Manage Teams recording expiration policy

Recordings and transcripts automatically expire

This setting allows you to manage storage by reducing the space that older recordings and transcripts use. OneDrive and SharePoint automatically monitor the expiration settings for all recordings and transcripts, moving them to the recycle bin once they reach their expiration date.

You can turn off the Recordings and transcriptions automatically expire setting in the Teams admin center under Meetings > Meeting policies > Recording & transcription.

Default expiration time

This setting controls whether recordings and transcripts automatically expire. After turning on Recordings and transcriptions automatically expire, you'll get the option to set the Default expiration time, measured in days. Meeting recordings and transcripts have a default expiration time of 120 days.

Any changes to this setting only affect newly created recordings and transcripts. You can't change the expiration time on existing meeting recordings and transcripts.

The expiration value is an integer for days that you can set as follows:

• Minimum value: 1
• Maximum value: 99999
• -1 (PowerShell only) so the recordings and transcripts never expire

To set the expiration time using PowerShell, run the following command:

Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -Identity <policy name> -NewMeetingRecordingExpirationDays <days>

Recovering expired recordings

Users will see a banner message with "The recording is currently unavailable. Please check with organizer whether it’s still being uploaded, has expired, or has been deleted." on the meeting recap page once expired. Users may also report that the recording is missing or need assistance to recover a deleted recording.

The storage location depends on the meeting type:

• Non-channel meetings are stored in the meeting organizer’s OneDrive.
• Channel meetings are stored in the channel’s SharePoint site.

When the recording is expired, it will be moved to the Recycle Bin of where the recording was saved. Recovering files is time sensitive. Once recordings are purged from recycle, they cannot be recovered.

Restore deleted files or folders from OneDrive

Determine which participant's OneDrive the recording was originally saved to. Generally, the recording is saved in the Organizer's OneDrive. For more details please review Teams meeting recording and transcript storage and permissions in OneDrive and SharePoint. That user can use the OneDrive recycle bin to recover deleted recordings. For additional details, please review Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive.

Go to the OneDrive website, and sign in with either your Microsoft account or your work or school account.

1. In the navigation pane, select Recycle bin.

2. Select the files or folders you want to restore by pointing to each item and clicking the circle check box that appears, and then click Restore.

Restore recordings that were deleted from OneDrive on your computer

If you deleted the files or folders from your OneDrive on your local computer, check your Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac) to see if your files are there.

• To restore files from your Recycle Bin in Windows, open the Recycle Bin, select the files or folders you want to recover, then right-click them and select Restore. The file or folder will be restored to its original folder.

• To restore files from your Trash on a Mac, open the Trash, select the files or folders you want to recover, then right-click them and select Put back. The file or folder will be restored to its original folder.

Restore deleted files or folders from SharePoint Site

For Teams channel meetings, recordings are stored in SharePoint site. For additional details, please review Use the SharePoint recycle bin.

You can restore items that you delete and items other people delete (as long as you have edit permissions).

1. Go to the SharePoint site that the items were deleted from. (In Microsoft Teams, from the Files tab at the top of your channel, select More > Open in SharePoint.)

2. In the Quick Launch bar navigation on the bottom left of the screen, click Recycle bin.

   If you don't see the Recycle bin on the Quick Launch bar, follow these steps:

   1. Click Settings Office 365 Settings button, and then click Site contents.

   2. The recycle bin is in the top right portion of the Site Contents page.

3. On the Recycle bin page, click the box to the left of the items or files you want to restore.

4. Click Restore.

5. When an item is restored, it is restored to the same location that it was deleted from.