DOCUMENTATION

A recording cannot be played or deleted

A recording is missing from the list, will not open, search says the answer is incomplete, or a deletion stays pending.

Symptom

Under Recordings, a session you expected is absent, or it is listed but replay fails to load. Command search returns a notice that the answer is incomplete. A recording deleted hours ago still shows as pending. Everything else in the console behaves normally.

Check these first

  1. Under Infrastructure → Connectors, is the connector that hosted the session Online? Recordings are stored on the connector, not in the console; an offline connector explains three of the five causes below.
  2. Open the resource under Infrastructure → Resources and check whether Record sessions is on, then the Session recording mode under Infrastructure → Policy.
  3. Search Audit for the session: it records whether a recording was started, when a deletion was requested, and when retention removed it.

Possible causes

The connector is offline

How to tell: The recording is listed, but replay never loads and command search says the answer is incomplete. The connector that hosted the session shows Offline.

Fix: The bytes live on the connector's disk and are streamed on demand; a recording is playable and searchable only while that connector is online. The console says so rather than pretending nothing matched. Bring the connector back (see connector shows offline) and retry; nothing is lost as long as its data volume exists (see where recordings live).

Recording was never on

How to tell: The session is in Audit but there is no recording entry at all. The resource's Record sessions switch is off, and the policy mode is Per resource or Off.

Fix: Recording is decided before the session starts and cannot be added afterwards. Turn Record sessions on for the resource, or set the Session recording mode to Required under Infrastructure → Policy so every session on every resource is recorded regardless of the per-resource switch. Web apps, remote desktops and isolated browsers are all covered once enabled (see turning recording on and recording mode).

Retention has expired

How to tell: Older recordings disappear from the list on their own while recent ones remain. Audit shows a retention deletion for the one you are looking for.

Fix: The Session recording retention under Infrastructure → Policy is applied by the connector to its own files, and the console trims its index to match. A recording past that window is gone and cannot be recovered. If the window is too short for your obligations, lengthen it now; the change applies to recordings that still exist, not to ones already removed.

The data volume or recording key is lost

How to tell: After the connector container was recreated or moved to another machine, every recording from before fails to play although the connector is online. The connector's start-up log warns that /data is not a mounted volume.

Fix: Recordings are encrypted with a key the connector generates on first start and keeps at /data/recording.key; it never leaves that machine and cannot be reissued. If the volume was deleted, or the container was started without it, the content is unrecoverable. Restore the access_connector_data volume from backup, key included, and recreate the container with the console's command. Going forward, back up that volume and keep /data on a mounted volume (see data directory, backup and the recording key).

Deletion is waiting for the connector's confirmation

How to tell: You pressed Delete on a recording; it is marked pending and stays that way. The connector that holds it is offline, or was offline at the time.

Fix: A deletion is a request: the console records it at once and the bytes go when the connector confirms they are erased. An offline connector completes it on its next connection; pending erasures are re-sent to their connectors every five minutes, so nothing has to be repeated by hand. If the connector was itself deleted from the console, the recordings on its disk went with it and the entry can be cleared. Details in deleting recordings and retention.

Nobody else has a copy of your recordings — not the console, not us. The connector's data volume and recording.key are the only place they exist. Back them up together.

If it is still not solved

  • The recording's resource, date and whether it is listed, pending or absent
  • The hosting connector's status and Last seen time
  • The Record sessions value on the resource and the policy's recording mode
  • The connector's start-up log lines about /data and recording.key
  • The Audit entries for that session and for any deletion request

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