# A meeting is missing other people's voices > If a NoteOwl meeting has your words but not the other people's, check the Others channel, Screen & System Audio Recording, and where the call is playing. Source: https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/troubleshooting/meeting-missing-other-voices · Last updated 2026-09-27 · 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. 1. Open **System Settings** from the Apple menu. 2. Click **Privacy & Security**, then **Screen & System Audio Recording**. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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](https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/meetings/recover-a-meeting). ## 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](https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/meetings/record-a-meeting). ## 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. ## Related - [Record a meeting on your Mac](https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/meetings/record-a-meeting): Record any call on your Mac with NoteOwl and no bot. Press ⌥Space or Start Meeting; the transcript, summary and action items are written when you stop. - [macOS permissions NoteOwl asks for, and why](https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/reference/permissions): The macOS permissions NoteOwl asks for, from Microphone and Input Monitoring to Screen Recording and Calendar, what each is for, and how to turn it on. - [Recover a meeting after a crash or power loss](https://www.noteowl.ai/docs/meetings/recover-a-meeting): NoteOwl saves a meeting's audio to disk as it records. After a crash, a force quit or a flat battery, Retry from audio rebuilds the transcript and notes.