Microsoft Teams is an essential tool for remote collaboration, with a strong user base of loyal virtual meeting users. Teams is great when it comes to offering seamless integration for meetings, file sharing, and communication.

It goes without saying that one of its standout features is the ability to record meetings or integrate an AI note-taking app to record them for you. Users want and need to be able to review discussions or share content with team members who couldn’t attend, and this often extends to a need for downloading a Teams recording for easy access. Let me tell you how this is done.

Where are Teams Recordings Saved and Stored?

When you record a meeting in Microsoft Teams, the recording is automatically saved and stored. For most scenarios:

• Non-channel meetings: Recordings are stored in the meeting organizer’s OneDrive under a folder named Recordings.
• Channel meetings: These are stored in the Files tab of the channel within SharePoint.

Whether you’re the host of the meeting, co-organizer, or an invited participant, understanding where and how to access these recordings is clearly essential to your ability to then download them.

How to Download Teams Recordings

The steps to download recordings vary slightly depending on where the Teams recording is stored or accessed. The variations aren't difficult, but it does influence the way you need to go about this. Below, I have broken it down for different scenarios.

1. Downloading from the Meeting Chat

1. Open Microsoft Teams on your computer or browser.
2. Go to the Chat tab and select the meeting chat associated with the recorded session.
3. Navigate to the Shared tab within the chat.
4. Locate the recording, which will appear as an MP4 file.
5. Hover over the recording and click the three-dot More options menu.
6. Select Download and then you will have the ability to save the file to a desired location on your device.

2. Downloading from a Teams Channel

If the meeting took place within a channel, you'll already know where to go, but this is how to download these Teams meetings:

1. Go to the relevant Teams channel in Microsoft Teams.
2. Navigate to the Files tab.
3. Find the recording, which will also appear as an MP4 file, marked with a recording icon.
4. Click the three-dot More options menu next to the file and click Download.

Efficient Alternative for Teams Recordings: Bubbles

Managing and downloading recordings manually (as laid out above) can be time-consuming, especially for frequent meetings. That’s where Bubbles comes in as an alternative for recording and storing Teams meetings.

I briefly mentioned that integrating an AI note-taking app might be a better option for recording Teams meetings, and here is our recommendation.

Why Use Bubbles?

Bubbles is an AI-powered meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes your Teams meetings with ease. With Bubbles, you can:

• Automatically record meetings: Connect your calendar and Bubbles will join your Teams meetings to capture everything without any manual intervention whatsoever.
• Access detailed summaries: After the meeting, Bubbles provides a transcript, key takeaways, and AI action items that are personalized and tailored to your needs. This can be found in a follow-up email or within your Bubbles workspace.
• Simplified storage: The reason we are recommending Bubbles here is because recordings and transcriptions are saved in your Bubbles workspace, making organization effortless. You can also download them directly from there.

3. Downloading via OneDrive or SharePoint

For recordings saved in OneDrive or SharePoint:

1. Access your OneDrive for Business as you normally would through the Teams app or your browser.
   • Non-channel recordings will be under the Recordings folder.
   • Channel recordings will be saved in SharePoint under the channel’s folder.
2. Locate the recording that you want to download.
3. Click on the three-dot menu that you'll see beside the file and choose Download.

4. Downloading from the Teams Calendar

1. Open the Teams Calendar and locate the meeting you want.
2. Double-click the meeting to open its details.
3. Head to the Recap or Details section.
4. Find the recording and click the Download button if available.