How to record a Microsoft Teams meeting (and what happens to the file)

You're in a Microsoft Teams meeting and someone says "can we record this?". You click a button. Forty minutes later the meeting ends. Where does the recording live? Who can watch it? Does it get an automatic transcript? Can you share it with someone who wasn't in the call?

The answer to "how to record" is one click. The answer to everything that comes after has changed three times in the last three years. Here's the current state of Teams recording in 2026, with practical steps and the gotchas.

Quick steps to start a recording

1. Join the Teams meeting.
2. Click the More actions (...) button on the meeting toolbar.
3. Choose Record and transcribe → Start recording.
4. Teams notifies everyone in the call that recording has started.
5. To stop, More actions → Record and transcribe → Stop recording.

The recording continues until you stop it or the meeting ends. If everyone leaves the meeting and the call ends, recording stops automatically.

Who is allowed to record

By default in Microsoft 365:

• Organisers and presenters can start recording.
• Attendees cannot.

Your IT admin can change this in Teams admin centre via Meeting Policies, locking recording down further (only organisers) or opening it up (everyone). If your "Record" option is greyed out, your tenant's policy doesn't allow you to record.

Where the recording lives

This is where it gets interesting. Modern Teams (since 2021) stores recordings differently depending on the meeting type:

• Channel meetings (started from a Teams channel): the recording lands in that channel's Files tab, which physically lives in the SharePoint document library backing the channel. Everyone with access to the channel can see the recording.
• Private/scheduled meetings (one-off meetings or those scheduled via Outlook): the recording lands in the OneDrive for Business of the person who clicked Record. It's saved to a folder called Recordings at the top level of their OneDrive.

This means: if you record a customer call as a one-off Teams meeting, the recording is sitting in your OneDrive. If you leave the company tomorrow, your OneDrive (including that recording) is deleted after the retention period. Plan accordingly — see the section on permanent storage below.

How to find a recording after the meeting

Three reliable ways:

1. In the meeting chat. A few minutes after the meeting ends, Teams posts the recording as a clickable thumbnail in the meeting chat. Click to play.
2. In OneDrive or SharePoint directly. Go to onedrive.com → Recordings folder for private meetings, or the channel's Files tab for channel meetings.
3. In the calendar event details. Open the event in Teams or Outlook, switch to the Recap tab, and the recording is there with the auto-transcript.

Transcripts and captions

When you start a recording, Teams also generates a real-time transcript with speaker names attached to lines. After the meeting, the transcript is:

• Embedded inside the recording video — visible as captions if you turn them on while playing.
• Searchable — type into the video player's search bar and it jumps to that timestamp.
• Downloadable as a Word document — open the recording in Microsoft Stream, click Transcript, then Download.

Transcripts work in 30+ languages and identify each speaker. The accuracy is high for native speakers but degrades with strong accents, multiple talkers at once, or poor microphone quality.

Sharing a recording with someone

Use the same SharePoint or OneDrive sharing controls as any other file:

1. Open the recording in your OneDrive (or the channel's Files tab).
2. Click Share.
3. Choose the access level (People in your organisation, Specific people, etc.) and type the recipient's email.
4. Click Send.

Recipients get a link that plays the recording in the browser without downloading. Be careful with Anyone with the link — that lets the recording leak to anyone the link is forwarded to.

Recordings have an automatic expiry — change it if needed

This is the gotcha that catches people out: in Microsoft 365, Teams recordings automatically expire after 60 days by default and are moved to the recycle bin. Your IT admin can change the default (or disable expiry altogether) in the Teams admin centre.

If you have an important recording you want to keep forever:

1. Open it in OneDrive or SharePoint.
2. Click Details → Manage access.
3. Find the Expiration date at the bottom and clear it (or extend it).
4. Save.

Alternatively, download a local copy and store it in your team's permanent archive folder. That bypasses the expiry rules entirely.

Compliance and privacy considerations

Recording a meeting is a legal action in many jurisdictions. A few things to know:

• Microsoft 365 logs the recording. There is an audit trail in your tenant's compliance centre. An admin can find who recorded what and when.
• Participants are notified. Teams shows a red recording dot to everyone in the call. In some countries, this notification is a legal requirement for the recording to be admissible.
• External participants see the same red dot. They cannot disable the recording even when joining from a guest account.
• Confidential meetings (board, legal, HR) should generally not be recorded by default — set a meeting policy that disables recording for those groups.

Streaming vs downloading

When sharing a recording, prefer a sharing link over emailing a downloaded copy. Reasons:

• The streamed copy in OneDrive/SharePoint stays in your organisation's data boundary.
• It uses the access controls you set; you can revoke access later.
• The transcript and captions are only available when streaming, not when watching a downloaded MP4.
• The streaming URL also embeds in PowerPoint, Word, and Yammer without leaving your tenant.

Download only when you need an offline copy.

Troubleshooting

• Record button is greyed out. Your tenant policy doesn't allow you to record, or you joined as an attendee in a meeting where only organisers can record. Ask the organiser to start the recording instead.
• Recording didn't appear after the meeting. Wait 15–30 minutes — Teams runs the recording through a processing pipeline before it appears. For a long meeting, processing can take an hour.
• Recording is silent. A common cause is the recorder being on a poor connection during the meeting — Teams switches to a lower-bitrate fallback that occasionally drops audio. Make sure to record from a stable machine on a wired connection if possible.
• Cannot find the recording at all. Search your OneDrive for files modified during the meeting. If still missing, ask your IT admin to check the compliance audit log — they can locate any recording in the tenant.

TL;DR

Click More (...) → Record and transcribe → Start recording to record a Teams meeting. Channel meetings save to the channel's SharePoint Files tab; private meetings save to the recorder's OneDrive under a Recordings folder. Recordings auto-expire after 60 days by default — extend or remove the expiry for anything important. Transcripts are auto-generated and searchable. Share via OneDrive/SharePoint links, not by emailing the MP4.