Welcome friends! Today we're going to be talking about how to upload Zoom recordings to other apps. Now, it may seem like an easy enough workflow but it’s one that can often lead to errors. Let’s take a look at how to set up this sort of workflow up and how to handle any errors you may come across!
Setup requirements
In order to be able to send a Zoom recording to another app we need to make sure the recordings aren’t password protected. The Recording settings in Zoom need to be set as follows:
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"Allow cloud recording sharing” must be set to ON
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“Only authenticated users can view cloud recordings” must be set to OFF.
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“Require password to access shared cloud recordings” must be set to OFF.
Selecting the file in your app
Now that the recording settings are sorted you’re ready to pull in a sample recording from Zoom. If the recording sample you got from Zoom isn’t right, check out this guide on how to change your sample.
Then select the download link for the recording in the action step that uploads the file. In the following example here I’m uploading the Zoom recording to Google Drive so have selected Google Drive’s Upload File action.
For the File field, we’ll want to select the Video Files Download URL field from the New Recording trigger step:
This gives the Google Drive a publicly accessible link to the Zoom recording which it can then upload. :)
How to handle multiple Zoom recordings?
If your Zoom account saves the recording in multiple formats or the recording is stopped and re-started then these the file links will come through as line items. In cases where the upload file action doesn’t support line items then you’ll need to use an app that does to workaround it.
1. Google Sheets Workaround
A good option here would be to use a Google Sheets Create Spreadsheet Row(s) action to add each file into a separate row in Google Sheets. Then you can create another Zap that triggers when a new row is added and takes the file url that was added to the row and uploads it into the relevant app.
So you’d end up with two Zaps as follows:
Zap 1
Trigger: New Recording in Zoom
Action: Create Spreadsheet Row(s) in Google Sheets
Zap 2
Trigger: New Spreadsheet Row in Google Sheets
Action: Upload File in Google Drive (or other app of your choice)
2. Looping by Zapier workaround
Or alternatively you could try using a Looping by Zapier step to upload each recording file. You can find out more about how to loop actions here: Loop your Zap actions
Uploading audio recordings
If instead of video recordings, you’re looking to upload Zoom audio recordings, do not select the Video Files Download URL field. Instead, select the Audio Files Download URL field. This field will contain the audio file recording from Zoom. For example:
Troubleshooting common errors
The app returned "Media type 'text/html;charset=utf-8' is not supported.” error
These errors typically happen when more than one recording file type is being sent from the Zoom. There are few different ways to solve this:
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Ensure your Zoom account is set up to only output a single file type for recordings. So that would mean turning off additional recording types (Managing and sharing cloud recordings)
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Use a Formatter (Utilities > Pick-From-List) step to select the link that’s first, second, or third etc. depending on which link will be the one that needs to be uploaded (Pick from a list of items in Zaps).
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Use the Google Sheets or Looping by Zapier workarounds mentioned above, to process each file recording separately.
There was a problem with your upload
Again, as with the previous error this can be down to multiple recording files being supplied. But it can also be due to the recording being password protected. This prevents the app that’s attempting to download the recording from Zoom from accessing it. In which case updating the settings in Zoom as outlined above should resolve the error going forward.
Recording is uploaded in the incorrect file format
This can sometimes happen if the wrong field has been selected so doesn’t receive a link to the file and generates a text file instead (I’ve seen this often occur with apps like Google Drive that can generate a text file based from the text entered into the File field) or is unable to correctly interpret the file type.
You’ll want to ensure that the Video Files Download URL field is selected from the New Recording trigger so that Google Drive received a publicly accessible link to the file.
Further reading
Well that’s it! I hope you’ve found this post on how to upload Zoom recordings to other apps helpful. We’d love to know how you get on with this, so please do reach out in the comments below! :)
