2. Navigate to the gear icon on the home screen. This will open the settings menu.
   
3. On the left-hand side, click the Recording tab. This should prompt you to create a documents folder automatically.
   
4. To change the default folder location, click Change.
   
5. Select the folder location or create a new folder for your desired default location.
   
   
   

Now, here is how to record a meeting on a desktop/laptop device.

1. Join or start a call.
   
2. At the bottom of the screen, click More (three dots).
   
3. Click Record on this Computer.
   
4. A Recording… label, located in the upper-left corner will show that you are recording.
   
5. To pause or stop the recording, use the small pause/stop buttons.
   
6. Press pause to pause a recording. A label will show toward the top of the screen, indicating that the recording is paused.
   
7. Press stop to stop a recording. A popup will show, indicating that the recording will be converted to mp4 as soon as the meeting ends.
   

The video that you have recorded is automatically going to be saved to the default folder, you had not changed it.

How to Record a Zoom Meeting When You Are Not the Host

As is the case with many other Zoom features, only the meeting host has control over whether another user can record the Zoom meeting. The best way to record a session is by asking the host to give you permission to do it. Here is what a host needs to do to grant recording permission.

1. Go to the Zoom website. Toward the left of the screen, select Recordings.
   
2. You will see two tabs: Cloud Recordings and Local Recordings. Choose Settings on top of either of the two.
   
3. Now, check the boxes that will give the participants permissions to record locally/to the cloud.
   

Keep in mind, though, to access Cloud Recoding, you need to be a paying subscriber, as well.

How to Record a Zoom Meeting When You Are Not the Host and Don’t Have Permission.

As a host, you need to keep something in mind.

Even though you may prevent any user from recording a meeting directly in Zoom, there are simple ways for them to record the meeting. There are various third-party apps that allow the computer/mobile user to record their screen feed, for example, and independently from the Zoom app.

Just about anyone can download and use these apps. iOS devices, for example, come with this feature by default. The video will be of lower quality if a meeting is recorded in this way, but they can still do it.

So, if you are a user who can not obtain recording permission from a host, there are ways around it. On iOS devices, this option can be located very quickly.

1. Go to Settings.
   
2. From the list, select Control Center.
   
3. Tap Customize Controls.
   
   
4. Find the Screen Recording entry and tap the green plus icon next to it.
   
5. Now, swipe from the bottom or top of the screen (depending on the iOS model) to start the Control Center. Locate the recording icon and tap it.
   
6. Screen recording will start. To stop the recording, tap the red bar at the top of the screen and tap Stop.
   
7. The recording is saved on your phone.

Do not worry, you can find software that will allow you to record your screen on any single device that works with Zoom. Just google for it.

Other Settings

There are three other important settings that pertain to recording Zoom meetings. One deals with automatic recording and the other two with prompting consent for the recording and playing notifications. Every single one of these three settings can be found in the Settings menu under the Recording tab (browser). Flip the switches next to each setting that you want to turn on. Here is more about each.

Automatic Recording

This setting can be very useful if you want to record all your videos. Lectures are a nice example of a situation where you want to record every Zoom meeting. However, these recordings may take up a lot of space, which is not ideal, in the cloud or locally. So, carefully consider which setting fits you the best.

Recording Consent

This setting will essentially ask each participant for consent to being recorded. If you feel that this is necessary for the group you’re meeting with, turn this setting on. However, this can turn into a huge headache when the meeting headcount is large. It might slow things down considerably and overcomplicate everything.

Multiple Audio Notifications of Recorded Meeting

This setting will essentially tell the participants when the meeting recording stops/starts, which is useful because it doesn’t interrupt the meeting. Also, if the Recording consent option is turned off, it might be good for the participants to at least know when they’re being recorded, which is exactly what this setting does. It sends everyone the notifications about recording.

Additional FAQ

1. Is there a place to easily view all my Zoom recordings?

As mentioned earlier, there are two ways to store Zoom recordings. If you are a paying user, you can store them on your computer or in the cloud. If you aren’t, you can only go with the local option. So, if you have recorded and stored your recordings locally, you can access them by navigating to the default selected location.

However, if you have stored the recordings in the cloud, you’re going to have to navigate to the Zoom web portal.

2. I forgot to record a Zoom meeting, is there a way for me to download it later?

Zoom meetings are not automatically recorded by the app unless you instruct it to. The recording mode is triggered manually if you have permission to do it. If you forgot to record a meeting, you won’t be able to obtain it after the fact. The only way to get ahold of a Zoom meeting that you have attended but failed to record is to contact the participant who has recorded it. They can send the recording to you via email, social media, or any other regular way.

3. How do I recover my Zoom recording?

If you have stored your recording locally and have removed it from your device completely, there is no known way to recover the recording. However, if you have stored it in the cloud and have deleted it, you can recover it for up to 30 days upon deletion.

1. To do this, go to the Cloud Recordings tab and select Thrash, located in the upper-right corner.

2. Find the recording that you want to recover and select Recover.

3. Now, confirm. After you’re done, you’re going the video show normally as it did before.

Recording Zoom Meetings

Things are fairly straightforward with Zoom meeting recording. As long as you have the consent from the host, and as long as you set things up properly, you’ll be able to quickly and easily start/pause/stop recording a meeting. Set everything up properly and see if you’d like to use Zoom’s cloud space or store the recordings on desktop.

Has this helped you get a better understanding of Zoom meeting recording options? Do you feel like we’ve covered everything here? Do you have anything to add? If you do, please tell us in the comments below.