If captions stopped appearing on a Teams meeting recording after someone moved or copied it, that is documented behaviour, not a glitch on your machine. Microsoft states it in two different places, with two different qualifiers — and a third page describes the file moving with the video anyway. Those three sentences together explain why this problem feels so inconsistent.
Captions on a recording are not inside the video
The first thing to understand is that the captions you see during playback are not burned into the .mp4 and were never part of it.
Microsoft's support page on managing video transcripts and captions describes the storage model directly: "The captions and transcript file is stored with the video in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. This inherits the same permissions and policy as the video file, so that whoever has access to the video file has access to the captions and transcript."
Two separate files, then, that travel as a pair — and the pairing is what can come apart.
This also rules out the obvious first guess. Live captions are not the source. Teams' own support page says flatly, "Teams doesn't save captions," and its FAQ answers the question "Does Teams store any caption data?" with "No. Caption data is permanently deleted after the meeting is over." The page on playing recordings adds the consequence: "Captions aren't captured in recordings or downloads. However, you can turn them on while viewing a recording in Teams or in the browser on its Microsoft 365 video player page."
So the captions you get during playback come from the transcript file sitting next to the recording. Break that association and the video still plays perfectly — with the captions toggle doing nothing.
What the official pages actually say about moving and copying
Here are the three sentences, verbatim, because the differences between them are the whole story.
The transcript follows the file. From the same support page on managing transcripts: "If you move the video file to another location, the transcript will be moved with it. If you copy the video file, a copy of the transcript will be made and stored with it as well."
But copying can break the link. From the admin documentation on transcription and captions: "The transcription link remains for the lifetime of the file in most cases, but can be broken if the video file is copied within the same OneDrive or SharePoint site. This action would result in captions not displaying on the copied video file."
And the storage documentation draws a wider circle. From the page on recording and transcript storage and permissions: "Closed captions aren't fully supported if the Teams meeting recording is moved or copied from its original location in OneDrive or SharePoint."
Read them side by side and three things stand out:
- The qualifiers do not match. One page scopes the breakage to a copy made within the same OneDrive or SharePoint site. The other covers a recording moved or copied from its original location — a much broader set of operations.
- "Aren't fully supported" is not the same as "won't work." The storage page chose a hedge, and it does not say which part stops working.
- A copied transcript file is not the same thing as a working caption link. The first sentence says a copy of the transcript is made; the other two say captions may still fail to display. None of these three pages explains how those outcomes fit together.
The only safe way to act on that: treat any move or copy of a Teams recording as something that can cost you captions, regardless of whether it stays inside the same site.
The fix that actually holds: own the transcript as a file
Since the failure is in a link you do not control, stop depending on it. Download the transcript as a real file while it still works, and the captions become yours to carry around.
Microsoft's page on live transcripts gives the route and the formats: "When the meeting is over, the transcript is immediately available in the meeting event on the calendar. By default, meeting organizers and co-organizers can download it as a .docx or .vtt file." It adds, "You may also be able to give others permission to download a transcript, depending on policies set by your IT admin."
The .vtt is the one you want — WebVTT is a real subtitle file that any player, editor or platform can read. The catch is that plenty of destinations want SubRip instead, and Teams does not offer an SRT export.
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
That converter runs inside your browser tab: the file is read from disk and converted locally, never uploaded. Worth caring about here, because a meeting transcript is a verbatim record of what named people said. For the full picture on who is allowed to download one and where it lives afterwards, see downloading a Teams transcript as .docx or .vtt, and use VTT to SRT whenever the destination refuses WebVTT.
Putting captions back on the copied file
If the copy is the version everyone now uses, Microsoft documents an upload path on the video's own player page: "Upload your own WebVTT captions and transcript file by selecting Video settings on the right-hand side of a video's player page. Expand the Transcripts and captions section if closed, then select Upload. In the dialog that appears, select the language of the file you're uploading. Viewers will see this language when they turn captions on or off."
Three constraints on that upload, all stated officially:
- WebVTT only. The documented format requirement is that "The first line must read WEBVTT and subsequent entries in the file are called "cues"." An SRT renamed to
.vttdoes not satisfy that. - 4MB ceiling. One of the listed error messages is "Your file size exceeds the 4MB limit that this feature supports."
- Extras get stripped. "Additional fields, such as notes, comments, styles, etc., are not supported and will be removed from the file upon upload." Note the wording — the file is accepted and trimmed, not rejected.
Other causes worth ruling out first
Transcription was never turned on. Recording alone does not produce a transcript. The admin documentation is unambiguous: "If recording is turned on, but transcription is turned off, the recording doesn't have a transcript file stored next to it. Also, when viewing the recording playback in Stream, captions can't be turned on." If nobody started transcription, no move or copy is to blame.
You are looking for the caption file in the folder listing. You will not find it there, and that is by design: "There is no direct access to see or manage the captions and transcript file in the file explorer for OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. Because this file only enhances the video viewing experience, it is viewed and managed only through the video player as described above."
The recording expired. Expiration moves recordings and transcripts to the recycle bin of wherever they were saved, so a file that is simply gone is a different problem from a file that plays without captions. More fix guides for Teams and other platforms are collected under fix.
How to tell it worked
Play the file at its new location, in Teams or on its Microsoft 365 video player page, and turn captions on. If text appears, the pairing survived. If the toggle does nothing, upload your own WebVTT on that player page and check again.
FAQ
Does moving a Teams recording always break the captions? The official pages do not promise either outcome. One says a copy made within the same OneDrive or SharePoint site "can be broken"; another says captions "aren't fully supported" after a move or copy from the original location. Plan for breakage and keep a downloaded transcript.
If the transcript is copied along with the video, why do captions fail? Microsoft documents both facts — that a copy of the transcript is made, and that captions may not display on the copied file — without reconciling them. The working assumption that costs you nothing: a file being present is not proof the player is reading it.
Can I get an SRT out of Teams directly?
No. The documented download formats for a Teams transcript are .docx and .vtt. Convert the .vtt yourself when something downstream needs SubRip.
Will the captions come back if I move the recording to its original folder? The pages cited here do not describe restoring the link that way. The documented method for putting captions on a video is uploading a WebVTT file through Video settings on the player page.
Does this apply to the live captions people saw during the meeting? No. Those were never saved — Teams states that caption data is permanently deleted after the meeting ends. Anything you see during playback comes from the transcript file.
Quotes from Microsoft's official documentation on transcription and captions, recording and transcript storage and permissions, video transcript management, live transcripts, live captions, and recording playback, checked 17 September 2026. Microsoft revises these pages — verify before relying on a step. Related: VTT to SRT, all Clapr tools.
