Help and FAQs

If you are new to Microsoft Stream and want help getting started, please have a look at the following guidance. This will show you how to navigate Stream, what different parts of the Stream homepage are for (for example "My Watchlist" and "Followed Channels"):

Get Started using Stream

Currently your Teams meeting recordings are automatically uploaded to Microsoft Stream, however this may be changing soon. The following links will help you with manually uploading your videos to Stream. 

The following guidance will show you how to get started uploading your videos to Stream, and how to upload videos to your groups/channels (further information on groups/channels is available further down on this page):

How to upload videos to Stream

The guidance linked below will show you how to edit the metadata of your videos, including how to edit the title and description of your videos, how to add hashtags, edit the language of your video, and add a new thumbnail to your video:

How to edit the Metadata of your videos in Stream

If you want to learn how to turn off comments and how to add captions and subtitles to videos, please read the guidance below:

How to control Video Options in Stream

You can add surveys, polls and quizzes to your videos in Stream, for help doing this please see the following:

How to add surverys, polls and quizzes to your videos

You can easily trim your videos in Microsoft Stream, the following guidance shows you how to trim your videos in Stream step-by-step.

Note - Trimming videos is only available in certain browsers, a list of these is also available through the following link. 

How to Trim your videos in Stream

If you would like some guidance on how video permissions work in Stream, as well as how you can share videos with others, the differences between viewers and owners of videos, and the default permissions when you upload a video, please read through the following guidance:

How permissions work in Stream

Currently your Teams meeting recordings will be automatically given captions/subtitles when they are uploaded to Stream, however the following link provides guidance on how you can add subtitles and captions to other content: 

How to add subtitles or captions to exisiting videos

You can also view, download and edit subtitles and captions in your Stream videos, for help with this, please have a look at the following links:

How to view subtitles or captions

How to download subtitles or captions

How to get the text from a transcript

How to edit the transcript of your video

How to generate auto-captions in Stream

You can create screen-recordings of up to 15 minutes in Stream and can add Video and audio to these.  Useful for bitesize educational or informational presentations. The following link provides guidance on how to do this:

Note - only Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are compatible with screen recording.

How to create Screen-recordings in Stream

You can create groups and channels in Stream to share your content with. 

Groups - groups are a set of people in Stream that you want to collaborate and share content with.  You can add videos and channels to groups, so that when you add people to the group they will automatically have access to these videos and channels. 

Channels - you create channels in Stream to organise your videos. For example, if you are working on a project called Project A, create a channel for that project and add the relevant videos to it. 

Microsoft provide detailed guidance on how to create groups and channels in Stream:

How to create groups in Stream

How to create channels in Stream

Watching videos on Stream is easy and you can use a PC, Mac or mobile device to do so. The following Microsoft guidance shows how to watch videos (including how to turn on captions, what browser to use and some troubleshooting steps) on Stream step-by-step:

How to watch videos on Stream

How to turn captions on or off

The supported browsers for watching videos on Stream

How to set playback speed

Troubleshooting audio issues with videos

You can interact with videos that have been uploaded to Stream by liking and commenting on them, as well as sharing them.

Note - you cannot share videos uploaded to Stream with external collaborators, for this you will need to download the video and share it another way (Microsoft state that they are working on implementing this feature in the future). 

Note - if you find that you have shared a video with someone and they can't view it, this is because the owner of the video has set the video permissions to only allow specific people to view it. In this case please speak to the video owner about this. 

For help on how you can interact with videos in Stream (including how to like, comment and share videos), see the following links:

How to like a video in Stream

How to comment on a video in Stream

How to share videos in Stream

The following link provides information on how to use hot keys with Microsoft Stream:

Hot keys and Stream

Microsoft also provide guidance on how to turn on tab focus. This allows you to navigate the Stream video player without the use of a mouse:

How to use Tab focus

You have the option to turn on captions and subtitles with videos in Stream, for help with this see the following link:

How to turn on captions and subtitles

You can also change how captions and subtitles appear to you in Stream. You can make them smaller or larger, change the text colour and turn on background transparency. For help with this, please see the following:

How to change the look of the captions and subtitles

As Stream is a Microsoft product it is fully integrated with other Office 365 apps including Microsoft Teams. 

The following Microsoft guidance shows you how to embed Stream videos to your Teams:

Embedding Stream videos in Teams

As Stream is a Microsoft product it is fully integrated with other Office 365 apps including SharePoint. 

The following guidance shows you how to add Stream as a webpart to your SharePoint site, incluing how to stream videos and channels on your SharePoint site:

Adding Stream videos to SharePoint

Any videos you upload to Stream will be retained indefinitely, until you delete them.

We recommend that you set your own retention policy before your videos, and let your participants know about this. You should then delete your video when this retention period ends.

For recording of meetings specific guidance on retention, see the following:

Guiding Principles - recording of online and digital events

Recording Privacy Statement (External Collaborators)

Recording Privacy Statement (Internal - Staff and Students)

Microsoft provide an up-to-date and detailed list of the supported video and audio formats and codecs on the following page:

Microsoft Stream video formats and codecs

It is possible that you are using an unsupported browser to try to create your screen-recording. Only Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are supported for this feature. 

For up-to-date information and help with screen-recording in Stream, please see the following:

Screen-recording in Microsoft Stream

Yes, the following Microsoft page provides guidance on how to troubleshoot this issue:

Troubleshooting audio issues in Stream

If you continue to have this issue, there may be an issue with your device, please contact IS Helpline for assistance. 

Yes, there are troubleshooting steps that could fix this for you. 

Troubleshooting Stream sign in 

You can trim your videos easily on Stream. The following guidance from Microsoft shows you where to find the option to trim your videos and how to trim your videos:

Trimming videos in Stream