Saving in-meeting chat

You can save in-meeting chats to your computer or the Zoom Cloud either manually or automatically using the Zoom desktop client. If you save the chat locally to your computer, it will save any chats that you can see—those sent directly to you and those sent to everyone in the meeting or webinar. If you save the chat to the cloud, it will only save chats that were sent to everyone and messages sent while you were cloud recording.

This articles covers:

• How to save in-meeting chat manually
• How to auto-save in-meeting chat
• How to save in-meeting chat to the Zoom cloud
  • Set chats to save on the cloud
  • Access your saved in-meeting chats on the cloud
• How to access your saved in-meeting chat in the computer default save location
  • View the local recording path
  • Change the default save location

Prerequisites for saving in-meeting chat

• Zoom desktop client for Windows, macOS, or Linux: Global minimum version or higher
• Licensed user with cloud recording enabled (for saving chat to the Zoom Cloud)

How to save in-meeting chat manually

Before you can save your in-meeting chat manually, you must have the Chat setting enabled with the Allow users to save chats from the meeting check box selected. When you save your in-meeting chat during the meeting, it will save locally to your computer.

To save in-meeting chat manually:

1. Join or start a meeting.
2. During the meeting, click Chat .
3. At the bottom of the chat window, click the ellipses , then click Save Chat.
   This will save your chat to your local recording location. The default is your Documents folder / Zoom / Folder with meeting name, date, and time.

Note: Under the (enabled) Chat setting, if the Allow users to save chats from the meeting check box is deselected, this prevents all meeting participants, including the host, from saving the chat transcript. 

How to auto-save in-meeting chat

Hosts can automatically save all in-meeting chats so that they do not need to manually save the text of the chat after the meeting starts. Before automatically saving in-meeting chats, hosts must enable the Meeting Chat - Auto-save setting.

Note: Auto-saving chat will only auto-save for the host; thus, the host has to be present in the meeting for a local chat transcript to be saved.

How to save in-meeting chat to the Zoom cloud

If you are a licensed user with cloud recording enabled, you can choose to save your in-meeting chat to the Zoom Cloud when you cloud record.

Set chats to save on the cloud

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3. Click the Recording tab.
4. Under Recording, click the Cloud recording toggle to enable or disable it.
5. If a verification dialog displays, click Enable or Disable to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at either the group or account level. You need to contact your Zoom admin.
6. Under Cloud recording, select the Save chat messages from the meeting / webinar check box.
7. Under Advanced cloud recording settings, select the Save panelist chat to the recording check box to allow more files to save from the webinar.
   The messages sent by panelists during a webinar to either all panelists or all panelists and attendees will be saved to the recording.
8. Click Save.

Note: In the meeting, you will need to start the cloud recording to save the chat or enable automatic cloud recording. 

Access your saved in-meeting chats on the cloud

Access your meeting recording through either of the following ways:

• You will receive an email when your cloud recording is available. Click the link in the email to download or view your recording.
• To access your saved in-meetings chats on the cloud after the recording is done processing:
  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Recordings.
  3. Click the Cloud Recordings tab.
  4. Click the meeting topic.
     This will show all files for your meeting. You can download, share, or delete the TXT file called Chat file.
     

How to access your saved in-meeting chat in the computer default save location

The in-meeting chat will be saved to your local recording location. The default is your Documents folder / Zoom / Folder with meeting name, date and time.

View the local recording path

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Click your profile picture, then click Settings .
3. Click Recording.
   By Store my recording at, this will list the selected default recording path.

Change the default save location

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Click your profile picture, then click Settings .
3. Click Recording.
4. Under Local Recording, click Change and select a new file location.

Note: We do not recommend using a network or cloud drive location, as this may cause file corruption if the connection is disrupted.