With things the way they are, right now, more and more of us are having to rely on video-calls to keep up-to-date with our education, or our work. Learning how to record yourself, or the meeting as a whole (provided you are permitted to, or are the host) can be an invaluable tool. Recordings made in Zoom can serve as educational resources (for those who missed a class, say), as well as ready-made presentation videos, or even as a means of practicing your public appearance and conversational style.

To record yourself on Zoom, simply follow these few straightforward steps:

Recording Yourself on Zoom

1. Open the Zoom app on your PC, or navigate to the Zoom website in your preferred web browser (using the website typically triggers the suggestion that you should download the app and use it, instead)
2. Start a new meeting by clicking the ‘New Meeting’ icon, or join an existing meeting by clicking the ‘Join’ icon, and inputting the correct Meeting ID and Password (if necessary)
3. Once in the meeting, the first thing to do is to set the destination folder for all future recordings made on Zoom. To do so, click the upward-pointing arrow next to the ‘Stop Video’ icon in the bottom-left corner, and then select ‘Video Settings’. (If you have already done this before, you can skip to step 6.)
4. From the sidebar of the settings window, select ‘Recording’
5. Next to the Local Recording default folder, select ‘Change’. Now, choose the desired Zoom recordings destination folder from your computer (make a new folder to accommodate Zoom recordings, if you prefer).
   
   Note: In the ‘Recording’ settings window, you have the option to set Zoom to ask you for the destination folder for meeting recordings after every meeting, giving you even greater flexibility. You can also choose to add timestamps to your recordings, among a range of other detailed settings. For our purposes though, simply choosing your destination folder is fine.
6. Now that you have selected your destination folder, you can begin recording. To do so, simply click the ‘Record’ button in the toolbar at the bottom, to the right of the green ‘Share Screen’ button. This will start the recording.
7. You can choose to pause and restart your recording as often as you like, by clicking either the ‘Pause’ or ‘Play’ icons under ‘Record’. This is a neat way of editing your recording as the Zoom meeting progresses. You can stop your recording at any time by clicking the ‘Stop’ icon under ‘Record’.
8. Your recording(s) will only finish converting to .mp4 files once you have successfully exited the meeting. Once you are ready to, do so by clicking the ‘End/Leave’ button in the bottom-right-hand corner.
9. You will see a pop-up window showing the progress of the recording(s) conversion. Once it has reached 100% and completed converting your files, you will find them in the destination folder you set at the start of this tutorial (which should open automatically). Note that each recording will be present in that folder in its own subfolder, with the meeting date, your name, and meeting ID in the name, and in these subfolders, you will find both the .mp4 file, alongside a .mp3 audio-only recording of the meeting.

Note: You can only record in a Zoom meeting if you are the meeting host, OR you have been granted permission to record by the meeting host.

And there you have it! Whatever you wish to use your personal Zoom recordings for, by simply following these quick and easy steps, you will master the art in no time.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zoom?

Zoom is one of today’s most popular online video-chat platforms, offering telephoning via a cloud-based peer-to-peer software platform. It was, until relatively recently, geared mostly toward corporate use, handy for businesses holding meetings with international clients, and so on. Recently, though (thanks to the global Covid-19 pandemic), Zoom has become something of a household name. It is used by people all around the world as an easy, free, accessible alternative to earlier incarnations of video chat platforms, such as Skype. For most non-professional (paid) Zoom account holders, meetings between 3 or more participants can last no longer than 40 minutes at a time.

Why would I want/need to record myself on Zoom?

There are many reasons why you might find yourself asking ‘How can I record myself on Zoom?’ For one, you might be hosting a Birthday party or online Leaving-do, say, during the ongoing pandemic-necessitated lockdowns. As part of the virtual party, you may well want to record the proceedings for posterity. Alternatively, it may be that you are now getting used to using Zoom as a standard mode of teaching, or delivering presentations, to pupils, coworkers, potential clients, you name it! As such, it is good practice to record yourself in Zoom meetings, either for the duration of the meeting or only during the segment of the meeting during which you are delivering your presentation. Thus, afterward, you have a recording that you can use in the future – perhaps as an online resource for your class, or to allow you to watch back, take notes, and practice for your next meeting/presentation.

How much of a Zoom meeting can I record?

You can record as much or as little of the Zoom meeting as you like. Once you’ve hit the ‘Record’ button, you can pause and restart the recording as often as you like, perhaps choosing only to record the parts of the meeting during which you or another specific participant is talking. Once you are satisfied with what you’ve recorded, you can either press ‘Stop’ to stop the recording (note that you could then, if you wanted, begin a new recording in the same meeting), or you can simply choose to leave the call by pressing the red ‘End’ button, and either ‘Leaving’ or ‘Ending the Meeting for All’. The recording(s) will convert to .mp4 files once you have successfully exited the meeting.

Can anyone record themselves during a Zoom meeting?

In order to record during a Zoom meeting, you must either be the host of the meeting or have the host give you permission to record. If you are not the host and attempt to press the ‘Record’ button, you will be told to ask the host to give you permission. If you are the host, and someone else is asking to record the meeting, then you must (if you wish to let them) go into the meeting settings and edit the permissions granted to the particular caller(s).

Where do the Zoom recordings go?

Once you have ended a meeting during which you have recorded, your .mp4 recordings will be converted and sent to the folder selected in your Zoom video settings. It is a good idea, before conducting your first Zoom recording, to set your desired end folder for Zoom recordings. To do so, follow the instructions up above.