Convert Teams recording to MP4
Teams meeting recordings are already MP4, but their SharePoint / OneDrive origin brings quirks: fast-start missing, sometimes VP9 codec (unplayable in older Windows apps), and permissioned download links that break the moment you share them outside your tenant. Wave handles the container side of all three.
What actually changes
Modern Teams (post-October 2020 Stream migration) records meetings to OneDrive for personal meetings or the SharePoint site of the associated Team, always as .mp4 with H.264 video and AAC audio. The recording downloads cleanly from the OneDrive/SharePoint web UI. That file plays anywhere it needs to - once you fix its two subtle issues: the file's index (the moov atom) sits at the tail of the file rather than the front (which breaks fast-start playback on mobile browsers and inline chat previews), and old Stream (Classic) exports sometimes shipped with VP9 video inside the MP4 wrapper, which no consumer player accepts.
The moov-at-tail issue is the same one Zoom recordings have (see Zoom recording to MP4). Fast-start-aware players buffer the whole file to find the codec configuration before starting playback. On a 3 GB Teams recording downloaded from SharePoint that's a two-minute stall on mobile. Wave rewrites the moov atom to the front with no re-encoding - the video and audio samples are copied through untouched, only the container index moves.
Old Stream (Classic) videos, migrated to OneDrive/SharePoint between 2021 and 2024, sometimes preserved their original VP9 codec inside the MP4 container. This is a container / codec mismatch (see Codecs vs containers): VP9-in-MP4 is legal on paper but iOS, macOS QuickTime, and Windows Media Foundation all refuse it. Wave detects VP9 sources and re-encodes to H.264 through WebCodecs. Newer Teams recordings are always H.264, so this branch only triggers on migrated legacy content.
Permissioned SharePoint download links are a separate problem Wave doesn't solve. When you share a Teams recording link with someone outside your tenant, they hit an authentication wall unless you've explicitly enabled external sharing on the file. Once they successfully download the MP4, Wave handles the container fixes; the sharing-permissions piece is a Teams admin task.
Three steps.
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Step 1
Download your Teams recording from the OneDrive or SharePoint page it landed on (right-click → Download).
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Step 2
Drop the .mp4 onto Wave. Wave detects H.264 (modern Teams) or VP9 (legacy Stream) and picks fast-start rewrite or re-encode.
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Step 3
Save the output. The MP4 now plays inline in mobile browsers, fast-starts in chat previews, and opens in older Windows video pipelines.
Answers, specifically.
My Teams recording is already MP4 - what is Wave fixing?
The moov atom placement. Teams writes it at the tail of the file, so fast-start-aware players (mobile browsers, Slack inline previews, most cloud storage embeds) stall until they buffer the whole file. Wave moves the moov to the front without touching a frame - the same MP4 now fast-starts everywhere.
The video codec inside is VP9 - why?
That means the recording started in the old Microsoft Stream (Classic) service that Microsoft retired in 2024. Stream Classic used VP9 for a while; when the migration to OneDrive/SharePoint happened, existing VP9 videos kept their codec inside the new MP4 container. Wave re-encodes VP9 to H.264 for compatibility. New Teams recordings are always H.264.
Can I download a Teams recording without opening the SharePoint page?
The Teams desktop client shows a download link in the chat where the recording was posted. That link goes to the same SharePoint URL - just a shortcut. Users outside your tenant need explicit external sharing permission on the file, granted by the meeting organizer or a SharePoint admin.
How large can Teams recordings get?
A 90-minute HD Teams recording is typically 1-2 GB. Recordings of large meetings with many active videos can hit 4-5 GB. Wave handles up to 8 GB; above that, use ffmpeg locally: `ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -movflags +faststart output.mp4`.
Are speaker separate audio tracks preserved?
No. Teams cloud recordings mix all participant audio into a single stereo track. The pre-migration Stream Classic had multi-track for some tenants; the current post-migration flow does not offer per-speaker tracks in the downloaded MP4.
Captions / transcripts?
Teams stores captions as a separate .vtt file next to the MP4 in SharePoint. Wave doesn't bake captions into the video; download the .vtt separately and use a captions-friendly player (VLC, macOS QuickTime with the .srt companion, YouTube upload) to display them.
Meeting was recorded in a Teams Rooms device - anything different?
No. Teams Rooms recordings save to the same SharePoint location with the same MP4 format. The camera geometry might be different (Teams Rooms often uses 21:9 wide angles) but the container and codec are standard.