How to play back a call recording from the report screen

Playing back a Call recording in VICIdial is a one-click action from the Admin Recordings report screen — no separate media player, no FTP download required. The recording file is served directly from the web server, so your browser handles playback. This makes it fast for supervisors and QA staff who need to review calls throughout the day.

Getting to the recording

Navigate to Admin → Recordings and run a search to find the call you want. Once the results load, each row includes the recording filename as a clickable link. Clicking that link opens the audio in your browser's built-in player. Right-clicking and choosing "Save link as" downloads the file instead. The browser handles the decoding — VICIdial just serves the file.

What the play flow looks like

sequenceDiagram
  participant M as Manager browser
  participant W as VICIdial web server
  participant D as Recording storage dir
  M->>W: Click recording filename link
  W->>D: Serve file from recording path
  D-->>W: Audio stream
  W-->>M: Browser plays audio inline

Permission levels that affect playback

Only users with manager-level access or a User group that has the Recordings report permission enabled can reach the Admin Recordings screen. Standard Agent accounts do not have access by default. If a quality assurance team member needs to review recordings regularly, a manager must either grant them a manager-level role or create a custom user group with the Recordings permission explicitly enabled. Giving agents broad manager access just to hear recordings is a common mistake — use a scoped QA user group instead.

File formats and browser compatibility

VICIdial records in GSM or WAV depending on the Recording format (WAV/MP3) setting for each campaign. WAV files play natively in every modern browser. GSM files may not play inline in all browsers and sometimes prompt a download instead of streaming. If your QA team consistently cannot play files in the browser, switching the campaign recording format to WAV resolves the compatibility issue for new recordings going forward.

**Heads up:** If you click a filename link and get a 404 or a blank page, the file has likely been moved, deleted, or is stored on a different server node than the one serving the admin UI. On multi-server setups, each Asterisk server writes recordings to its own local recording directory. The web server must either mount those directories via NFS or have the files replicated to a shared location before they appear as playable links. For a deeper look at how recording files are stored and accessed across servers, see VICIdial call recording explained.

Tracking who played what

Every time a user accesses a recording through the admin interface, VICIdial logs that access event automatically. The Recording Access Log report — available under Admin → Reports — lets supervisors audit who listened to which file and when. This is critical for compliance: you can demonstrate that only authorized reviewers have accessed sensitive recordings. See what the Recording Access Log shows and how to read it for details.

Downloading for offline review

Right-click the filename link and save the file if you need to share it with legal, compliance, or an external QA team. The downloaded file keeps its original filename, which encodes the date, campaign, and unique call ID — handy for labeling without renaming. For bulk download workflows that retrieve many recordings at once, a separate scripted process is typically needed, since the report screen is designed for individual file access rather than batch retrieval.

Want a managed VICIdial setup where recordings are always accessible, playable, and backed up without manual maintenance? See VICIfast pricing.