The recording is silent, or only one side is there
Recordstead records two separate tracks: what the other app plays, and what your microphone hears. Almost every silence complaint is one of the two, and which one it is decides what to check. Audio that was not captured cannot be recovered, so this page is about the next recording.
If the meeting says Recording incomplete, play the audio that remains. The notice by playback tells you which side may be missing; once the audio is gone, it sits above the transcript instead. If both sources are in the saved mix but a separate track failed, the notice says speaker samples may be limited, and it goes away if Recordstead saves that track later. When audio is actually missing, the status stays after you reopen or process the meeting again, and after audio retention ends. A recording without this status can still have been silent: older meetings have no capture history, and a quiet source is different from a failed file write.
After an interrupted recording, reopen Recordstead with its storage available. It can finish saving a captured app track even if the mix was not completed before the interruption. Play the recovered meeting to check which voices are present.
If there is nothing to play back at all, this is the wrong page: by default, a transcribed meeting's recording is deleted after seven days, and the meeting says which day on its first step. See where things are stored.
If you used Live Transcript Only, nothing was recorded; that mode keeps no audio.
Which side is missing
Section titled “Which side is missing”Play the recording back and listen for your own voice.
You can hear yourself, not them
Section titled “You can hear yourself, not them”The app track may be missing or silent. If the meeting says Recording incomplete, follow its notice first: a storage failure and a permission failure need different fixes. Otherwise, check System Audio Recording:
- Open Settings (⌘,) › Advanced and read the Permissions section.
- If the System Audio Recording row reads Denied. Click to open System Settings., that is the answer. Follow You said no to a permission and need to undo it.
- If it reads Required. macOS asks the first time you record a call., Recordstead has not recorded since it last opened, so the row cannot tell yet. Make a short test recording, then read the row again.
- If it reads Granted and the other side is still missing, switch Recordstead off and back on for System Audio Recording in System Settings › Privacy & Security, then make a short test recording.
You can hear them, not yourself
Section titled “You can hear them, not yourself”The microphone track is missing.
- Check the Microphone row in the same Permissions section.
- If it reads Denied. Click to open System Settings., follow You said no to a permission and need to undo it. If it reads Granted, check which input device is selected in Settings › Audio, and whether the microphone has a hardware mute switch. If the picker says None (app audio only), choose System Default or a device.
Both are silent
Section titled “Both are silent”Check the permission rows first. Two independent failures at once is far less likely than one permission that was never granted.
Recordstead usually tells you during the call
Section titled “Recordstead usually tells you during the call”If one track goes quiet while the other keeps producing sound, you get a Capture Channel Silent notification naming the side that stopped, and what to check:
Check the app's audio output and the System Audio Recording permission.
or
Check that the microphone isn't muted or disconnected.
If nothing at all is arriving, the notification is Recording Appears Silent instead.
This watch is on by default and can be switched off in Settings › Audio, as Detect silent capture channel. Capture Channel Silent reacts to one side being quiet while the other is not. Recording Appears Silent fires when both sides stay near silent for the time set in Warn after.
A file write failure also changes the menu bar icon and keeps the failing source in the first line of its panel during the call. A notification is an additional alert. This status is independent of Detect silent capture channel. Check available storage, then make a short test recording. If the same side fails again, check its permission as described above and collect diagnostics from Settings › Advanced.
Confirm the fix
Section titled “Confirm the fix”Make a short recording of any app that is playing sound and play it back, rather than waiting for the next real meeting to find out.