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Common Zoom Notetaker Capturing Errors
Common Zoom Notetaker Capturing Errors

Common situations that prevent notetaker from capturing on zoom.

Peter Boshard Olson avatar
Written by Peter Boshard Olson
Updated this week

Host is using the web client

One limitation of the Zoom web client is that it currently doesn't support prompting the host for local recording permission. This means that if the host is on the web client, the bot won't be able to prompt the host and capture the meeting.

To fix this issue, the host should switch to using the Zoom Desktop app (on Windows, Mac, or Linux).

If you don't want to use the Zoom Desktop app, you can use the Zoom OAuth integration to allow bots to capture regardless of the Zoom client the host is using.

Host was not present

Sometimes the Notetaker joins a meeting but is unable to capture because it never asked for permission. In this case, this means the host was not present and thus was unable to grant recording permissions to the bot.

In general, if the meeting host does not show up to the call, the only way for the bot to get permission is through the Zoom API if the host has connected their account via OAuth. If it’s a common situation for the host to not show up, you may want to look into this flow so the bot is able to capture in these circumstances.

We can provide a Zoom OAuth Integration to make it easy for the bot to get recording permission through the API.
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The host's local recording setting is disabled

If the host's global local recording setting is disabled, the bot will fail to capture the meeting.

In this case, the bot will have a Recording Permission Denied event with a zoom_local_recording_disabled Sub Code.

How to fix: Make sure the Host enables their global user-level local recording setting in their Zoom user settings:

The host has disabled permitting participants to record locally

In this case, the host has their global local recording setting enabled, but they can't grant participants permission to capture locally, which is needed for Notetaker to record.

The Notetaker will emit a Recording Permission Denied event with a zoom_local_recording_request_disabled Sub Code.

How to fix: Host should enable this setting by checking the box labelled:

Advanced local recording settings > Hosts can give meeting participants permission to record locally **

The host has disabled requesting recording permission within the current call

If the host has the proper user-level recording settings set up properly on the Zoom website, but has disabled the option to allow participants to request local recording within the call, the bot will not be able to capture the meeting.

In this case, the bot will emit a Recording Permission Denied event with a zoom_local_recording_request_disabled_by_host Sub Code.

How to fix: Host should enable this setting within the call:
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The password for the meeting is not included in the Zoom link

The Notetaker may not be able to enter a meeting if the meeting is passcode-protected and the passcode is not embedded in the Zoom URL.

To determine whether the passcode is embedded in a Zoom URL, check in the URL for the presence of "pwd=" followed by a series of letters and numbers. For example, a Zoom URL with a passcode embedded might look like https://zoom.us/j/100000000?pwd=MMeetotestf9022 instead of https://zoom.us/j/100000000.

To enable embedding the passcode for a meeting into the Zoom URL by default, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.

  2. In the navigation menu on the left-hand side of the page, click on Settings.

  3. Click the Meeting tab.

  4. Under Security, click the Embed passcode in invite link for one-click join toggle to enable it.

  5. If a verification dialog appears, 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. Contact your Zoom admin.

Your passcode-protected Zoom meetings should now have URLs that include pwd=.

Zoom internal error

On rare occasions, the Notetaker may fail to enter a call with a zoom_internal_error sub code.

Unfortunately this means something went wrong on Zoom's end, and we have limited visibility into the underlying error. We do our best to handle these errors internally through retries but on rare occasions this error can cause the Notetaker to fail.

If you're seeing this error recur for a certain situation or user, please let us know and we can raise the issue with Zoom.
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Host never received the recording consent popup

In certain cases, a user may report that the notetaker never captured any data and they never received a recording consent popup to grant recording permissions.

When this happens:

  • The Notetaker will not have a recording_permission_allowed nor a recording_permission_deniedevent

  • None of the meeting_participants on the bot will have is_host as true

This is the same situation as the host not being present, but in this case, the end user that created the meeting was actually in the call.

If the host claimed they were present, but no participant is shown as the host, it's likely that the user joined the Zoom call while signed into a different Zoom user than the one that the meeting was created from.

Many users have multiple Zoom accounts and they'll need to ensure they're joining the meetings from the same account as the one they're creating meetings from. If the end user needs to support granting recording permissions from various Zoom accounts, they can assign their alternative account(s) as alternative hosts.

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