Where are Zoom recordings saved?

One of the reasons that Zoom has proved popular despite its limitations is the ability to record meetings even on the free tier – something that Google Meet notably doesn’t allow. 

To be clear, recordings aren’t enabled by default – which is just as well given not every meeting needs to be recorded and hard disk space is at a premium. A full explainer on how to do it is on the Zoom site and in the video below, but it’s pretty straightforward as long as all participants are consenting.

Note that local recording doesn’t work on iPhone or Android devices, so if the call is important then get thee to a desktop.

Where are Zoom recordings saved?

First off, the answer to that is “it depends”. If you’re on a free account, then your recordings are local only. If you’ve paid up for a subscription, then your recordings will be saved to the cloud to be accessible anywhere.

Still, they can actually be accessed the same way. Log in to your Zoom account in a web browser, and press “My account”. Look at the navigation bar on the left-hand side, and you’ll see that the fourth item down is labeled “Recordings”. Click this, and you’ll see all your recordings, starting off with cloud ones – which is awkward as I’m on a free account, so have none.

Not to worry, simply click “Local recordings” and the view switches to show all the recordings I’ve made, and where to find them on my PC. 

Where are Zoom recordings saved on PC?

As you can deduce from the above, by default PC recordings are saved here: C:\Users\User Name\Documents\Zoom.

This can be changed, though. More on that in a minute.

Where are Zoom recordings saved on a Mac?

It’s similar for Mac. Here, by default, recordings are saved at /Users/User Name/Documents/Zoom.

How do I change the Zoom recordings location?

Easy peasy. Open up the Zoom software on your PC or Mac, then press your icon in the top right-hand corner.

Press “Settings”, and then open “Recording” in the menu that appears – you then have a whole load of new options, including the ability to pick a location for the recording once the meeting is over.

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