This seems like it should be easy, but it’s not, so I thought I would capture the steps I used to record ONLY the person I am interviewing — and not my own video image.

In an ideal world, you would (a) open your ZOOM account, and (b) select the person to be recorded. In the real (and sometimes complicated) world of ZOOM, you must (a) sign up for a more expensive ZOOM account, such as ZOOM Pro, and (b) go through a dozen steps for each individual recording. Yes, this is crazy, and I sure wish ZOOM would read this article and make things much easier for everyone. Until they do, here’s what I now know how to do. I hope it’s helpful.

1 – Sign into the ZOOM call, and make sure you are the HOST.

2 – Blur your video background, if you like.

3 – Log into a second computer on a ZOOM account that is not your own. The computer can be the same wifi network as your first computer, but it must use a different ZOOM account. Be sure to JOIN the conversation. NOTE: It’s best for the second computer to be an actual computer, not a phone or tablet — unless you can completely silence the phone or tablet, Otherwise, you may hear feedback. If you must use a phone or tablet, place it in a drawer in another room.

4 – On the first computer’s ZOOM screen, ADMIT the second log-in by pressing “Admit.”

5 – Return to the second computer. Press RETURN to accept the audio question. MUTE the microphone, and shut off the computer’s speaker(s).

6- Now you are ready to ADMIT the interviewee’s computer on your first computer.

7 – Immediately after admitting the interviewee’s ZOOM account, click on the upper right corner to see a drop-down menu. Select SPOTLIGHT FOR EVERYONE.

8 – Be sure you are in SPEAKER view on your first computer. Now, press the RECORD button. You can record either to your ZOOM cloud account or to your first computer’s selected disk drive.

9 – Begin the conversation. You will be seeing, and recording, only the interviewee. Check to make sure that (a) the spotlight is in place (upper left corner of the ZOOM screen), and (b) you are indeed recording (upper right corner of the ZOOM screen).

10 – When the conversation ends, STOP the recording and end the ZOOM call. ZOOM will automatically begin to process the recorded files (audio, video, and some other files). Leave your first computer alone, let the processing take place without interruption. Meanwhile, go to the SECOND computer to confirm that there is no active ZOOM conversation. (It should have disconnected when the ZOOM call ended).

11 – After a few minutes, ZOOM will open a new file that is labelled with time and date, and the name of the ZOOM conversation. The file will contain the audio and video files, etc. Find the .mp4 file and play it, or play parts of it. You should see ONLY the interviewee, but you should hear all of the voices that spoke during the ZOOM call.

12 – If you are doing this multiple times, it’s wise to issue a separate ZOOM invitation for each conversation. That way, each conversation will record separately, in its own file folder.