Zoom Retention Policy

As SMU shifted to an online and hybrid environment in the Spring of 2020, Zoom and Panopto became two of the most important technical resources for students, faculty, and staff across our campus. With the sudden increase in usage, our Zoom and Panopto cloud storage tools for recorded Meetings and Class Meetings have reached an inflection point as SMU must renew our licensing agreement with Panopto.  To relieve Panopto storage, which should only be utilized for regularly-used asynchronous course materials for active courses, SMU introduced a retention policy for Panopto and Zoom recordings.

Starting January 1, 2023, any recordings saved to Zoom Cloud storage will be retained in the Zoom Cloud for 30 days, after which the recordings will be deleted from the Zoom Cloud. Any recordings already on the Zoom Cloud for 30 days or more when the schedule takes effect will also be deleted. Once the recordings are deleted, you will have 30 days to retrieve any recordings from your trash can and return the video to your Zoom cloud. Links to any deleted recordings will no longer be valid.

Only Zoom cloud recordings scheduled via Zoom 2.0 in Canvas or mapped to Panopto will be saved to Panopto automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Review existing Panopto recordings and decide what should be moved to a long-term storage solution, either for your own personal use or for purposes of record retention in accordance with SMU’s records management policies.

  • Download any Panopto or Zoom recordings that will require long-term storage.
  • Review links to Panopto or Zoom Cloud video content and update those links to the new long-term locations of the recordings.

Although you may keep your recordings on the Zoom cloud for immediate viewing and sharing, SMU has multiple options available to upload your content for semester-over-semester storage.

  • Box is a cloud storage solution offered to students, faculty, and staff. Recordings may be stored and shared via SMU Box, but the video playback features are limited since it's not a streaming platform.
  • OneDrive is an online storage solution in Microsoft 365 and allows 1TB personal storage. Recordings stored and shared via OneDrive can be played back in your browser.

Once an individual leaves the university, the recordings become orphaned and others will lose access. It may be best to store long-term videos in a departmental space in Box or MS Teams if others will still need to access the recordings.

To receive assistance, you can reach out to the IT Help Desk at smu.edu/help or your school’s Academic Technology Services Director (ATSD).