When the Clarify notetaker doesn't join, records incorrectly, or produces incomplete results, the fix depends on which part of the process failed.
First things to check
Before digging into a specific issue, confirm the basics:
Recording is enabled. Go to Settings → Workspace → Email and meetings → Meeting recording and confirm Auto-record meetings is set to External only or All (not None). Your own account has a separate Auto-record setting at Settings → Account → Email and meetings - check that too. There is no "General" tab.
Your calendar is connected. The notetaker relies on your calendar to know which meetings to join. Reconnect if it disconnected recently. Note that disconnecting does not stop meetings already synced from being recorded - see below.
The meeting platform is supported. Clarify supports Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The notetaker cannot join Zoom for Government or Microsoft Teams government cloud meetings.
The bot didn't join
There are three distinct scenarios - the fix is different for each.
Auto-join was expected but the notetaker never appeared
Open the meeting record in Clarify first. When the notetaker was dispatched but could not get into the call, the meeting shows a card naming what happened:
"Your notetaker was in the waiting room" - it waited in the lobby, was never admitted, and left after 5 minutes.
"Your notetaker wasn't admitted" - once the meeting has ended, this means someone denied its request to join. While the meeting is still running, the same wording also covers a notetaker that nobody admitted, and the notification sent during the call uses it for both. Until the meeting ends, read it as "couldn't get in" rather than "was turned down".
"Your notetaker was removed from the meeting" - a participant removed it mid-call. Any recording may be incomplete. While the meeting is still running this reads "Your notetaker was removed, but the meeting is still active", and Re-join sends it back in.
"No one joined this meeting" - the notetaker joined but nobody else did, so there was nothing to record.
"No one else joined this meeting" - the notetaker was the only active participant, or the call held no real conversation. Nothing was recorded and nothing is broken.
"No recording saved for this meeting" - the notetaker joined but you were the only person in the call, so no recording and no summary were kept. This one is deliberate.
Any of these means the notetaker did reach the call. The first two are admission problems - see The notetaker was not admitted, or timed out in the waiting room below.
If the meeting record shows no card at all, or a card whose message isn't one of the six above, the notetaker either never made it to the call or ran into something else. Contact support with the meeting title, date, and your account email.
You clicked "Join" on a meeting already in progress
Clicking Join on an in-progress meeting record does not dispatch the notetaker - it only opens the call in your meeting platform. A notetaker can be sent into a call that is already running, but Re-join on the meeting record is the control that does it, and it appears only when a notetaker was dispatched and failed to get in. If none was dispatched for this meeting, record locally instead.
Workaround (desktop app): Use the Clarify desktop menu - the menu bar on Mac, the system tray on Windows - and choose Quick Record to capture the rest of the call locally.
The notetaker was not admitted, or timed out in the waiting room
The notetaker follows the same admission rules as any other guest - someone already on the call has to let it in. It waits 5 minutes, then leaves without recording. Admit it early - a bot admitted late has less of the meeting left to record.
Zoom (without the Zoom integration): a host admits the notetaker from the waiting room.
Google Meet: the notetaker may appear with a "with potential risks" label. A host clicks Admit to let it in.
Microsoft Teams: the notetaker waits in the meeting lobby until someone in the call admits it. If your organization holds external participants in the lobby by default, this happens on every meeting, including internal ones - your Teams administrator controls who bypasses the lobby, and an organizer can change it for a single meeting or a whole recurring series.
Meetings hosted by another company: admission is controlled on the host's side. Ask them to admit the notetaker when it asks to join.
Not a bug. Once admitted, recording proceeds normally.
If the meeting is still running, open it in Clarify and use Re-join to send the notetaker back in - anyone on the call can then admit it. Re-join is no longer available once the meeting ends, and the missed portion can't be recovered. For full admission and Re-join details, including Google Workspace admin requirements, see Meeting recording.
The bot arrived late or joined an empty room
Happens when a recurring meeting is rescheduled to an earlier time after the bot was already scheduled.
The bot dispatches to the original time, arrives late or after the meeting ends, waits 5 minutes, then times out with no recording. This recording is not recoverable - contact support to report it.
The bot joined after I disconnected my calendar
Disconnecting stops Clarify from syncing new calendar data, but meetings already synced while you were connected stay in your account and remain eligible for recording. Changing your recording setting re-evaluates those stored meetings, so the notetaker can still be dispatched to them - including future dates of a recurring meeting. Clarify is not reading your calendar when this happens.
To stop it, go to Settings → Account → Email and meetings → Meeting recording and set Auto-record to None. That cancels notetakers already scheduled and works whether or not a calendar is connected.
If teammates also record, the most permissive setting still applies - see Notetaker settings.
Two bots appeared in the same meeting
A race condition caused two bots to be dispatched to the same meeting. Only one recording is captured. Contact support with the meeting date and time - they'll investigate and escalate to engineering.
No transcript or AI summary after recording
Wait a few minutes - transcription runs after the meeting ends and takes longer for calls over 30 minutes.
Still nothing after 30 minutes? Contact support.
Check transcript-only mode. If enabled, video is skipped but a transcript should still generate. Find it at Settings → Workspace → Email and meetings → Meeting recording → Transcript-only mode.
Short single-speaker meetings may not generate an AI summary - the model requires sufficient conversational content.
Multi-language transcription isn't working
Bot recorder multi-language transcription is available on Growth and above. On other plans the bot normally transcribes in English only, because it relies on captions from the meeting platform. A few platforms provide no captions at all, and Clarify transcribes those itself, so language detection works there on any plan.
On Growth and above, language detection is automatic - no configuration needed.
Upgraded to Growth but existing meetings still transcribing in English? Transcription settings are locked when a meeting is scheduled, not when it starts. To push a settings refresh:
Go to Settings → Workspace → Email and meetings → Meeting recording
Toggle Background image on, then immediately back off
This forces a config refresh for all pending scheduled meetings. For full details, see Multi-language meeting support.