diff --git a/recording/src/nextcloud/talk/recording/Config.py b/recording/src/nextcloud/talk/recording/Config.py
index 1c7a85ab29c..c1ec3ce0157 100644
--- a/recording/src/nextcloud/talk/recording/Config.py
+++ b/recording/src/nextcloud/talk/recording/Config.py
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ def getBackendSecret(self, backendUrl):
 
         Defaults to None.
         """
-        if self._configParser.get('backend', 'allowall', fallback=None):
+        if self._configParser.get('backend', 'allowall', fallback=None) == 'true':
             return self._configParser.get('backend', 'secret')
 
         backendUrl = backendUrl.rstrip('/')