I can't record a meeting in Microsoft Teams

What if you want to start a recording during a meeting in Microsoft Teams, but the recording button is unavailable? We have some tips to help you complete your task.

Hover over the Lock icon on the Start recording button to see a tooltip explaining why the button isn't working. Then, check the table below to find a solution.

A screencap of the Teams Recording tooltip

Tooltip	Reason	What you can do
Only people in this org can start recording	You're an anonymous user. Or You belong to a different organization than the meeting organizer. You're either an external party or signed in as a guest in the meeting.	Sign in to an authenticated account. Ask a meeting participant from the organizer's org to start and share the recording after the meeting.
Only people designated by admin policy can start recording	The Teams administrator hasn't allowed recording for individual users in a meeting or calling policy. Learn more about allowing or preventing users from recording.	Ask your administrator to turn on the recording option in meetings or calls for all users.
Unavailable in this meeting	If the meeting organizer isn't allowed to record in the meeting policy, the recording button is not available to any meeting attendees. Or If the meeting is scheduled with the Microsoft Graph API and the meeting organizer sets the AllowRecording property to False, the recording button is not available to any meeting attendees. Learn more about onlineMeetingBase properties.	Ask your administrator to let the meeting organizer record meetings. Or Ask the organizer to close the current meeting, turn on the recording property, and start a new meeting.
Only people chosen by the meeting organizer can start recording	In the Teams meeting options, under Recording & Transcription, the meeting organizer can set the Who can record and transcribe option to designate who can start recording. Or If the option is set to Organizer and co-organizers, the recording button is unavailable for all attendees except the organizer and co-organizers.	Ask the organizer to change the Who can record and transcribe option to Organizers, co-organizers and presenters. Learn more about choosing who can record or transcribe. Or Ask the organizer to designate you as a co-organizer. Learn more about roles in Microsoft Teams meetings.
Only meeting organizers and presenters can start recording	In the Teams meeting options, under Roles, the meeting organizer sets the Who can present option to designate who can start a presentation. If you aren't designated as a presenter, you'll be marked as an attendee in the meeting, but the recording button won't be available to you.	Ask the organizer to designate you as a presenter. Learn more about roles in Microsoft Teams meetings.
Recording has already started	When you select Start recording, the recording takes a few seconds to start. During this time, the Start recording button is not available to you.	Wait until the recording starts.
Unavailable because Copilot is turned off	In the Teams meeting options, under Recording & Transcription, if the meeting organizer turns off Copilot, the recording button is not available to any attendees.	Ask the meeting organizer to turn on Copilot during the meeting.

FAQ

Why is my meeting recording automatically if I didn’t schedule it that way?

If you schedule a meeting or event using the town hall or webinar template, automatic recording and transcription will be on by default. To turn off automatic recording before the meeting or event starts, open the event details in your Teams calendar and select Meeting options > Recording & transcript . Then, turn the Record and transcribe automatically toggle off. To learn more, see Manage webinar recordings or Manage town hall recordings.
If you have a compliance recording policy, recording will start automatically every time you join a meeting. This recording will be stored in your org’s storage and not your personal OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint. To learn more, see Third-party compliance recording for Teams calls and meetings.

Where are recordings and transcripts saved?

Please see Recording storage.

What do the recording & transcript meeting options do?

When you organize a meeting in Teams, you can adjust recording and transcript settings and permissions in the meeting options. Learn more about recording and transcript options in the table below:

Meeting option	What it does
Record and transcribe automatically	When this option is turned on, recording and transcription will start automatically when the meeting begins. This option will be turned off if Who can record and transcribe is set to No one.
Who can record and transcribe	This option controls who can start recording or transcription during a meeting. If Organizers and co-organizers is selected, participants won’t be able to start the recording or transcription. If No one is selected, nobody in the meeting can start the recording or transcription. Limitations: This option can’t be set to No one if Allow Copilot is set to During and after the meeting. This option can only be set to No one if Allow Copilot is turned off. This option isn’t available if Record and transcribe automatically is turned on.
Who can access the recording or transcript	This option controls who can access the recording or transcript. After the recording or transcript is uploaded to OneDrive, people without access can’t view it. Limitation: If this is set to Organizers and co-organizers or Specific people, the transcription button for other participants won’t be available. Only the organizers and co-organizers or specified people can start the transcription. The recording button won’t be affected.

Meeting option

What it does

Record and transcribe automatically

When this option is turned on, recording and transcription will start automatically when the meeting begins.

This option will be turned off if Who can record and transcribe is set to No one.

Who can record and transcribe

This option controls who can start recording or transcription during a meeting.

If Organizers and co-organizers is selected, participants won’t be able to start the recording or transcription.
If No one is selected, nobody in the meeting can start the recording or transcription.

Limitations:

This option can’t be set to No one if Allow Copilot is set to During and after the meeting.
This option can only be set to No one if Allow Copilot is turned off.
This option isn’t available if Record and transcribe automatically is turned on.

Who can access the recording or transcript

This option controls who can access the recording or transcript. After the recording or transcript is uploaded to OneDrive, people without access can’t view it.

Limitation:

If this is set to Organizers and co-organizers or Specific people, the transcription button for other participants won’t be available. Only the organizers and co-organizers or specified people can start the transcription. The recording button won’t be affected.

To learn more, see Customize access to meeting recordings or transcripts in Microsoft Teams.

How do I share a recording or transcript with others in Stream?

To share a recording or transcript:

Double-click the past meeting in your Teams calendar.
Select Recap.
Choose the recording or transcript you want to share.
Select Open in Stream in the upper-right corner.
In Stream, select Share > Share.
Select Link settings to manage recording permissions:
- Under The link works for, select who you want to give access to.
- Under More settings:
  1. Select Can’t download to prevent people you share the recording with from downloading it.
  2. Select Can view to allow people you share with to view and download the recording.
  3. Select Can edit to allow people you share with to modify, delete, or move the recording.
  4. Set a recording expiration date.
  5. Set a password to the recording.
Select Apply to apply the recording permissions.
Enter the name, group, or email you want to share with.
Select Copy link to copy a direct link to the recording and share it with others.

To learn more, see Play, share, and download a meeting recording in Microsoft Teams.

Can I request access to a recording or transcript?

When you open a recording or transcript that you don’t have access to, you can ask the owner to share it with you directly or request access directly from that page. If you request access, reach out to the recording or transcript owner to let them know your request is waiting. They can approve the request through their email.

How do I manage a recording or transcript’s expiration date in Stream?

To manage a recording or transcript’s expiration date in Stream:

Open the recording or transcript in Stream.
Make sure you’re in Editing mode. If you’re in Viewing mode, select Viewing > Editing.
Under the meeting recording, select the current expiration countdown.
Select an option to extend the recording, choose a new expiration date, or remove expiration from the recording entirely.

What happens if the meeting organizer is a shared mailbox?

If you’re scheduling meetings on behalf of a shared mailbox, the shared mailbox will be the meeting organizer. To learn more, see Shared mailbox scheduled meetings.

Where is my recording?

If you can’t find a recording:

Check if there is a message indicating that your recording started. If you don’t see this message, the recording most likely didn’t start and can’t be recovered.
If you know the recording was started but can’t find it in OneDrive, check if it was deleted, moved to a different location, or expired. Look in your recycle bin and second stage recycle bin.
If you can’t find your recording in OneDrive but see this recording chiclet in your chat history, your recording failed to upload to OneDrive and will be stored in a temporary storage for 21 days. You can retry uploading it to OneDrive or download it to your local device.
If you see this chiclet in your chat history, the recording was permanently deleted from the temporary storage and can’t be recovered.