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When recording a Zoom session, meeting hosts have the option to record to the Cloud or to have their recordings download to their local computer. This article identifies which assets are downloaded as part of the Local Recordings.
Recording Zoom meetings locally
When you record Zoom meetings locally, each meeting recording is saved to a desktop device in its own folder labeled with the date, time, and meeting name. Zoom local recordings consist of raw Zoom files, the converted video files, and plain text chat logs; the chat recording and main meeting recording are separate. Meeting recordings are converted from raw Zoom files to MP4 video files, M4A audio file and a text file containing the Chat, automatically.
Local recording is only available via the Zoom desktop client and not via mobile devices. Default local recording locations are C:\Users\User Name\Documents\Zoom for Windows and /Users/User Name/Documents/Zoom for Mac.
If the conversion process is not successful after the meeting has ended, users can try to convert the files again by navigating to the recording location and selecting the recording files. Users can manually convert a recording by selecting the file named double_click_to_convert_01.zoom, and the Zoom client will convert the file to MP4 video.
Meeting or conversion process unexpectedly ends
If the meeting unexpectedly shuts down or if the conversion process is interrupted, the recording files could become corrupted and non-recoverable. Restarting or shutting down your computer, putting the hard disk to sleep, or closing your laptop will interrupt the conversion process.
If the conversion process is not successful after the meeting has ended, you can try to convert the files again by navigating to the recording location and selecting the recording files.
What is not available in Zoom local recordings?
- Live transcripts provided by a third party transcription service are not downloaded locally.
- Recording time stamps.
- Participant names.
- Shared screen recording layout with active speaker thumbnail or without any thumbnails (local recordings will always show a thumbnail gallery view with the shared screen). The available MP4 file will depend on the meeting configurations established in a user's Zoom settings.
- Zoom Audio transcription.