Fix: Fireflies Bot in Zoom

"Fred from Fireflies" showed up in Zoom. Someone removed it. The transcript is empty. This page is the order of operations.

TL;DR

• Fireflies joins as a named participant so it can hear the call. That is the product.
• Stop auto-join in Fireflies if the surprise is the problem.
• If the platform or the guest blocks bots, Fireflies cannot take that meeting. Use a bot-free recorder on your machine instead.

Fix it in Fireflies first

1. Open Fireflies settings for the notetaker / auto-join rules.
2. Disable automatic join on external or unlisted meetings.
3. For a single call: do not admit Fred. Fireflies will not have audio to transcribe.
4. If you still want a Fireflies recap, upload a recording after the call — knowing that file is processed in their cloud.

That is the official path. It prevents ambush. It does not hide the bot when you do want notes.

Why kicking Fred also kicks the notes

The bot is how Fireflies subscribes to Zoom's audio. Remove the participant, remove the feed. There is no "invisible Fireflies" mode that still produces a cloud transcript of a live conference.

Some organizations now auto-reject notetaker apps. In those rooms Fireflies will never complete. That is a policy collision, not a Fireflies outage.

Stay or switch

Stay if your company standardized on Fireflies search, channels, and CRM push, and a visible recorder is allowed.

Switch when:

• External guests refuse the bot.
• IT blocks third-party notetakers.
• You need notes of in-room audio or of a platform the bot cannot enter.

Bot-free capture records the mix on your computer. No extra name in the list. LUCI keeps that mix on-device. Otter has the same bot shape. LUCI vs Fireflies is the 1:1.

Do not pick Granola only because it is bot-free — it is not local.