Transcript retention, syncing, and deleting meetings in Notetaker
Last updated: August 6, 2026
Available on: Mac. Windows support is rolling out gradually — if you don't see Notetaker in your app yet, your account hasn't received it.
Where transcripts live, why one computer shows a transcript another doesn't, and how to delete a meeting for good. Notetaker stores each meeting as parts — title, notes, Flow Summary, transcript, recorded audio — that don't all travel the same way.
What syncs across your devices
Syncs everywhere: a meeting's title, note content, summary, finished-recording status, share links, and deletions appear on any computer signed in to the same account.
Stays on one device: the transcript and recorded audio remain on the recording device. Recorded audio is removed about 24 hours after a meeting is finalized; afterward, features that need it show an error with a retry option. Generate summary stays available for that full 24-hour window on short notepad meetings with deferred uploads.
Transcripts refine themselves: speaker naming and cleanup run in the background after a meeting ends — even while you record another — and the refined transcript downloads to all signed-in devices on regular syncs and hard refreshes, even if you have unsynced local edits. Refined transcripts pending at sign-out are pulled down as soon as you sign back in, with no relaunch needed, and are never written to the next account that signs in on that device. Failed downloads retry automatically; offline or rate-limited attempts don't count against the retry budget, and server re-processing grants fresh attempts.
Processing status is live: the stage — transcribing, summarizing, or complete — updates in real time and only moves forward; a summary still generating shows as "generating", and failures appear immediately.
Meeting titles generate reliably: auto-generated titles retry if the network drops or the app quits right after a meeting ends. Reopening the app runs a recovery pass that fills blank titles on meetings you recorded locally in the last 7 days; this also runs periodically in the background. A rename or deletion made while a title is generating is always respected and never overwritten. Meetings synced from another device are not retitled locally.
Interruptions recover: dropped connections reconnect in the background and send the outage audio on return; interrupted uploads retry when your computer wakes. Failed recordings retry automatically, usually within seconds, using the surviving audio source if only one was captured; only a completely empty recording is unrecoverable, and microphone audio you keep private is never processed by this path. Crash-interrupted and fallback-format recordings can be resumed, with pre-crash audio preserved.
Flow Summary edits persist: edits sync across devices, Action Items and Pre-read sections are preserved, and a newer summary from another device is never overwritten by a stale local copy. Only a regeneration you request may replace your edits. Edits appear in other windows about 1 second after you pause; other windows show only saved content.
Large backlogs sync automatically: if you have many unsynced meetings — after signing back in, editing offline, or importing a batch — Notetaker pushes them in small groups back to back, without waiting for a scheduled retry. Your most recently recorded meetings sync first, so their audio uploads and summaries process promptly. Signing out while meetings are unsynced flushes the remaining queue before clearing local data, so no meetings are lost; sign-out still completes quickly on a slow or unavailable network.
New recordings wait for the previous one: clicking Record while a prior meeting is wrapping up shows "Still finishing the last recording. Try again in a moment."
Cloud Sync consent: the first meeting nudge shows an Enable Private Cloud Sync checkbox (checked by default) alongside Start Notetaker — unchecking it grays out Start Notetaker. If Cloud Sync is already on or organization-controlled, no checkbox appears; organization-blocked accounts see a modal explaining what to do. While sync is off your notes page shows a cloud-off icon, and a one-time post-meeting prompt saves only your notes — not the refined transcript or speaker labels.
Calendar data clears on disconnect: disconnecting Google Calendar removes upcoming calendar events immediately on the device where you disconnect, and within a few minutes on other signed-in devices; meeting reminders for those events stop. Notes and recordings already linked to a calendar event keep their event details (title, notes, speaker attribution) — only the upcoming calendar mirror is cleared. Reconnecting repopulates upcoming events with a fresh sync. Signing out also clears calendar data, so a different user signing in on the same machine starts clean.
Searching past notes
The search field in the Past notes list covers your entire notes history — content words or speaker names — not just the meetings loaded on screen. Results update as you type ("no results" appears only once the search finishes); clearing returns the unfiltered list, and arrow keys plus Enter open results across pages.
How you appear in the transcript
In the refined transcript you're labeled with your name followed by "(You)" — for example, "Jane Doe (You)". If no name is stored for your account, the transcript shows the plain "You" label.
For calendar-linked 1:1 meetings, both you and the other invitee are named automatically instead of "Speaker 1 / Speaker 2", whether you're on a Slack huddle or using laptop speakers instead of headphones. Meetings where two people share a single microphone stay unlabeled to avoid incorrect names. In fully-named meetings, summaries and meeting notes also show each person's name — no leftover "Speaker N" labels appear anywhere.
In live in-person recordings where multiple voices come through the same mic, unassigned speaker mentions in the Summary display as "Speaker N" until the refined transcript arrives, preventing one person's name from appearing on multiple speakers. Speakers you've already named keep their name and color chip right away, and all mentions resolve once refinement completes. Remote calls (Zoom, Meet, etc.), solo recordings, and paused-and-resumed recordings are not affected.
Note: The "(You)" label appears only in the in-app transcript view. Exported transcripts and summaries — such as those copied via Copy to Markdown — show just your stored name.
Exporting a meeting as Markdown
Copy to Markdown — the first item in the … (kebab) menu in the notepad header, in both the hub detail view and the standalone notepad — copies the whole meeting to your clipboard as one Markdown document. Use it before retention deletes a transcript.
How to set a transcript retention window
Retention controls how long Notetaker transcripts stay on your devices and Wispr's servers. Default: Never delete. Notes sync must be on to configure it.
Click the Wispr Flow icon in your menu bar, then click Settings.
Select Notetaker, then find the retention dropdown in the Transcript section.
Choose a window: Never delete, or 1, 7, 30, 90, 180, or 365 days.
Confirm if prompted — shortening the window asks first, because transcripts older than the new limit are deleted within about 24 hours.
Look for the "Retention updated" toast confirming the change.
Warning: Shortening your retention window permanently deletes transcripts older than the new limit, on both the server and your device. This can't be undone. Use Copy to Markdown first if you want to keep a copy. Your meeting titles, notes, and Flow Summaries are not affected.
After deletion: the meeting shows "Transcript deleted based on your retention settings policy" with a link to your settings; once local audio falls outside the window, Resume disappears.
Admin-managed policies: an enforced policy locks the dropdown as "Set by your admin," and retention links point to your Admin Portal. When an admin policy will delete transcripts, a one-time "24 hours to save old transcripts" notice and a dismissible banner tell you how long you have. These prompts appear only to users whose organization has Notetaker enabled.
How to delete a single meeting
Delete any past meeting, independent of your retention setting.
Find the meeting in your past-meetings list.
Delete it from the … (kebab) menu in the notepad or the past-meetings list, then confirm in the dialog.
Check that the meeting row is gone — the deletion then syncs to all your devices. If it fails, the meeting reappears with "Couldn't delete the meeting. Please try again."
Warning: Deleting a past meeting is permanent and applies across all your devices. It removes the meeting's notes, summary, transcript, and all associated speaker-identification data. If a title is still being generated when you delete the meeting, the deletion takes priority and the meeting is removed.
Upcoming meetings: no delete option — they're calendar events with nothing recorded yet.
Accidental short recordings: stopping a recording that captured very few words shows a "Started by mistake?" card with Save and Discard. Discard deletes a fresh recording and its local audio entirely; on a resumed meeting it removes only the short new segment, leaving the earlier transcript and summary intact.
Recordings that couldn't connect: Flow shows a "Couldn't start recording" card with Discard and Try again. Typed notes are never automatically deleted, and empty meetings that never connected are removed automatically.
Reading meetings from AI tools
With access to the MCP tab in Settings, AI clients such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor can search your meetings, read notes, and pull full transcripts. Transcripts deleted under a retention policy are reported to those tools as deleted.
FAQs
Why can't I change the retention setting?
Your organization enforces a retention policy, so the dropdown shows "Set by your admin" and is locked. Contact your admin via the Admin Portal to request a change.
Does retention affect notes, Flow Summary, or AI chat about a meeting?
Retention applies to Notetaker meeting transcripts only, not to your notes or the Flow Summary (formerly AI Summary). Deleting a meeting yourself removes all of its content.
Does the Local data storage setting in Data & Privacy apply to Notetaker?
No. It applies only to your dictation transcripts. Notetaker meeting recordings and transcripts are governed by the retention controls in Settings → Notetaker.
Why don't I see the option to resume a completed meeting?
Resume appears only when the meeting's local audio is available, intact, and within your local audio retention window. It won't appear if the audio is missing, empty, or corrupt, if the transcript was erased by a retention policy, or if notes sync is off. If a resume can't proceed, Flow explains why — for example, "The original audio is no longer available" or "This recording can no longer be resumed."
Will resuming a meeting overwrite my existing summary?
No. A summary is generated automatically only when the meeting has no existing summary and more than 5 minutes of total audio was recorded. To update the summary after resuming, use the Update summary button.
Why does Notetaker need notes sync to be enabled?
Notes sync (secured through Private Cloud Sync) stores your notes and transcripts. Without it, Notetaker cannot save your meeting content or make it available across your devices.
My meeting shows notes and a summary but the transcript is missing — what should I do?
The refined transcript sometimes arrives after the notes and summary; Flow keeps downloading it automatically, including right after you sign back in, with no relaunch needed. If it's still missing after several minutes, do a hard refresh or restart the app.
Why does my meeting from another device have no title?
Auto-title generation and blank-title recovery run only for meetings recorded on your current device. Rename the meeting manually from the … (kebab) menu.
Why does my 1:1 meeting still show "Speaker 1 / Speaker 2" instead of names?
Automatic naming for 1:1 meetings requires the meeting to be linked to your calendar and to have two distinct audio channels; participants sharing one microphone stay unlabeled. Connect your calendar in Settings → Connectors.
Can I assign speaker names myself?
Yes — assign names at any time from the Transcript tab.
Why are some of my meetings stuck unsynced or missing summaries?
Notetaker syncs backlogs in small groups automatically, prioritizing your most recent recordings. If meetings are still not syncing after a few minutes, restart the app.
What happens to my past notes if I disconnect Google Calendar?
Notes and recordings already linked to a calendar event keep their event details — meeting title, notes, and speaker attribution. Only the upcoming events list is cleared, and reconnecting restores it with a fresh sync.
Limitations and notes
Notetaker is currently available on Mac. Windows support is rolling out gradually — users not yet in the rollout see a "not available" screen in the Notetaker tab.
On Windows, meeting detection shows a generic "Meeting detected" prompt — calendar-matched meeting titles are not yet available.
Organization gate messages (sync admin-disabled, or blocked by a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement) reference Notetaker only if your organization has it enabled. The retention window in the admin notice may display in English on non-English locales.
Meetings imported from another device or with no meaningful audio are not covered by transcript refinement recovery, and are not retitled locally.
If a summary fails and the meeting's audio is no longer locally available, regenerate may not work; use the Update summary button instead.
The Past notes list loads 100 meetings per page and loads more as you scroll.
After re-running a meeting whose new summary is identical to the old one, the "updating" overlay can take 1–2 minutes to clear; your content is unaffected.
Still stuck?
Contact support if:
A transcript is still missing after a hard refresh and an app restart.
Meetings stay unsynced after restarting the app.
A deletion keeps failing with "Couldn't delete the meeting. Please try again."
Include your platform, app version, the meeting date, and what you already tried.