Teams cloud meeting recording

In Microsoft Teams, users can record their Teams meetings and group calls to capture audio, video, and screen sharing activity. There is also an option for recordings to have automatic transcription, so that users can play back meeting recordings with closed captions and review important discussion items in the transcript. The recording happens in the cloud and is saved to Microsoft OneDrive for Business and Microsoft SharePoint Online, so users can share it securely across their organization.

When a meeting is recorded, it's automatically:

• Uploaded to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online
• Permissioned to the people invited to the meeting
• Linked in the chat for the meeting
• Displayed in the Recordings and Transcripts tab for the meeting in Teams calendar
• Added to various file lists across Microsoft 365: Shared with me, office.com, Recommended, Recent, etc.
• Indexed for Microsoft 365 Search

Related: Teams meeting recording end user documentation

Prerequisites for Teams cloud meeting recording

For a Teams user's meetings to be recorded, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online must be enabled for the tenant. In addition, the following prerequisites are required for both the meeting organizer and the person who is initiating the recording:

• User has sufficient storage in OneDrive for Business for non-channel meeting recordings to be saved.

• The Teams' channel has sufficient storage in SharePoint Online for channel meeting recordings to be saved.

• User has CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -AllowCloudRecording setting set to true in order to record meetings and group calls.

• User has CsTeamsCallingPolicy -AllowCloudRecordingForCalls setting set to true in order to record 1:1 calls.

• User is not an anonymous, Guest, or federated user in the meeting.

• To enable transcription for a user's meeting, the Teams meeting policy they are assigned to must have the -AllowTranscription setting set to true.

• To enable channel meeting recordings to be saved so channel members can't edit or download the recordings the CSTeamsMeetingPolicy -ChannelRecordingDownload setting must be set to Block.

Set up Teams cloud meeting recording for users in your organization

This section explains how you can set up and plan for recording Teams meetings via Teams meeting policies.

Turn on or turn off cloud recording

You can use the Microsoft Teams admin center or PowerShell to set a Teams meeting policy to control whether user's meetings can be recorded.

In the Microsoft Teams admin center, turn on or turn off the Cloud recording setting in the meeting policy. To learn more, see Meeting policy settings for audio and video.

Using PowerShell, you configure the AllowCloudRecording setting in TeamsMeetingPolicy. To learn more, see New-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy and Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy.

Both the meeting organizer and the recording initiator need to have the recording permissions to record the meeting. Unless you have assigned a custom policy to the users, users get the Global policy, which has AllowCloudRecording enabled by default.

For a user to fall back to the Global policy, use the following cmdlet to remove a specific policy assignment for a user:

Grant-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity {user} -PolicyName $null -Verbose

To change value of AllowCloudRecording in the Global policy, use the following cmdlet:

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -AllowCloudRecording $true

Block or allow download of channel meeting recordings

This setting controls if channel meetings are saved to a "Recordings" folder or a "Recordings\View only" folder in the channel. The setting applies to the policy of the user who selects record for the channel meeting.

The two values for this setting are:

• Allow (default)—Saves channel meeting recordings to a "Recordings" folder in the channel. The permissions on the recording files will be based off the Channel SharePoint Online permissions. This is the same as any other file uploaded for the channel.

• Block—Saves channel meeting recordings to a "Recordings\View only" folder in the channel. Channel owners will have full rights on the recordings in this folder, but channel members will have read access without ability to download.

Using PowerShell, you configure the ChannelRecordingDownload setting in TeamsMeetingPolicy. To learn more, see New-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy and Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy.

Unless you have assigned a custom policy to the users, users get the Global policy, which has ChannelRecordingDownload set to Allow by default.

For a user to fall back to Global policy, use the following cmdlet to remove a specific policy assignment for a user:

Grant-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity {user} -PolicyName $null -Verbose

To change value of ChannelRecordingDownload in the Global policy, use the following cmdlet:

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -ChannelRecordingDownload Block

Install-Module -Name MicrosoftTeams -Force -AllowClobber -AllowPrerelease

Turn on or turn off recording transcription

This setting controls whether captions and transcription features are available during playback of meeting recordings. If you turn this off, the Search and CC options won't be available during playback of a meeting recording. The person who started the recording needs this setting turned on so that the recording also includes transcription.

You can use the Microsoft Teams admin center or PowerShell to set a Teams meeting policy to control whether the recording initiator gets a choice to transcribe the meeting recording.

In the Microsoft Teams admin center, turn on or turn off the Allow transcription setting in the meeting policy. To learn more, see Meeting policy settings for audio and video.

Using PowerShell, you configure the AllowTranscription setting in TeamsMeetingPolicy. To learn more, see New-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy and Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy.

Unless you have assigned a custom policy to the users, users get the Global policy, which has AllowTranscription disabled by default.

For a user to fall back to Global policy, use the following cmdlet to remove a specific policy assignment for a user:

Grant-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity {user} -PolicyName $null -Verbose

To change value of AllowCloudRecording in the Global policy, use the following cmdlet:

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -AllowTranscription $false

Terms of use acceptance

If your organization has a meeting recording policy that you would like your users to accept before recording a meeting, use the Azure Active Directory terms of use feature. This feature allows your users to accept your organization's terms of user policy before getting access to Microsoft Teams. This feature is not specific to clicking the record button, but is related to using Teams or other Microsoft 365 apps overall. Our suggestion is to add your meeting recording information to your overall terms of use for using Teams or Microsoft 365.

Permissions and storage

Meeting recordings are stored in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online cloud storage. The location and permissions depend on the type of meeting and the role of the user in the meeting. The default permissions applied to the recording are listed below, users that have full edit rights on the video recording file can change the permissions and share it later with others as needed.

Non-Channel meetings

• The recording is stored in a folder named Recordings in the OneDrive for Business of the user who clicked record.

  Example: recorder's OneDrive for Business/Recordings

• People invited to the meeting, except external users, will automatically be granted permission to the recording file with view access without ability to download.

• The meeting owner and the person who clicked record will get full edit access with ability to change permissions and share with other people.

Channel meetings

If Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -ChannelRecordingDownload is set to Allow (default):

• The recording is stored in the Teams site documentation library in a folder named Recordings.

  Example: Teams name - Channel name/Documents/Recordings

• The member who clicked record has edit rights to the recording.

• Every other member’s permissions are based on the Channel SharePoint Online permissions.

If Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -ChannelRecordingDownload is set to Block:

• The recording is stored in the Teams site documentation library in a folder named Recordings/View only.

  Example: Teams name - Channel name/Documents/Recordings/View only

• Channel owners will have full edit and download rights on the recordings in this folder.

• Channel members will have view only access without ability to download.

For more info on specific meeting types, see the following table:

Temporary storage when unable to upload to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online

If a meeting recording isn't able to be uploaded to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, it will temporarily be available for download from Teams for 21 days before it is deleted. This is not something at this point that an admin can control or manage to include the ability to delete it.

Meeting recordings may end up in this temporary storage for the following reasons:

• For non-channel meetings if the user recording doesn't have a OneDrive for Business set up or the OneDrive for Business has reached its storage quota
• For a channel meeting if the SharePoint Online site has reached its storage quota or the site wasn't provisioned yet
• If specific OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online policies are enabled restricting users from uploading files when not on specific IP ranges, etc.

The recording retention for this is temporary storage is affected by the chat message itself. As such, any deletion of the original chat message for the recording will prevent users from being able to access the recording. There are two scenarios that can affect this:

• User manually deletes the chat message—In this scenario, as the original message is gone, users will no longer be able to access the recording and no further downloads will be possible. However, the recording itself may still be retained within Microsoft's internal systems for a time (not exceeding the original 21-day period).

• Recording chat message is deleted by chat retention policy—Temporary storage recordings are directly tied to the chat retention policy. As such, although recordings on Teams temporary storage will by default be retained for 21 days before being deleted, if the chat message is deleted before the 21-day time period, due to chat message retention policies, the recording will also be deleted. There is no way to recover the recording after this.

Planning for storage

The size of a 1-hour recording is 400 MB. Make sure you understand the capacity required for recorded files and have sufficient storage available in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. Read Set the default storage space for OneDrive for Business and Manage SharePoint Online site storage limits to understand the base storage included in the subscription and how to purchase additional storage.

Auto-expiration of Teams meeting recordings:

See the frequently asked questions for admins and end users to gather insights into how auto-expiration of Teams meeting recordings will work, what actions you can take now, and what actions you can take after the feature launches.

Frequently asked questions

What is the change?

We’re introducing a default 60-day expiration setting for all newly created Teams meeting recordings (TMRs). This means that by default, all TMRs created after we enable this feature will be deleted 60 days after their creation date. If admins want meeting recordings to expire sooner or later than the default, they can modify the expiration setting. The OneDrive and SharePoint systems will monitor the expiration date set on all meeting recordings and will automatically move them to the recycle bin on their expiration date.

Who does this impact?

Anyone storing a Teams meeting recording (non-channel, channel, or ad-hoc meeting) in OneDrive or SharePoint.

Why should I use this feature?

You should use this feature to limit OneDrive or SharePoint storage consumed by Teams meeting recordings (note: they typically use around 400 MB per hour of recording).

Why are we introducing this change?

Customers have provided overwhelming feedback that they want more controls to reduce storage clutter created from Teams meeting recordings, 99% of which, on average, are never rewatched after 60 days.

Why is this being turned on by default?

We believe nearly all customers will benefit from the reduced storage load on their tenant by removing recordings that will likely never be rewatched after 60 days. It is our goal to provide as clean an experience as possible for all customers by default.

Will it be automatically deleted even if the data is accessed or downloaded?

Accessing the file does not change the expiration date.

Is the expiry date visible as a column in the list?

Users with view access to the recording will see a red icon next to the file in the OneDrive or SharePoint folder 14 days before the file expires. There is currently no way to add a column to a list with expire date.

How is the expiration date calculated?

The expiration date is calculated as the day the meeting recording is created plus the default number of days set in the Teams setting by the admin.

Can the expiration date be changed for each TMR, such as data A expiration date is 30 days and data B expiration date is 60 days?

Yes, the expiration date is set per file. Users can modify the expiration date in the details pane of a selected file in OneDrive or SharePoint.

How can an admin change the expiration date?

Admins can change the default expiration setting in PowerShell or the Teams admin center before the feature is released. Changing expiration settings will only impact newly created TMRs from that point forward. It won't impact any recordings made prior to that date. New recordings will not auto-expire until the feature is released, even though you can set the policy attribute before it's released.

The expiration days value can be set as follows:

• Value can be from 1 to 9,999.
• Value can also be -1 to set TMR to never expire.

Admins can't change the expiration date on existing TMRs already uploaded to OneDrive or SharePoint before this feature was released. This protects the intent of the user that owns the TMR.

To change the default auto-expiration behavior for your tenant, modify the following attribute in PowerShell. In this example, the default is changed to 50 days.

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity Global -NewMeetingRecordingExpirationDays 50

The ability to change the default setting in the Teams admin center will be deployed at a later time, at least 30 days before we turn on the auto-expiration feature by default.

Can an admin set TMR's to never expire?

Yes, administrators can set TMR's to never expire.

Does playing the recording change the expiration date?

No, playback does not impact the expiration date.

What happens to the expiration date if the TMR is downloaded and re-uploaded?

The expiration date will be cleared upon re-upload, regardless of the user’s SKU.

What happens if I copy or move the TMR to a different location or site?

The date is only retained for a moved TMR file. A copied file will not have the expiration date, just like a re-uploaded TMR.

What is the scope of control for the admin policy?

Both meetings and calls will be controlled by the same CsTeamsMeetingPolicy setting, MeetingRecordingExpirationDays.

How can end users modify the expiration date on a specific TMR file?

Anyone who has edit and delete permissions on a TMR can modify the expiration date in the file’s details pane in OneDrive or SharePoint.

The user can defer the expiration 14, 30, or 60 days, or they can choose a specific date in the future, or they can select that the file never be expired.

Should admins rely on this feature for strict security and compliance adherence?

No, admins should not rely on this feature for legal protection since end users can modify the expiration date of any recordings they control.

Will this feature enforce file retention?

No, files will not be retained due to this feature or its settings. If a user with delete permissions attempts to delete a TMR that has an expiration setting, that user’s delete action will be executed.

Will a retention and/or deletion policy I have set in the security & compliance (S+C) center override the TMR expiration setting?

Yes, any policies you have set in the S+C center will take full precedence. For example:

• If you have a policy that says all files in a site must be retained for 100 days, and the expiration setting for a TMR is 30 days, then the recording file will be retained for the full 100 days.
• If you have a deletion policy that says all TMRs will be deleted after 5 days and you have an expiration setting on a recording file of 30 days, then that file will be deleted after five days.

What happens when a TMR “expires”?

On the expiration date, the TMR is moved into the OneDrive or SharePoint recycle bin and the expiration date field is cleared. This action by the system is exactly the same as if a user deleted the file. The recycle bin lifecycle will subsequently follow the normal path. If the user recovers the TMR from the recycle bin, the TMR will not be deleted by this feature again since the expiration date has been cleared, unless the end user sets a new expiration date on the file.

How will I be notified about a file’s expiration?

Everyone with view access will see a notification about the expiration date in the recording chiclet in the Teams chat window.

Everyone with view access will see a red icon next to the file in your OneDrive or SharePoint folder 14 days before the file expires.

The file owner will receive an email notification when the TMR expires and will be directed to the recycle bin to recover the TMR if they desire to do so.

What SKUs are required for this feature?

All SKUs will have this feature by default. A1 users will be defaulted to a 30-day expiration period.

Is the file expiration an audited event and will I be able to see it in my audit logs?

Yes, file expirations will show up as system deletion events in the audit log.

What if I want the admin to have full control over the lifecycle of TMRs and don’t want to give end users the ability to override the expiration date?

We recommend using the S+C retain and/or delete policies available as part of the E5 compliance SKU. That offering is targeted to solve complex policy and SLA-driven administrative legal concerns.

This feature is solely meant as a lightweight housekeeping mechanism to reduce storage clutter created from cold TMRs.

When will the file be deleted?

The file will be deleted within 5 days of the expiration date, though this is not a strict guarantee.

Will future TMRs migrated from Classic Stream after this feature is released have auto-expiration applied to them too?

No, migrated TMRs will not come with an expiration set on them. Instead, we encourage admins to only migrate TMRs that they want to retain. More details will be provided in the migration documentation.

Manage meeting recordings

Meeting recordings are stored as video files in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online and follow management and governance options available in those platforms. Read SharePoint Online governance overview, OneDrive for Business guide for enterprises, or OneDrive for Business guide for small businesses for more information.

For non-channel meetings, the recordings are stored in the recorder's OneDrive for Business, thus handling ownership and retention after an employee leaves will follow the normal OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online process.

Closed captions for recordings

Closed captions for Teams meeting recordings will be available during playback only if the user had transcription turned on at the time of recording. Admins must turn on recording transcription via policy to ensure their users have the option to record meetings with transcription.

Captions help create inclusive content for viewers of all abilities. As an owner, you can hide captions on the meeting recording, although the meeting transcript will still be available on Teams unless you delete it there.

Today closed captions for the recording video file are linked to the Teams meeting transcript. This link will remain for the lifetime of the file in most cases, but can be broken if the video file is copied within the same OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online site, which would result in captions not being available on the copied video file.

Any future changes to the link between the transcript in Teams and the recording will be clarified here and in message center notifications. If we make any changes in the future, we will ensure recording files less than 60 days old display the transcript from the meeting as captions.

eDiscovery and Compliance for meeting recordings

eDiscovery

The meeting recordings are stored in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, which is Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Tier-D compliant. To support e-Discovery requests for compliance admins who are interested in meeting or call recordings, the recording completed message is available in the compliance content search functionality for Microsoft Teams. Compliance admins can look for the keyword "recording" in the subject line of the item in compliance content search preview and discover meeting and call recordings in the organization.

In addition, the meeting recording video file can be found via eDiscovery searches for files on SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

To learn more about eDiscovery see the article eDiscovery solutions for Microsoft 365

Retention policies

You can apply automatic retention labels to target just Teams meeting recording video files via the ProgID property. For more information, see How to auto-apply a retention label for Teams meeting recordings.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies

You can apply DLP policies to meeting recording files also by the ProgID property. In the DLP rule for files in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business set the conditions to be:

• Document property = ProgID
• Value = Media.Meeting

To learn more about DLP see the article Learn about data loss prevention

Meeting Recording Diagnostic Tools

User cannot record meetings

If you're an administrator, you can use the following diagnostic tool to validate that the user is properly configured to record a meeting in Teams:

1. Select Run Tests below, which will populate the diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

   Run Tests: Meeting Recording

2. In the Run diagnostic pane, enter the email of the user who cannot record meetings in the Username or Email field, and then select Run Tests.

3. The tests will return the best next steps to address any tenant or policy configurations to validate that the user is properly configured to record a meeting in Teams.

Meeting record is missing

If you're an administrator, you can use the following diagnostic tool to validate that the meeting recording completed successfully and it was uploaded to Stream or OneDrive, based on the meeting ID and recording start time:

1. Select Run Tests below, which will populate the diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

   Run Tests: Missing Meeting Recording

2. In the Run diagnostic pane, enter the URL of the meeting in the URL of the meeting that was recorded field (usually found in the meeting invitation) as well as the date of the meeting in the **When was the meeting recorded? ** field and then select Run Tests.

3. The tests will validate that the meeting recording completed successfully and it was uploaded to Stream or OneDrive.

Related topics

• Teams PowerShell overview