I can't copy the subtitles of a meeting

Hi all,

I have been testing several solutions for work around the lack of the Live Captions, and here are my findings:

Best Microsoft Alternative

• The Teams "Transcription" itself. Regardless if in your organization or any external meeting that you are joining, if transcribe has been started, it's available during the meeting (for external orgs) and during/after the meeting for your org.
• Regardless, during the meeting you can click on the "Show Transcription" option inside the Copilot Menu, and it will open a panel on the right side with the entire transcription.
• There is no limit of how much you can copy in one go (better experience than Live Captions), however it's quite funky to copy everything in one go, you will need few tries.
• Side note: This option being available doing EXACTLY what the Live Transcription was used to do, just demonstrate how much MSFT true intention with limiting the Copy/Paste is purely legal, and purely intended to protect MSFT from lawsuits. When you enable the Transcription, it becomes "your responsibility", and no longer MSFT responsibility. So, a better solution would have been to produce a feature in Teams that enable your Org's IT Team to determine if Copy from Live Transcribe is permitted or not, instead of blocking across the globe and blame "privacy". It's not about privacy, never was, never will. It's all about lawsuits.

Best Non-Microsoft Alternative

• Use your cellphone Live Transcribe feature to transcribe what was spoken.
• It's usually very simple to kick start, however it requires that you are in a completely quite place as nobody can talk around you.
• It won't have perfect clarity of who said what, but often during the meetings, names are mentioned and when you put that long string of words inside M365 it does a great job putting a meeting notes together.
• It can then be used to be translated or just placed inside your archive for future records.
• You should be able to export it into OneDrive from your phone, which will place the transcription file straight in your inbox.
• At least on my Google phone, it automatically deletes all transcriptions in 24h, so compliance is checked.

Other Alternatives

• Microsoft Stream and Clipchamp
  • Use Stream to record a window or an entire screen of your computer.
  • Simple and intuitive user interface.
  • The end result goes directly into the same location where all meeting recordings go, become just one more of the same, with the advantage that nobody know that you are recording.
  • You can use Copilot on the recorded video after facts.
  • Stream has a limit of 15 minutes recording. I couldn't yet find where I can change that limit and increase it.
  • As soon as the 15 minutes ends, you can start a new recording, and have several 15 minutes video. Then you can edit them and merge them together into one big video, however it's a lot of hurdle.
  • Clipchamp has a 30 minutes recording limit. It will save the record in your OneDrive, then you need to upload it later to Stream.
• OBS Studio
  • Freeware software that allows you to capture several aspects of your computer. It's designed for streamers.
  • It will require a learning curve for you to use it and understand how it works. As many open-source tools, it's made by geek techs and rarely thought about "User Experience".
  • Once you nail it, you will be able to record screens with ease, but then you have to upload to Stream, to then wait for Stream to generate the transcription, to only them be able to use Copilot on it.

Hope these findings aleviate your pain. And I hope that one day MSFT will work better and re-enable the copy from Live Transcribe.

Hello community!

I found a decently easier solution for this situation that will still enable you to "somewhat" use Copilot for your meeting and have a transcription of it automatically generated.

1. Using Edge, go to Microsoft Stream (Stream | Microsoft 365 Copilot) and press on "Screen Recording".
2. Go to the Edge's 3 dots at the top/right corner, then hover down over "Apps", and then click on "Install this site as an App".
3. In the popup that will appear, click on "Install".

4. In the next popup that will appear, leave at least the "Taskbar" checkmark activated and click on "Allow". It will pin the "Recording Stream Website" on your taskbar and it will behave like it's an App installed on your computer, but will always be launched in a minimalistic version of Edge (I love this feature! I use it a lot!).

5. Open this new "App" before your meeting to start and click on the big button "Start screen recording".

6. If it asks you to have access to your microphone, allow it.
7. Choose at your will what option of recording you prefer, if you want the meeting alone, or Teams, or a whole screen. There are many options available there.
8. Once meeting is over, this recording will land directly inside Stream (Stream | Microsoft 365 Copilot). Once in there, Stream will enable you to transcribe that recording using Copilot, just hit on Start transcribing, inform what language was spoken in the recording, wait for it to complete, and off you go!!

Final remarks:

It will take longer for you to produce meeting notes because you have to wait for the transcription to finish. Also Copilot won't be able to clearly match who said what the way Teams was used to do, but you have the recording and the transcription, and from here you can translate to whatever language that you need, play with the recording to recap who said what and when. Basically re-enabling you to have the control of the Live Captions, without recording the meeting, and without using the Live Captions inside the meetings.

Hope it helps, folks! Let's continue pushing MSFT to re-able to the copy/paste of the Live Captions! Please continue hitting that up vote and share with all your colleagues to do the same!

Feature Up Vote link: I would like to continue using the copy function for live captions. · Community

Dear Nana,

Good day! Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Support Community. I understand that something unexpected began happening today, and I want to assure you that we're here to help.

To better assist you, could you please share a few more details about the issue you're experiencing? For example:

• What were you trying to do when the issue occurred?
• Are there any specific error messages or behaviors you noticed?
• Which version of Microsoft Teams are you using?

Your experience is important to us, and we want to make sure we fully understand the situation so we can provide the most effective support. Once we have a bit more information, we’ll be able to guide you through the next steps or offer a solution tailored to your case.

Looking forward to your response.

Warm regards, 

Vy-Ng – MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Dear Diego Ballesta Andres, 

Good day! Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Support Community. I understand you're having trouble copying subtitles from your Teams meetings, and I’m here to help you resolve this as smoothly as possible. 

To assist you better, could you please confirm the following details? 

1. Which version of Microsoft Teams are you using? 
   • Desktop app (Windows or Mac)
   • Web browser (e.g., Edge, Chrome)
   • Mobile app (iOS or Android)
2. Is your organization using Microsoft Teams Premium? 
   This version includes advanced meeting controls that may affect your ability to copy subtitles.
3. Are you the meeting organizer, or a participant? 
   Some restrictions are set by the organizer and may vary depending on the meeting settings.

In the meantime, here are a few steps you can take to work around or resolve the issue: 

1. Check if the meeting organizer has Teams Premium 
   If so, ask them whether the “Turn off copying and forwarding” setting is enabled in the meeting options.
2. Request a transcript or summary 
   If copying is disabled, the organizer may still be able to share the transcript or AI-generated recap with you manually.
3. Use the recording 
   If the meeting was recorded, you might be able to access the transcript via OneDrive or SharePoint, depending on your organization’s settings. Admins- Manage transcription and captions for Teams meetings - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn
4. Try accessing the meeting from a different platform 
   Some users have reported that copying restrictions behave differently across desktop, web, and mobile clients.

I'm here to support you every step of the way. Once you provide the details above, I'll be able to guide you more specifically based on your setup and organization's policies. 

Warm regards, 

Vy-Ng – MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist