Where Zoom saves your recording
Zoom has two kinds of recording, and the file ends up in a different place for each.
Local recordings are saved to the computer that recorded the meeting. By default they go to a folder called Zoom inside Documents, with one subfolder per meeting. When the meeting ends, Zoom converts the recording, so wait for that to finish before you look for the files. Inside the folder you will usually find an MP4 video and a separate M4A file with the audio only.
Cloud recordings are available on paid Zoom plans. They are stored by Zoom, and you download them from the Recordings section of the Zoom web portal. The files listed there are typically the video as MP4 and, if that option is enabled in your recording settings, an audio-only M4A.
MP4 or M4A: which file to upload
Both work, and both give the same transcript, because only the sound is transcribed. The M4A is the better choice when you have it. It holds the same audio as the MP4 without the video, so it is a fraction of the size and uploads much faster, which matters on hotel Wi-Fi or a long webinar. Use the MP4 if it is the only file you have, for example when a colleague shared the cloud recording as a video.
If you plan to publish the Zoom video with captions, upload whichever is quicker. The SRT or VTT file you export lines up with the original video's timing, since both files come from the same recording.
Uploads are sent in parts. If the connection drops halfway through a large MP4, press Retry and it continues from where it stopped instead of starting again.
Zoom settings that improve the transcript
A few things in Zoom affect transcription quality more than people expect:
- Ask people to use a headset or earbuds with a mic. Laptop microphones pick up typing and room echo.
- Keep Zoom's background noise suppression on. It removes keyboard clatter and fan noise before the audio is recorded.
- If one person is in a meeting room with several others, that room's microphone carries everyone in it. Those voices will be quieter and harder to separate than people joining individually.
- Local recording has an option to record a separate audio file for each participant. If you turn it on, you can transcribe one person's file on its own, which is useful when you only need what one speaker said.
- Ask people to unmute and speak one at a time. Overlapping voices are the main source of errors in call transcripts.
After the upload
You get the full transcript in timestamped paragraphs, with a player that follows along as you listen. Click any line to jump to that point. Check names, product terms and figures, and correct them in place.
For a meeting with several people, speaker identification labels who said what. It is available on paid plans (Plus, Unlimited) or with a Minute Pack, not on Free or the no-sign-up trial. Enter the number of participants who spoke if you know it, then rename Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on to real names once and the whole transcript updates.
Then export for the next step: DOCX for meeting notes, PDF to file away, TXT or Copy for a quick paste, SRT or VTT to caption the recorded video, or the AI prompt export if you want ChatGPT or Claude to draft a summary from it. A read-only share link lets attendees read the transcript without an account.
Zoom's own transcript versus uploading the file
Some paid Zoom plans can create an audio transcript for cloud recordings. If yours does and it covers your needs, use it. Uploading the file here is useful when you only have a local recording, when the meeting was in a language Zoom does not handle well, when you need Word, PDF or subtitle exports, or when you want to correct the text against a synced player. RocketScribe has no Zoom integration, so it never sees your account. It only sees the file you upload.