A meeting is missing other people's voices
Last updated Checked against NoteOwl 1.0.0
NoteOwl hears the other people on a call through your Mac's audio, so a meeting with only your side means that audio didn't reach NoteOwl. Check the Others channel on the Meeting Scribe screen while you record, make sure the call is playing on this Mac, and check that NoteOwl has the macOS Screen & System Audio Recording permission.
Recording meetings is part of NoteOwl Pro.
Why is the other side missing from my meeting?
NoteOwl records two channels: your microphone, labelled You, and your Mac's audio, labelled Others. The people on a call reach NoteOwl through your Mac's audio. If nothing arrived on Others, the transcript has only what your microphone heard.
NoteOwl gets your Mac's audio from macOS through the Screen & System Audio Recording permission, shown in NoteOwl as Screen Recording. It records the sound the apps on this Mac play, apart from NoteOwl's own, so a call on your phone or another computer isn't part of it.
How do I check what NoteOwl is recording?
While a meeting records, open Meeting Scribe and look at the Capture section. It lists You (Microphone) and Others (System audio), each with its status.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting for audio… | The meeting has just started and nothing has arrived yet |
| Recorded and a time, such as Recorded 4:12 | Audio is arriving on this channel |
| Stalled at and a time | Audio arrived, then stopped arriving |
| No audio on this channel | Nothing has arrived on this channel since the meeting started |
If people are talking on the call and Others says No audio on this channel or Stalled at, NoteOwl isn't getting your Mac's audio, and their words won't be in the transcript. The channels are shown only while a meeting is recording.
Turn on Screen & System Audio Recording
To check first, open NoteOwl's Settings and click General. Under Privacy & Access, Screen Recording says Granted when it's on.
- Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
- Click Privacy & Security, then Screen & System Audio Recording.
- Turn on NoteOwl. If NoteOwl isn't in the list, click +, choose NoteOwl in your Applications folder, and turn it on. macOS may ask for your password.
- If macOS says NoteOwl may not be able to record until it is quit, choose Quit & Reopen. Otherwise, quit NoteOwl from its menu bar icon with Quit NoteOwl, then open it again.
- Start a meeting with Start Meeting or ⌥ Space. Once the call's audio plays, Others in the Capture section says Recorded and a time.
What if the meeting doesn't start at all?
Then NoteOwl couldn't open your microphone or your Mac's audio, and nothing was recorded. NoteOwl says Meeting capture needs Screen Recording & Microphone access. Turn on Screen & System Audio Recording and Microphone for NoteOwl, quit and reopen NoteOwl, then start the meeting again.
What if Others still gets no audio?
Check where the call is playing. NoteOwl records this Mac's audio, so it can't hear a call taking place on your phone, a tablet or another computer, even one in the same room.
- Play the call on this Mac. Join it from an app or a browser on this Mac, so its sound is part of your Mac's audio.
- Reopen NoteOwl after changing the permission. macOS applies Screen & System Audio Recording when NoteOwl starts.
- Start a new meeting if Others stalls partway through. NoteOwl connects to your Mac's audio when a meeting starts and doesn't reconnect during it. Stop the meeting and start a new one to record the rest of the call. If NoteOwl is still processing the first meeting, click Cancel processing to start sooner. The first meeting keeps its recording, and you can rebuild it later with Retry from audio.
Why are the people in the room labelled You?
NoteOwl labels everything your microphone hears as You, and splits only your Mac's audio into Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on. People in the room with you are heard through your microphone, so their words appear under You.
Can I get the missing voices back?
Only if their audio was recorded. Retry from audio rebuilds a meeting's transcript, speakers and summary from the recording saved on your Mac. It can't add voices that never reached NoteOwl, so a meeting where Others got no audio can't gain the other side.
If you can hear the other people when you play the recording at the top of the meeting, but their words are missing from the transcript, click Retry from audio, under the meeting's title. It replaces the meeting's transcript with a new one made from the recording. See recover a meeting after a crash or power loss.
Still not working?
Email support@noteowl.ai with your macOS version, the app your call was in, and what the Capture section showed beside Others. For the channels and everything else a meeting records, see record a meeting on your Mac.
Common questions
Does NoteOwl record only my side of a meeting if Screen Recording is off?
No. Without the Screen & System Audio Recording permission, a NoteOwl meeting doesn't start at all, and NoteOwl says Meeting capture needs Screen Recording & Microphone access. Turn the permission on for NoteOwl, quit and reopen NoteOwl, then start the meeting again.
Can Retry from audio add the missing voices to a NoteOwl meeting?
Only if their audio was recorded. Retry from audio rebuilds a NoteOwl meeting from the recording saved on your Mac, so it can bring back words whose audio was saved, but it can't add voices that never reached NoteOwl.
Dictation or meetings record silence
If NoteOwl says Didn't catch anything or Microphone unavailable, turn on Microphone for NoteOwl in System Settings, check your input, then reopen NoteOwl.
Calendar or Contacts prompt doesn't appear
macOS asks about Calendar or Contacts only when you click Connect or Grant in NoteOwl. If you said no before, turn access on in System Settings instead.