Zoom: Recording a Meeting and Where to Find It

A guide to recording and finding recordings on Zoom for instructors/hosts and students/participants.

Important Note: By default, all Zoom Cloud recordings are deleted from your Zoom account after 30 days, but a copy will be retained in the associated Illinois Media Space account. 

Guide for Instructors/Meeting Hosts

Recording in Zoom

It is recommended that you enable automatic cloud recording for all online sessions. Enabling this will ensure the meeting is being recorded as soon as the meeting starts/someone joins the meeting, and it is automatically uploaded to the cloud after the meeting is over. The host doesn't need to be present for the recording to start. Alternatively, recordings can be done manually during a Zoom meeting, but the steps will need to be repeated each session for a recording to occur and be uploaded.


Enabling Automatic Recordings When Scheduling Meetings

  1. Begin to schedule a meeting and select Settings.
  2. Navigate to Advanced Options.
  3. Check Automatically record meeting
  4. Click In the cloud
  5. Click Save and continue scheduling the meetings.

Zoom meeting advanced settings

Manual Recordings During a Meeting

  1. Be in the Zoom meeting
  2. Click the More button on the Zoom meeting toolbar
  3. Click Record
  4. Select Record to the cloud from the menu
  5. Click Continue on the pop-up asking for permission to record to the cloud.
  6. To stop recording: Click the Record button on the toolbar and select Stop recording from the menu OR end the meeting for all. 

Zoom meeting record button


Finding Recordings

Through Canvas 

  1. Be on the Canvas course page for the meeting you're looking for.
  2. Click Zoom Meeting on the left-hand menu.
  3. Click the Cloud Recordings tab.
  4. Click the desired recording to access it. Recordings can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer.

Canvas Zoom Cloud Recordings Tab

Through the Zoom Webpage

  1. Log in to illinois.zoom.us
  2. Click Recordings on the left-hand menu.
  3. Click the Cloud Recordings tab.
  4. Click the desired recording to access it. Recordings can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer.

Zoom web portal cloud recording tab

*If your recording is locked behind a password, locate the recording in illinois.zoom.us, and select ShareShare Settings and leave the Passcode option unchecked. Further information on managing cloud recordings can be found in Zoom's "Managing and sharing cloud recordings" article.

Guide for Students/Participants

  1. Go to your Canvas Course Space
  2. Select the Zoom tab from the left side menu
  3. Click the Cloud Recordings tab.
  4. Click the desired recording to access it. Recordings can be viewed online or downloaded to your computer.

Note: After 30 days, the original Zoom cloud recordings are automatically deleted, but a copy should remain in the associated Illinois Media Space Account. After the original is deleted in Zoom, you may have to contact your instructor to access those recordings. 

Additional Resources



Keywords:
Recording, Recordings, Zoom, Instructor*, Mediaspace, canvas, class, meeting 
Doc ID:
128320
Owned by:
iSchool U. in School of Information Sciences
Created:
2023-05-16
Updated:
2026-07-30
Sites:
University of Illinois School of Information Sciences