When you are in a Zoom meeting, you are able to record the meeting locally to your computer as well as to the Zoom Cloud. This article will cover how to record your Zoom meeting locally to your computer.

Before You Begin

The following must be understood prior to recording your meetings in any location:

• Consent must be provided by all meeting attendees before recording the session.

• Zoom recordings should avoid gallery view (thumbprint-sized photos) to avoid any violation of FERPA. Meeting hosts should change their view prior to recording. Instructions on how to do so can be found here: Switching Views in a Zoom Meeting.
  • Information on FERPA may be found here.
• Recordings or screenshots of meetings should not be shared or posted to external services (e.g. social media).
• Cloud storage is shared by all ISU users and is limited. It is highly recommended that Zoom meetings be stored on your computer as recordings may be deleted from cloud storage to free up space for others.
• Recording a meeting makes it more vulnerable to being shared with others and/or downloaded to personal computers.
  
  
  

Recording a Zoom Meeting Locally

1. Open Zoom and start your meeting.
2. When you are ready to record the meeting, click the Record button on the menu bar. Your meeting should start to record instantly. (See Figure 1)
   
   Figure 1:
   
   
   
3. Your meeting is now recording. You have the ability to either pause the recording or stop the recording. You can resume the recording whenever you would like after pausing it. (See Figure 2)
   
   Figure 2:
   
   
4. Once you want to end the recording, click Stop Recording. You will get a notification that the recorded file will be converted to mp4 once the meeting ends.
5. To have the recording saved to your computer, end the meeting. After ending the meeting, you will see a progress bar that shows how long the rendering process will take.
   Once the video is finished rendering, it will automatically save to your “Zoom” folder that is located in your “Documents” unless otherwise specified.

Uploading Your Recording to Microsoft Stream

For uploading videos to Microsoft Stream, refer to the following article: Microsoft Stream for Faculty.

Tips for Recording Your Meeting

• When you are recording your meeting, please be aware that stopping the recording will NOT stop the meeting. However, stopping the meeting WILL stop the recording and it will begin to render.
• When pausing the recording, you can resume whenever you would like and it will not interrupt the meeting.
• It can take several minutes, or even more than an hour to render your meeting, depending on the length. Please do not attempt to turn off your machine or sign out of it, otherwise it will corrupt the recording and it will not render.
  
  
  

Troubleshooting

How long does it take for my meeting to render and save to my computer?

There are multiple variables when it comes to rendering a Zoom meeting. These variables include how long the meeting ran, if there was screen sharing, how much server space there is, and more. The longer the meeting, the longer the rendering time will be. If you find that your recording is taking an unusually long time to render, please do not attempt to restart your machine, as it can corrupt the recording. Your recording should not take longer than a couple of hours to render.

My recording is nowhere to be found. Where could it be?

There are a few reasons why a recording could be missing.

If you have turned off your machine during the rendering process, or your computer suddenly turned off or lost power, the recording will not render and could become corrupt, which will result in a missing recording. If you run out of hard drive space, your meeting could have not saved since there is no more hard drive space. Delete some unwanted files form your hard drive to make room for your Zoom meeting. Files that take up a good amount of storage space are video files. You may also decide to delete pictures and applications. Make sure that you're not deleting an application from your computer that you will need to use. 

For troubleshooting of your device, including sound and video, see the following article from Zoom HERE.

Video Demonstration

Select the following link to view a video that demonstrates the steps listed above: How to Record a Zoom Meeting and Save it to Your Computer

Video Resources

The following links will open a video that demonstrates how to use a certain feature in Zoom: 

• Showing a Video in Zoom
• Pinning Participants in Zoom
• How to Record a Zoom Meeting and Save it to Your Computer
• Troubleshooting: Participants Cannot Hear You in Zoom
• How to Join a Zoom Meeting at Illinois State University
• Downloading Zoom Client at Illinois State University

How to Get Help

• Technical assistance is available through the Technology Support Center at (309) 438-4357, by email at SupportCenter@IllinoisState.edu, or by live chat at Help.IllinoisState.edu.