Call recording in 3CX (and your Australian obligations)
How to enable call recording in 3CX, where recordings are stored, and what Australian law expects you to tell callers.
Call recording in 3CX is genuinely useful — for training, settling "who said what" disputes and improving how your team handles customers. It is also the feature most likely to land you in trouble if switched on without thinking about the law.
This guide covers how recording works, where the files live and what you need to tell callers under Australian law — but note up front that this is general guidance, not legal advice.
How call recording works in 3CX
3CX records the call audio as it passes through your phone system and saves it as a file you can play back, download or push to your CRM. Recording runs at a few levels, and choosing the right one is the first decision:
- Per extension: record an individual or a team — the common choice for sales and support desks.
- Per queue or inbound rule: record only calls into a specific call queue or DID — the support line recorded, but not the back office.
- On demand: let staff start and stop recording during a call from the Web Client or app, where only some conversations need keeping.
- System-wide: record everything. Simple, but it captures personal and sensitive calls too, so use it with care.
For most businesses, recording by extension or by queue is the sweet spot — you capture the calls that matter without hoovering up everything. You set this in the 3CX Admin Console.
Where recordings are stored
By default, recordings save to disk on the machine running your 3CX instance. They grow fast, so storage is something to plan, not ignore.
- Disk space: if the drive fills, recording can stop. Size storage for the volume you make.
- Retention: 3CX can automatically delete recordings older than a set number of days. Pick a period that matches your needs and any legal hold.
- Where it lives: on a hosted or cloud PBX the files sit in the cloud instance; self-hosted, on your own server. Either way, it is data you are now responsible for.
- Backups: recordings are usually excluded from config backups because of their size, so back them up separately — see backup and restore.
Accessing and managing recordings
Authorised users find recordings in the Web Client and, with permission, in the Admin Console. Controlling who can listen is part of staying compliant, because recordings often contain personal information.
Set permissions deliberately.
A manager may need their team's calls; the whole office does not. Once a recording is a file on someone's laptop, you have lost control of it.
Search instead of scroll.
Recordings are linked to the call, so you can find them by number, extension or date.
Push to your CRM.
With 3CX CRM integration, the recording link can drop straight onto the customer's record.
Your Australian recording obligations
This is the part people get wrong. Recording is governed by both Commonwealth and state laws, and the headline is simple: you generally must not record a private conversation without the knowledge of the people on it.
Notify everyone.
Play a short message — "This call may be recorded for training and quality purposes" — before the conversation starts. In 3CX you do this with a recording notification or an announcement on the inbound rule.
Give people a choice where you can.
Letting callers opt out is good practice; on-demand recording helps.
Treat recordings as personal information.
Under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles, store them securely, use them only for the stated purpose and do not keep them longer than needed.
State laws vary.
Victoria, NSW and the other states each have their own surveillance and listening-devices legislation, especially around recording calls you are not party to. If recording is central to your business, get proper legal advice.
Setting it up the right way
Switching recording on properly — notification message, sensible scope, retention period, locked-down access and enough storage — is the difference between a useful tool and a liability. SIP Connect is a local Melbourne telco in Greensborough, and we can configure recording, notifications and retention on your 3CX system — call us on 1300 747 266 or use our contact page. Our inbound and outbound rules guide pairs well with this.
What we see installing this in Melbourne
Most Melbourne SMEs we switch on recording for fall into one of two camps: they have had it running for years with no notification message and no idea where the files are saved, or they have avoided it entirely because they were not sure of the rules. Both are fixable in an afternoon.
The recurring issues we see on AU sites: retention left at the default so the disk silently fills six months later; the notification announcement recorded once by whoever was in the office that day and never updated when the business name changed; and access permissions left wide open so every receptionist can pull every director's calls. On hosted 3CX the storage ceiling sneaks up faster than people expect once a sales team gets busy.
Where we add value is on the boring bits — writing a clean notification message, setting retention to a defensible period, locking down who can play back, and checking the recordings actually survive a restore before anyone needs them.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to tell callers I am recording them in Australia?
In almost all cases, yes. The law treats recording a private conversation without the participants' knowledge as a serious matter, and rules differ by state. The safest approach is to play a clear notification before the call connects, which 3CX can do automatically on the inbound rule.
How long should we keep call recordings?
Only as long as you have a genuine reason to — many businesses keep training and quality recordings for 30 to 90 days and hold specific ones longer only for a dispute. 3CX can delete recordings older than your chosen period automatically.
Will call recording use a lot of storage?
It can — a busy team can generate several gigabytes a month. Size your disk for real volumes and set a retention period; on a cloud PBX, check what storage is included.
Can we record only some calls instead of everything?
Yes. 3CX lets you record by extension, by queue or by inbound rule, or use on-demand recording. Recording only the calls with a clear business purpose is smarter than recording everything, and it reduces your privacy exposure.
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