Zoom Transcript Import
MeetingMind supports Zoom transcripts in both .vtt and .txt formats. How you get the transcript depends on your Zoom plan.
Free Plan (Basic)
Zoom's free plan doesn't include cloud recordings or automatic transcription, but you can still get transcripts using live captions.
Enable Live Captions
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal
- Go to Settings → Meeting → In Meeting (Advanced)
- Enable Automated captions
- Optionally enable Save captions to let participants save the transcript
Save Transcript During a Meeting
- Start or join a meeting on the desktop app
- Click Show Captions (or CC) in the toolbar
- Click the ^ arrow next to the captions button
- Select View full transcript to open the transcript panel
- At the bottom of the transcript panel, click Save Transcript
- Zoom saves a
.txtfile to your local machine (typically in the meeting's recording folder underDocuments/Zoom)
Where's the file?
The saved transcript is usually at:
- Mac:
~/Documents/Zoom/[Meeting Name]/[date]/ - Windows:
Documents\Zoom\[Meeting Name]\[date]\
Look for a file ending in .txt.
Import into MeetingMind
Option A: Folder watcher (recommended)
- Set up a folder watcher pointed at a folder in your vault
- Copy the
.txtfile into your watched folder - MeetingMind imports it automatically
Option B: Manual import
- Press
Cmd/Ctrl + P - Run MeetingMind: Import file
- Select the
.txttranscript file
Paid Plans (Pro / Business / Enterprise)
Paid Zoom plans include cloud recording with automatic audio transcription, which generates higher-quality .vtt transcript files with timestamps and speaker labels.
Enable Audio Transcription
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal
- Go to Settings → Recording
- Enable Cloud recording
- Under cloud recording settings, enable Audio transcript
- Meetings you record to the cloud will now be automatically transcribed
Record Your Meeting
- During a meeting, click Record → Record to the Cloud
- After the meeting ends, Zoom processes the recording and generates the transcript
- You'll receive an email when the recording and transcript are ready (usually a few minutes)
Download the Transcript
- Go to zoom.us/recording (or Recordings in the Zoom web portal)
- Find your meeting and click on it
- Hover over Audio Transcript and click the download icon (↓)
- Zoom downloads a
.vttfile
VTT is the best format
The .vtt file from cloud recordings includes timestamps and speaker identification, which gives MeetingMind more to work with — better participant tracking, accurate duration calculation, and richer auto-linking context.
Import into MeetingMind
Option A: Folder watcher (recommended)
- Set up a folder watcher pointed at a folder in your vault
- Move or copy the downloaded
.vttfile into your watched folder - MeetingMind imports it automatically
Option B: Manual import
- Press
Cmd/Ctrl + P - Run MeetingMind: Import file
- Select the
.vtttranscript file
Comparison
| Feature | Free Plan (.txt) | Paid Plan (.vtt) |
|---|---|---|
| Timestamps | ❌ | ✅ |
| Speaker labels | Partial (depends on captions) | ✅ |
| Automatic after meeting | ❌ (manual save required) | ✅ (cloud processing) |
| Quality | Basic (live caption accuracy) | Higher (post-processed) |
| MeetingMind compatibility | ✅ | ✅ (recommended) |
Tips
- Name your meetings in Zoom before recording — MeetingMind uses the filename to extract the meeting title
- Use the
.vttformat whenever possible for the richest import - For the best experience, pair with AI Enrichment (Pro) to get summaries, action items, and vault-aware linking from your Zoom transcripts
- If you use the folder watcher, you can set up a workflow to automatically move Zoom transcripts to your vault's watch folder
Troubleshooting
"No transcript found" or empty import
- Make sure captions were enabled before the meeting started
- For cloud recordings, wait for the processing email before downloading
- Check that the file isn't empty (open it in a text editor)
Speakers showing as "Unknown"
- The
.txtformat from live captions may not include speaker names consistently - For better speaker detection, use cloud recording (
.vttformat) on a paid plan - Ensure participants have their display names set in Zoom
Transcript is missing parts of the meeting
- Live captions only capture audio that Zoom can detect — poor audio quality, crosstalk, or muted microphones will result in gaps
- Cloud transcription is generally more complete than live captions