Record video during screen sharing is not working

Hi there,

This is a really common point of confusion, and the short answer is: those two settings don't do what most people expect them to do together.

Here's what's actually happening:

**"Record video during screen sharing"** — This ensures that participant video feeds are captured in the recording while someone is screen sharing. Without this, the recording would only show the shared screen.

**"Show video and screen share side by side"** — This is a **local viewer setting**, not a recording layout setting. It controls how participants *see* the meeting on their own screen during a live session (screen share on one side, speaker video on the other). It does not affect how the recording is rendered.

**Why your recording only shows you side-by-side when you stop sharing:**

When you're actively screen sharing, Zoom's recording engine prioritizes the shared content as the main view and places participant videos as small thumbnails (usually top-right). When you stop sharing, the layout switches back to speaker/gallery view, which is when you see yourself prominently.

This is expected behavior — not a bug.

**What you can do to get a side-by-side look in recordings:**

1. **Use Cloud Recording + Recording Layouts (if available on your plan):** Cloud recordings offer layout options. Check Zoom web portal → Settings → Recording → look for "Recording Layout" options. Some plans allow you to choose Active Speaker with shared screen, or Gallery View with shared screen.

2. **Use a virtual camera/OBS workaround:** Run OBS Studio with a scene that composites your webcam and your screen share side by side, then share the OBS output as your screen in Zoom. This gives you full control over the layout in the recording.

3. **Post-production:** Record the screen share and your webcam as separate sources (some tools like OBS can do this natively), then combine them side by side in editing.

The cleanest native option is the cloud recording layout setting — I'd check if that's available and enabled for your account first.

Hope that clears it up — let me know if you need help with any of these options!

Thanks so much. My problem is that my cloud recordings are NOT capturing me on video whenever I am screen sharing. I don't mind if it’s side by side or up in the corner. Anywhere is fine - because at the moment the video of me disappears while screen sharing - but records me no problem before/after screen sharing. 

This is actually a known Zoom behavior. Even with “record video during screen sharing” enabled, the recorder can prioritize the shared screen depending on layout and recording mode (especially cloud vs local).

Try checking your cloud recording layout options or switching modes to see if the camera feed is retained.