Zoom recording size

[Melissabrighs73]

Does anyone know why the size of the recording files  of a meeting would suddently be two or three times as many megabytes as previously? I have a one hour meeting that I record weekly, it is usually around 230 to 270 MB when I download it afterwards. Two weeks ago I noticed it was 492 MB, and just this past week it was 745 MB. Still just a 1 hr meeting. Does anybody know why the size of the file would be so much bigger?

[Bort]

Recording sizes can vary depending on a few factors, such as the number of participants with video on, overall video resolution of the meeting, shared screens, and the overall resolution of the shared content. 

[ChrisWoodman]

I've found that the recordings used to be in 640x360 video but are now coming down at 1920x1080 so the files are unnecessarily large for me.  Zoom must have changed some defaults without telling us.  (I appreciate that some people need the resolution but I don't, I just want to get back to reasonable file sizes.)  How can I get that changed, please?  Does anyone know?

[Madlen]

I asked about it and got no information. I keep getting the same explanation "recording sizes can vary depending on a few factors...." It is annoying. 

[abahzaky]

I got the same problem, event the size for one hour session, with 24 for participants, took more than 1 GB. Please how set the recording in small size. I appreciate your advise

[BMcMahon]

I just saw the same thing. A file from last week, session duration 1:10, shared screen with Gallery View, is 467 MB. Today's file, session duration 1:32, shared screen with Speaker View, is 1.74 GB. Is there any explanation?

[radwa_hamaky]

I am experiencing the same issue and I don’t know why some meeting exceed the 1G size where other meetings with same conditions only reach 300 M

[BMcMahon]

I've communicated with someone at Zoom regarding this, but didn't get a satisfactory answer. Only possibility so far is that some participant is using a higher resolution external camera, whose video would take more space. One of my participants does have a Logitech external camera, but she thinks she used in during both sessions that I'm comparing.

[radwa_hamaky]

Thank you BMcMahon for your reply. However i have been experiencing the same with different attendees so maybe there are other factors as well we are still not aware of . If you reach anything, I’ll appreciate if you let me know and i’ll do the same . Thanks again 🙂

[BMcMahon]

I'll be glad to alert you and the rest of this community if I ever get a definitive answer. Or even a reasonable explanation. 😊

[BMcMahon]

I still don't have a definitive answer, but I have tracked some of my recordings to compare settings and sizes. So far, I have these results. Maybe using the Recording setting for Gallery View produces smaller files than Speaker view. Can anyone else confirm that?

Time	Participants	Notes	File size, MB
1:10	About 25	Recorded with Screen sharing with Gallery View setting; screen was shared for at least 38 min. One person using external camera.	467
1:32	4	Screen sharing with Speaker View but very little screen sharing. One person using external camera.	1,7400
1:21	9	Not sure whether Gallery View or Speaker View; no screen sharing. No external camera.	452
0:58	4	Screen sharing with Speaker View; there was screen sharing. No external camera.	879
1:18	32	Screen sharing with Gallery View; screen sharing for 20 min	623

I have some other tests planned; will report back.

[ChrisWoodman]

Yes, thanks for the info BMcMahon, but the filename given to the recording indicates whether it's 640x360 or 1920x1080 so Zoom must have been making some choices for me.  I want my recordings all to be 640x360.  So how do I do that?  Does it depend if there was any screensharing I wonder?

[BMcMahon]

I started using Zoom two years ago, and most of the few files I've kept show resolution of 1280 x 720; a couple are 1920 x 1080. None are 640 x 360. I will ask my correspondent on the support staff, but he may be watching this thread. In the future, I'll make note of resolution. It certainly would make a difference.

[PyraPOD]

When I started recording with Zoom some time last year, the video dimensions stayed at 1280 x 720 for quite some time. Then it switched to 1920 x 1080 without notice for a while. Some time in May 2022, it has changed to an odd size 1472 x 720 and stays like this up to now. For me I like 1920 x 1080 but for some reason, I cannot set it.

For those who want to reduce the file size without affecting video resolution, I suggest that you install ffmpeg. With that installed, I can simply change to the Downloads folder that normally a Zoom recording is downloaded to, and then I issue the following one-line command:

ffmpeg -i ZoomRecording.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -crf 28 -preset faster -tune film ZoomRecordingSmall.mp4

That's it, as simple as that!

[matandafyomi]

has anyone recieved an answer from zoom - it is getting rediculous . my files have gone from 250 to 900?

[Madlen]

Hi, I have similar issue. I've been doing ZOOM meeting for more than 2 years now and only last month the recording capacity went way above 1GB, where before 2-hour video recording would be around 550MB and 3-hour video recording 730MB max. I wrote to customer service but got no solution only blah blah about settings. I have not changed any settings and my meetings are each month the same. 

[byKeiko]

Hi, I have similar issues and have no solution by now.

- I host meeting with my mobile phone.

- Other participants (10-15) have all video off

- One meeting lasts up to 60 min.

The recording size becomes suddenly 1920x1080 and over 5 GB, as soon as I share one single picture on screen.

The file size is about 500 KB.

If I don't share anything during the meeting, the size is up to 1 GB.

Does anyone has a solution for me?

[BMcMahon]

I am returning to this topic to report that I no longer have serious issues with recording file size. I have made my settings thus: always Gallery View with Shared Screen; other options de-selected. I do add a timestamp, display participants name, and save close caption as a VTT file.  The sessions I record always have screen sharing some of the time; the rest of the time is 'the gallery' of people talking. No annotating or other fancy stuff. Today's recording was 01:06:18 in length, with only 12 minutes of screen sharing; it involved 17 people at the most, and the file resolution (based on the file name) is 1920x1080. File size is 364 MB, which seems quite reasonable to me.

[BMcMahon]

Do any of you think that perhaps changes have been made by the company, or are you still have issues? I see that the last previous comment was left in February but otherwise nothing for over a year.

[ohiobarvideo]

So have used Zoom meeting recordings for the last few years.  450x360 wasn't great for me but it worked. Recorded a Webinar for the first time.  4054x2280 is way to big for most users/computers.  Has anyone found a way to just SET the record resolution? 

[Swilson2]

I am having the same issue. Seems like nobody else on my team is having the same problem.

[JungPontes]

Same problem here. For some time now, recordings have doubled or tripled in size. I don't understand because nothing has changed, so it can only be a change in Zoom itself