Where to find your Teams recording and download it

When someone records a Teams meeting, the video file gets saved to a Microsoft cloud location tied to that meeting. You can download it to your computer if you were in the meeting or if the person who recorded it shared the file with you. The recording lives in one of two places: either in the meeting chat itself, or in a SharePoint folder that Teams creates automatically.

The fastest way is to look in the meeting chat first. Open Teams, go to the chat for that meeting, and scroll up to find the message that says "Recording started" or shows a video thumbnail. If you see the recording there, you can download it directly from that message without hunting through folders.

If the recording is not in the chat, it has been moved to SharePoint. This happens automatically after a few hours, or the meeting organizer may have moved it manually. You will need to know which Teams channel the meeting belonged to, then navigate to that channel's SharePoint site to find the Recordings folder.

Key Takeaways

  • Teams recordings appear first in the meeting chat, then move to SharePoint after a few hours.
  • You can download a recording from the chat message by clicking the three dots next to the video and selecting Download.
  • If the recording is not in chat, go to the Teams channel, click Files, then look for a Recordings folder in SharePoint.
  • You need permission to view the recording — if you cannot see it, ask the meeting organizer or channel owner to share it with you.
  • Downloaded files are MP4 videos that play in Windows Media Player, VLC, or any standard video player.

Download from the meeting chat

Open Microsoft Teams and find the chat for the meeting that was recorded. Scroll up through the messages until you see a message that says "Recording started by [person's name]" or a thumbnail showing a video preview. This message appears in the chat automatically when the recording ends.

Click the three dots (more options menu) in the top right corner of the recording message. Select Download from the menu that appears. Teams will begin downloading the MP4 file to your Downloads folder. The download speed depends on the video length and your internet connection — a one-hour meeting typically takes several minutes.

If you do not see a Download option, it means you do not have permission to download that recording. Ask the person who recorded the meeting or the channel owner to share the file with you directly, or to change the sharing settings in SharePoint.

Download from SharePoint if the recording moved

After a few hours, Teams automatically moves the recording from the chat to a SharePoint folder. You can also download it from there. Open the Teams channel where the meeting took place, then click the Files tab at the top of the channel.

Look for a folder called Recordings. Click into it and you should see the video file listed by the date and time the meeting was recorded. Right-click the file and select Download, or click the file once and look for a Download button in the toolbar at the top.

If you do not see a Recordings folder, the meeting may not have been recorded, or the recording may still be processing. Teams can take up to 24 hours to finish processing a very long recording. Check back in a few hours, or ask the meeting organizer whether they started the recording.

What to do if you cannot see the recording

Recordings are only visible to people who were in the meeting or who have been given permission by the organizer. If you were not in the meeting and the organizer has not shared the file with you, you will not see it in the chat or in SharePoint.

Contact the person who recorded the meeting and ask them to share the recording with you. They can do this by going to the SharePoint Recordings folder, right-clicking the file, clicking Share, and entering your email address. Once they have shared it, you will be able to see and download it.

If you were in the meeting but still cannot see the recording, it may not have been started, or it may still be uploading. Ask the organizer to confirm that they pressed the Record button at the start of the meeting. If they did, wait a few hours and check again.

Understanding file size and storage

A Teams recording is saved as an MP4 video file. The file size depends on how long the meeting was and the video quality. A typical one-hour meeting recording is between 300 MB and 1 GB. A four-hour recording can be 2 GB or larger.

Before you download, make sure you have enough free space on your computer. Check your available storage by opening File Explorer, right-clicking your C: drive (or whichever drive you use), and selecting Properties. If you do not have enough space, you can delete old files or move them to an external drive first.

Once downloaded, the file takes up the same amount of space on your computer as it does in SharePoint. You can move it to an external hard drive or cloud storage like OneDrive or Google Drive if you want to free up space on your computer but keep the file.

Playing the downloaded recording on your computer

The downloaded file is a standard MP4 video that works with any video player. On Windows, you can open it with the built-in Movies & TV app, Windows Media Player, or VLC (a free player you can download from videolan.org). On a Mac, QuickTime will play it, or you can use VLC.

To open the file, navigate to your Downloads folder, right-click the MP4 file, and select Open with. Choose your preferred video player from the list. If you do not see your preferred player, click Choose another app to browse for it.

You can also drag the file directly into a video player window, or double-click it to open it with your default player. Once it is open, you can pause, rewind, and skip forward just like any other video. Some players let you adjust the playback speed, which is useful if you want to watch faster or slower than normal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I download a Teams recording if I was not in the meeting?

No, unless the person who recorded it has shared the file with you. Ask the meeting organizer or channel owner to share the recording in SharePoint, and then you will be able to see and download it.

How long does it take for a recording to be ready to download?

Recordings usually appear in the chat within a few minutes of the meeting ending. They move to SharePoint after a few hours. Very long recordings (over four hours) can take up to 24 hours to finish processing before they are ready to download.

What if the download fails or stops partway through?

Check your internet connection and try again. If the file is very large, the download may time out. Try downloading from SharePoint instead of the chat, as SharePoint sometimes handles large files more reliably. If it keeps failing, contact your IT department — your organization may have storage limits that are preventing the download.

Can I edit the downloaded recording?

Yes, you can edit an MP4 file with video editing software like Windows Photos (built into Windows 10 and 11), iMovie (on Mac), or free tools like DaVinci Resolve or OpenShot. However, Teams recordings are often long and large, so editing software may run slowly. Consider trimming the file first if you only need a portion of it.

Is the downloaded file the same quality as the one in Teams?

Yes. The file you download is the original recording at the same resolution and quality it was recorded at. Teams does not compress or reduce quality when you download it.