access to expired Teams meeting recordings

Hi @Fiona Chu,

Thank you for posting your question to Microsoft Q&A Forum.

In most cases, you can recover an expired recording, as long as it has not been permanently deleted. According to Manage Teams recording policies for meetings and events - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn, Teams meeting recordings automatically expire, typically after 90 days unless the expiration is manually changed. When a recording reaches its expiration date, it is moved to either the OneDrive or SharePoint recycle bin depending on where it was originally stored: OneDrive for standard meetings and SharePoint for channel meetings. Once expired, the file can still be recovered, but only within a 93‑day window before it is permanently deleted.

To determine where an expired recording can be recovered, you first need to know how the original meeting was created.

1. If the meeting was scheduled (non‑channel meeting)

Recordings are saved in the meeting organizer’s OneDrive under: /Recordings/. You can find the recordings at:

1. Go to the organizer’s OneDrive.
2. Open Recycle bin.
3. Look for the deleted recording.
4. Restore it.

You can find more information about it at: Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive - Microsoft Support

2. If the meeting was a Teams Channel meeting

Recordings are stored in the Team's SharePoint site: <SiteName>/Documents/Recordings/

1. Open the SharePoint site for the Team.
2. Go to Recycle bin (site-level recycle bin).
3. Restore the recording.

Recovering a recording from the recycle bin permanently removes its expiration date, ensuring it will not auto‑expire again. Watching or viewing the recording has no impact on the expiration timer, which continues to count down normally. If more than 93 days have passed since the recording was deleted, it is permanently lost and cannot be restored. In rare situations, even when it is known that a recording once existed, internal logs may confirm that it is no longer recoverable due to standard log‑retention limits and automatic deletion once the recovery window has passed.

I hope this provides enough clarity and helps you stay inform with your current situation.

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Once a Teams meeting recording has expired, it is typically moved to the recycle bin, where the file owner is notified via email. They can recover the recording from the recycle bin if needed. However, if the recording has been permanently deleted from the recycle bin, it cannot be accessed anymore.

To recover an expired recording, follow these steps:

1. Check the recycle bin in OneDrive or SharePoint, depending on where the recording was stored.
2. If the recording is found, you can restore it to its original location.
3. If it is not in the recycle bin, unfortunately, it cannot be retrieved.

For more information on managing recordings and their expiration, you can refer to the relevant documentation.