# Fireflies: How to Stop the Notetaker Joining Meetings

*How-to — 2026-10-13 — by Mahmoud Zalt*

Turn off auto-join, switch to invite-only, remove the bot mid-call on Zoom, Meet or Teams, and handle the case where someone else's notetaker shows up.

**Short answer.** **Open Settings, go to Recording and Privacy, and switch off Auto-record meetings. To keep the notetaker for some calls, instead set Calendar meeting settings to only when you invite fred@fireflies.ai.** For a call already running, remove Fireflies.ai Notetaker from the participant list the same way you would remove any guest. Removing it before three minutes have passed means no transcript is created at all.

**About this guide.** This guide is based on publicly available information and Fireflies' own documentation, checked on 17 August 2026. Sistava is not affiliated with Fireflies. Interfaces and pricing change often, so confirm the current steps in their documentation before you rely on them.

There is a specific kind of dread that arrives when you see a bot named after a note-taking service sitting in a one to one you did not plan to record. Sometimes it is your own setting being broader than you realised. Sometimes it belongs to the other person entirely, and nothing in your account will move it.

Those two situations have completely different answers, so this guide separates them. First the settings inside your own account, then the live removal steps per platform, then what to do when the notetaker is not yours to control.

## How do you turn auto-join off completely?

Open the Fireflies web app, go to Settings, then Recording and Privacy, and switch off the Auto-record meetings toggle in the Recording section. Their documentation says the change saves on its own and the notetaker stops joining future calendar meetings.

That is the full stop option. Nothing on your calendar gets picked up automatically after that, which is the right choice if you have decided the tool is not for you, or if you are heading into a period of sensitive conversations and want a clean guarantee rather than a careful policy.

## How do you keep Fireflies but stop it joining everything?

Switch the join policy to invite-only rather than switching the product off. From the homepage open the Upcoming panel, choose Calendar meeting settings under Fireflies Notetaker, and pick the option that joins only when you invite fred@fireflies.ai.

This is the setting most people actually want. The notetaker sits dormant and appears only on the calls where you added that address as a guest, so recording becomes a decision you make per meeting rather than a default you have to remember to fight.

Fireflies documents two narrower options in the same dropdown, joining only meetings you own or only meetings with teammates. Both are reasonable middle grounds. Teammates-only in particular keeps internal calls on record while leaving every external conversation untouched, which suits a lot of client-facing work.

### Keep the notetaker out of the meetings you choose

1. **Decide between off and invite-only** — Off means Auto-record meetings toggled off under Settings, Recording and Privacy. Invite-only means the Calendar meeting settings dropdown set to join only when you invite fred@fireflies.ai. Pick invite-only if you still want the tool for some calls.
2. **Check your recording rules before you trust the change** — Fireflies documents rules that target meetings by keyword or by a participant's email address or domain, and their troubleshooting guide notes that rules can override your join setting. An old rule is the usual reason the bot keeps appearing after you thought you had stopped it.
3. **Add restriction rules for the meetings that must never be recorded** — Under Settings, Recording and Privacy, restriction rules let you set conditions that keep the notetaker out, based on keywords or participants. This is the durable version of remembering every time.
4. **Remove fred@fireflies.ai from any event that still has it** — Open the event in Google Calendar or Outlook, delete that address from the guest list, and save the update. A lingering guest entry from a recurring series will keep pulling the bot in regardless of your dropdown.
5. **Toggle off individual upcoming meetings** — From the Upcoming panel on the dashboard you can switch the notetaker off for a specific meeting. Fireflies notes this list shows only meetings scheduled in the next two days, so treat it as a short-range control.
6. **Turn on the pre-meeting disclaimer** — Fireflies documents a meeting compliance feature that shows participants a notice before the call, and states the notetaker will not join if participants opt out. This shifts the decision to the room instead of resting on your settings.

## How do you remove the notetaker from a call in progress?

Treat it as a participant, because that is what it is. Fireflies documents the removal path on each of the three platforms it joins, and in every case you start from the participant list.

- **Zoom**: open the participant list, click More next to Fireflies Notetaker, and choose Remove.
- **Google Meet**: open the participant list, click the three-dot menu next to Fireflies, and select the option to remove it from the call.
- **Microsoft Teams**: open the participant list, click the ellipsis next to Fireflies, and select the option to remove it from the meeting.
- **From the Fireflies dashboard**: if the account is yours, their documentation describes a live meeting banner at the top of the home dashboard with a stop control that ends the capture.

**The three minute line.** Fireflies states that if the notetaker is removed before three minutes have passed, no transcript and no notes are created. So a fast removal is a clean one. Past that point, a transcript of the portion it attended already exists, and you are into asking the account owner to delete it rather than preventing it.

## What if the notetaker belongs to someone else?

None of your settings apply. Fireflies join behaviour is configured per account, so when another participant's notetaker attends, it is following their policy and their calendar, not yours. Changing your own toggles will do nothing at all.

You have three practical moves. If you are the host or a co-host, remove the bot from the participant list using the steps above. If you are not, ask the person who brought it to remove it, which is a normal request and rarely an awkward one. If you can edit the calendar invite, taking fred@fireflies.ai off the guest list stops it attending the next occurrence.

Say it plainly and early. Something like a request to keep this one off the record, before the substance starts, costs nothing and lands far better than quietly ejecting a bot ten minutes in while the other person watches.

## Where does the law sit on any of this?

Recording rules differ by country and by state, and the obligation belongs to whoever is doing the recording, not to the software. Some jurisdictions require every participant to consent, others require only one. If your calls cross borders, the stricter rule is the safe assumption.

The practical consequence is that turning a bot off is not only a settings question. If you are the one recording, announce it. If someone else is, you are entitled to ask, and a reasonable counterpart will simply agree.

## Is a narrower notetaker the right answer, or a different tool?

If you are here because the recording felt indiscriminate, tightening the join policy genuinely fixes it, and Fireflies gives you enough controls to do that properly. Invite-only plus a couple of restriction rules covers most people permanently.

If you are here because you are questioning what the recordings were achieving, that is a different question. A notetaker's job ends at the notes. The emails, the CRM updates, the chased commitments all still land on you afterwards. That gap is what we built Sistava around: instead of a bot that captures the meeting, you hire an AI Employee, tell it in plain English what should happen after your calls, and it does that part.

Neither answer is universal. Some weeks the archive is exactly what you need, and Fireflies builds a good one. The point is to be deliberate about which problem you are solving, because the settings for capturing everything and the tooling for acting on anything are not the same thing.

## FAQ

### How do I stop Fireflies joining all my meetings without deleting my account?

Go to Settings, then Recording and Privacy, and switch off the Auto-record meetings toggle. Your account, past transcripts, and integrations all stay in place, and the notetaker simply stops attending future calendar meetings. If you want to keep using it selectively, set the Calendar meeting settings dropdown to join only when you invite fred@fireflies.ai instead.

### I removed the bot mid-call. Was anything recorded?

Fireflies states that if the notetaker is removed before three minutes have elapsed, no transcript or notes are created. If it was in the call for longer than three minutes, a transcript covering the time it attended will exist in the account that owns the bot, and only that account holder can delete it.

### Someone else brought Fireflies to my meeting. Can I block it?

Not through your own settings, because join behaviour is configured per account. If you are the host or a co-host you can remove it from the participant list on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. Otherwise ask the person who invited it to remove it, or take fred@fireflies.ai off the calendar invite if you have edit rights.

### I turned off auto-join but Fireflies keeps appearing. Why?

Check your recording rules. Fireflies documents rules that target meetings by keyword or by participant email address or domain, and their troubleshooting guide notes rules can override your join setting. Also check whether fred@fireflies.ai is still sitting on the guest list of a recurring calendar event, since that invitation persists independently of the dropdown.

### Can I stop the notetaker for one meeting only?

Yes. Open the Upcoming panel on the dashboard, find the meeting, and toggle the notetaker off for it. Their documentation notes this list only shows meetings scheduled in the next two days. For anything further out, remove fred@fireflies.ai from the calendar event itself, or add a restriction rule that matches it.

### Do participants get told a Fireflies bot is recording?

The bot joins as a visible participant named Fireflies.ai Notetaker, so it appears in the participant list. Fireflies also documents a meeting compliance feature that shows a disclaimer before the meeting and keeps the notetaker out if participants opt out. Neither replaces your own legal obligation to get consent where your jurisdiction requires it.

## Sources

- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, How to disable the Fireflies auto-join settings](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8587670572-how-to-disable-the-fireflies-auto-join-settings)
- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, How to remove Fireflies from a meeting or stop it from joining](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/7098191513-how-to-remove-fireflies-from-a-meeting-or-stop-it-from-joining)
- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, auto-join settings](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/5074225515-fix-fireflies-auto-join-settings)
- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, How Fireflies joins and records your meetings](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/9554534786-how-fireflies-joins-and-records-your-meetings-faqs)
- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, Why Fred did not join your meeting](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4708529470-why-fred-did-not-join-your-meeting-troubleshooting-guide)
- [Fireflies Knowledge Base, How to invite Fireflies to meetings](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4335268657-how-to-invite-fireflies-to-meetings)
- [Minutes, How to stop Fireflies from joining meetings](https://useminutes.app/resources/stop-fireflies-from-joining-meetings)

**Tags:** fireflies, ai-notetaker, meeting-privacy, recording-consent, meeting-settings