Choose what Fireflies keeps and for how long

Keep what you need—nothing you don’t. Fireflies lets you choose what to keep from each meeting based on your compliance policy. Tick any combination in What Fireflies keeps (all four are ticked by default):

• Video — screen and shared content as video

• Audio — the meeting audio recording

• Transcript — speaker-by-speaker transcript

• Summary — notes, action items, and key points

This guide explains example combinations, what each one keeps, and how admins can set it org-wide for regulated teams.

🚀 Navigation

Step 1. Log in to your Fireflies account and open the Settings page from the left sidebar.

Step 2: Under Recording & Privacy (Personal tab), navigate to the What Fireflies keeps section.

Step 3: Click the What Fireflies keeps dropdown. You’ll see a checklist of formats: Video, Audio, Transcript, and Summary. Tick the ones you want Fireflies to keep.

You can choose the combination that best fits your team’s compliance or data-retention needs.

🎥 Example Combinations in Fireflies

Fireflies lets you control what meeting data is kept based on your team’s compliance requirements. In What Fireflies keeps, you can tick any combination of Video, Audio, Transcript, and Summary. Here are four common examples:

1. Everything ticked (Default)

This is the default setup in Fireflies, with Video, Audio, Transcript, and Summary all ticked. It keeps everything from your meeting so you have full context for review and collaboration later.

What Fireflies saves with this combination:

• Video recording — screen and shared content as video

• Full audio recording — lets you replay the meeting and hear exact discussions

• Full transcript — searchable text version of everything said

• AI summary — key points, action items, and topics automatically extracted

✅ Best for:

Teams that need detailed meeting records — including playback, soundbites, coaching, QA review, and complete visibility into the meeting.

When all four are ticked, Fireflies will keep everything — video, audio, transcript, and summary — so you can review the entire meeting in detail.

2. Transcript + Summary only

Tick only Transcript and Summary. This gives you full meeting transcripts and AI summaries without storing any audio or video. Fireflies temporarily captures audio during the meeting to generate the transcript, then automatically deletes it once processing is complete.

What Fireflies keeps with this combination:

• Transcript — full text of everything discussed

• AI summary — key points, action items, topics, and insights

What Fireflies deletes:

• Audio recording — removed automatically after transcription

• Video recordings (if any)

✅ Best for:

Teams in regulated industries that allow transcription but cannot retain audio recordings, such as financial services, healthcare, legal, and compliance-driven teams.

When only Transcript and Summary are ticked, your meeting will keep the transcript and the AI summary. The audio will be deleted automatically after transcription.

3. Summary only

Tick only Summary. This keeps only the AI-generated meeting summary. Fireflies records and transcribes the meeting internally, but once the summary is created, both the audio and the transcript are permanently deleted.

What Fireflies keeps with this combination:

• AI summary only — key points, action items, topics, sentiment, and insights

What Fireflies deletes:

• Audio recording — deleted automatically

• Transcript — deleted automatically after the summary is generated and cannot be recovered

✅ Best for:

Teams with strict compliance rules where no transcripts or audio can be retained — such as finance, security, and legal departments that only need high-level meeting insights.

When only Summary is ticked, your meeting will keep only the AI summary. The audio and transcript will be deleted automatically after processing.

4. Summary + Audio

Tick only Audio and Summary. This keeps the audio recording and AI summary without storing the transcript.

What Fireflies keeps with this combination:

• Audio recording

• AI summary — key points, action items, topics, and insights

What Fireflies deletes:

• Transcript — not stored

✅ Best for:
Teams that prefer listening to recordings but do not require searchable transcripts.

When only Audio and Summary are ticked, your meeting will keep the audio recording and AI summary. The transcript will not be saved.

📊 Example Combinations Comparison Table

🛡 Team Compliance Management (Enterprise Only)

Enterprise admins can set what Fireflies keeps for the entire organization to keep every meeting compliant.

1. Open your Fireflies web app and click on Settings in the main navigation menu.

2. Switch to the Team tab.

3. From the left panel, click Recording & Privacy (Team tab), then navigate to the What Fireflies keeps section.

4. Click the What Fireflies keeps dropdown and choose Set for everyone.

5. Open the second dropdown and tick the formats you want Fireflies to keep for your whole team: Audio, Transcript, and Summary. Video is set separately in Capture meeting video.

✅ Admin controls include:

• Setting org-wide recording and retention policies, including a different retention period for each format

• Enforcing any combination of formats to keep

• Overriding individual user settings when required

• Ensuring consistent compliance across all teams

🛠 Troubleshooting & FAQs

1. Why is my audio missing?

You likely don’t have Audio ticked in What Fireflies keeps.

When Audio isn’t ticked, Fireflies deletes it automatically for compliance.

2. Can I recover a deleted transcript or audio file?

No — Once audio or transcript is deleted (based on what you chose to keep), it cannot be restored.

3. Does changing what Fireflies keeps affect past meetings?

No — New settings apply only to future meetings. Past meetings stay unchanged.

4. Why do I see only the summary for my meeting?

You ticked only Summary in What Fireflies keeps, which keeps only the AI summary and deletes everything else.

5. Who can change what Fireflies keeps?

• Individual users can choose what Fireflies keeps for their own meetings

• Enterprise admins can set what Fireflies keeps for the entire org. If admin controls are applied, users cannot override them.

6. Does Fireflies still join meetings normally if I keep only the Summary?

Yes. The workflow stays the same — only the storage changes after the meeting ends.

7. Can I keep different formats for different lengths of time?

   Yes. For example, you can keep the audio for 1 week, the transcript for 1 month, and the summary for 1 year. Set a retention period for each format in Auto-delete meetings.

🔁 Recap

• Everything ticked: Keeps everything. Best for full review and playback.

• Transcript + Summary only: Keeps text only. Audio is deleted after transcription.

• Summary only: Keeps only the summary. Both audio and transcript are deleted.

• Summary + Audio: Stores audio and summary without saving the transcript.

• Admins can lock these settings for the whole organization.

These combinations help you stay compliant while choosing how much meeting data you want to keep.

📚 Related Guides

• Policy on Keeping Information Safe — How Fireflies protects your data and handles third-party access.

• Responsible and Secure Meeting Notetaking with Fireflies — Best practices for recording, transcribing, and summarising meetings safely.

• How to Share a Fireflies Meeting with a Password-Protected Link — Securely share meetings with external users using password-protected links and optional link expiration controls.

• How We Encrypt Your Data — Technical details on encryption, data-at-rest, data-in-transit, and storage infrastructure.

• Set up FERPA compliance for your workspace — Steps and requirements for enabling FERPA support in Fireflies

• Set up HIPAA compliance for your workspace — Steps and requirements for enabling HIPAA compliance