When it launched the Mojave operating system in 2018, Apple introduced built-in screen recording for the macOS (and came down hard on other screen recording apps). The app, called Screenshot, is an easy-to-use, convenient way to save a video (and audio!) of whatever is happening on your screen. If you have macOS Mojave or a later version, you’ll be able to access this feature.
If you have an older Mac or just haven’t updated your operating system in ages, not to worry – you still have a fairly easy option to screen record with QuickTime. Here are your options.
Much like using screenshots on iOS, the process for recording the screen on a Mac is straightforward. When recording the full screen, users will press the Record Entire Screen button. To start the recording, users can click anywhere on the screen. To stop recording, either press the Stop button or use the keystroke Command-Control-Escape. ⌘ + Shift + 3 The screen capture shortcut on the Mac is one of the most useful tools I know. It grabs the screen and neatly places a.png file onto your desktop. But is this the highest quality screen capture you can get? To record only a portion of the screen, drag the cursor to resize or move the recording window. To record the entire screen, click anywhere on the screen. Click the “Start Recording” button in the middle of the window. Once you’re ready to stop recording, click on the small, square stop button in the top menu bar. Record the entire screen Click in the onscreen controls. Your pointer changes to a camera. Click any screen to start recording that screen, or click Record in the onscreen controls. Free Download Screen Recorder on Mac/PC. The Swiss Knife for screen recording, online video capturing and editing. Record screen activities on Mac computer with high quality and capture online videos from YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion and 1000+ online sites and edit (cut, trim, split, merge, remove noise, add subtitle/watermark/effects.
Record your computer screen with Screenshot
If you have Mojave, Catalina, or a later MacOS, launching Screenshot is easy.
Press command, shift, and 5 on the keyboard simultaneously. Screenshot will open. At the bottom of your screen, you’ll see the Screenshot control bar. You have options for grabbing a still screenshot or for recording a video. You can tell which options are for video recording, because you’ll see a little circle recording icon on the logo.
Choose whether you want to “Record Entire Screen” or “Record Selected Portion.” If you choose to record only a portion of your screen, a box will show up allowing you to drag and resize the recording window.
Click on “Options” to see what other preferences you can choose. You can set a countdown timer, choose which microphone to use, and decide where to save your recording, for instance.
Once you’ve selected the options you want, it’s time to record. Click the “Record button.” Or, if you’re recording the entire screen, you can simply click anywhere on the screen to start recording. If you’ve chosen to set the timer, you’ll see the timer counting down until the recording begins. If not, recording will begin immediately.
To stop the recording, click on the little square stop button in the upper right corner of the menu bar from the top of your screen. You can also hit command, control, esc to stop recording. Or, hit command, shift, 5 and the screenshot bar will reappear with a stop button you can click. Or if you have a Touch Bar, you'll see a stop button in the upper left.
Once you stop recording, you’ll briefly see a thumbnail of the video in the lower-right corner of your screen. If you swipe the thumbnail to the right or do nothing, your recording will automatically save as a QuickTime movie (MOV) in the location you’ve set.
To move the recording to another location, drag the thumbnail to your desired folder. You can also insert it into an email or document by dragging it into an open window.
For even more options, hit controland click the thumbnail. You can change the location where it’s saved, open the recording in a specific app, or delete the recording.
Trim your recording
If you click on the thumbnail when it appears, the recording will open, which will allow you to edit the video. If the thumbnail has already been saved to your desired location, you can open it by clicking on the file and hitting the spacebar. (You can also open it in Quicktime by double clicking on it or right clicking the file and selecting “Open With > QuickTime”)
From the top right of your screen, you’ll see a trim icon. Click that icon to — you guessed it — trim the video.
From the bottom of the screen, drag the editing bar to the desired frame where you want the video to start and end. Preview your edited clip by hitting the Play button.
Trimmed too much? Hit the “Revert” button on the top right of your window. Otherwise, click “Done” and the trimmed clip will either replace the existing clip or save as a new one, whichever you choose.
Record your screen with QuickTime
You can also use QuickTime Player to record your screen, which may be your only option if you have an earlier macOS. Here’s how to use it.
Open the QuickTime Player application.
From the top menu, click on “File.” You can also right click the QuickTime icon if it’s in your Dock. Select “New Screen Recording.”
The “Screen Recording” window will pop up. Next to the red record button, you’ll see an arrow for a dropdown menu list, where you can access options for showing your mouse clicks and choosing which microphone to use for audio. You’ll be able to choose where to save your video later.
To record only a portion of the screen, drag the cursor to resize or move the recording window. To record the entire screen, click anywhere on the screen.
Click the “Start Recording” button in the middle of the window.
Once you’re ready to stop recording, click on the small, square stop button in the top menu bar. You can also hit command, control, esc and recording will stop.
Edit and save a QuickTime recording
Once you’ve stopped recording, QuickTime will automatically open the video. Hit “File” from the menu to decide where to save the video. The screen recording will be saved as a MOV in that location. (In some operating systems, you may be able to trim or rotate your QuickTime video.)
SEE ALSO: Zoom to launch support for M1 Macs
Find its location, then click on the file to highlight it. Hit the spacebar to open a preview window where you’ll be able to rotate or trim the video using the icons in the top right menu in the window.
Hit the rotate button to rotate the video clip. To save it, simply close the window.
To trim the clip, hit the trim icon. From the bottom of the screen, drag the editing bar to the desired frame where you want the video to start and end. Preview your edited clip by hitting the Play button.
Edited too much? Hit the “Revert” button on the top right of your window. Otherwise, click “Done” and the trimmed clip will either replace the existing clip or save as a new one, whichever you choose.
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QuickTime has screen recording feature, which you can totally depend on for Mac screen capture.
Regardless of your Mac model, desktop or laptop, you must need to record the screen of it for different reasons from now and then. Even you haven’t had such requirement before, knowing how to record Mac screen is also a basic skill that you should master in case under some accidental circumstances, you are not equipped with such skill to quell something.
The simplest way to capture Mac screen is to utilize the macOS-bundled screen recorder whose name is QuickTime. This versatile media player, similar to top-notch VLC, provides screen recording feature to meet the potential video capture needs. With it, you can select any specific region or the whole desktop to record, with audio coming from mic or not. Internal system sound cannot be grabbed due to the copyright and piracy issue. However this is a workaround…
How to Use QuickTime Player to Record Mac Screen
The workflow is quite easy and you can follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open up QuickTime, navigate to File menu on the top toolbar and click “New Screen Recording”.
Step 2: The related screen recording prompt will pop up. For macOS Mojave or Catalina users, a brand-new Screencast app shows up (which can also be called out by pressing Shift-Command-5). While for earlier system users, it’s the QuickTime-style “Screen Recording” control.
Step 3: Define the target recording area through ready-made options (shown below) and mouse. Then set the Microphone source, Save to path, Timer, and others like whether to Show Mouse Clicks or not during recording.
Earlier Screen Recording panel works a little bit different. By clicking the down arrow, you are only given Microphone and Options. Recording region selection is available after tapping the record button.
Step 3: Start and end QuickTime screen recording. Note that the stop button is located in the menu bar.
Step 4: Utilize the thumbnail to trim, save, or share.
Many users get troubled in stopping the QuickTime capture, like they don’t know “how to stop QuickTime screen recording” or the “stop button on menu bar can’t stop recording” exactly. In view of this, you are suggested to try button and shortcut methods back and forth. Below are some shortcut details for QuickTime screen recording on macOS 10.15 & 10.14.
| Action | Shortcut |
| New screen recording | Control-Command-N |
| Open Screenshot app | Shift-Command-5 |
| Capture the entire screen | Shift-Command-3 |
| Capture a portion of the screen | Press Shift-Command-4 to select |
| Capture a window or the menu bar | Press Shift-Command-4 -> Space bar to choose with camera pointer |
| Capture a menu and menu items | Press Shift-Command-4 to choose the menu item with pointer once you opened the menu. |
| Capture the Touch Bar | Shift-Command-6. |
| Stop the Recording | Command-Control-Esc |
Why do Some Screen Recordings of QuickTime Have No Sound?
QuickTime creates no-audio recording is a normal phenomenon, because as is mentioned above, QuickTime doesn’t feature capturing screen with the sound coming from computer. It means, when you haven’t input your voice via Microphone, no matter what’s going on on the desktop, QuickTime won’t record the sound from it at all, unless the volume of internal audio is so high that Microphone has received its signals.
QuickTime offers no way to grab sound from system and built-in apps like QuickTime itself, Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube, then how to walk this through? Just keep your patience to move on.
How to Record Mac Screen with Internal Audio?
The screen audio recording limitation of QuickTime paves the way for both third-party virtual audio driver and Mac screen recorder with audio. In other words, you have 2 ways to achieve a regular screen recording with internal audio.
Way 1 – User Third-party Mac Screen and Audio Recorder
Standalone desktop screen recording software comes in handy and is the most recommended way to make screencast. For one thing, screen recorder is more powerful than amateurish QuickTime screen recording by offering more flexible settings and effects. For another, without seeking for any third-party driver setup, the program itself is able to handle audio capture perfectly. Here we take how RecMaster works as the demonstration.
RecMaster is an easy but slick screen recorder with intuitive interface. It supports any kinds of screen video recordings like game capture, entire screen capture, certain app capture, a fixed area capture, webcam capture and pure audio capture. To help create more engaged and eye-catching footage, RecMaster enables you to superimpose front camera face into screen at any position and size for explanation, to show and highlight mouse cursor for demos, as well as make annotations for instructions. Now please download and install it on your Mac machine for easier screen recording.
Steps on how RecMaster records:
Step 1. Prepare your capture content and open RecMaster for Mac
Step 2. Choose the right mode. When heading over to the secondary window, check and alter the presets if it’s necessary. You are free to customize video format, quality, frame rate, webcam mix, audio source and recording length.
Video Record My Screen Mac
Step 3. Click record button to make the capture happen. Note that the annotation feature will come to RecMaster for Mac soon.
Step 4. Stop the recording. Then play and do easy edits.
Way 2 – Use QuickTime Plus Third-party Audio Driver
Once you install any kernel extension like Soundflower, the extension will route audio from any app to another. Thus, QuickTime is empowered to grab app sound. There are also many Soundflower-alike virtual audio drivers, such as Blackhole and Loopback.
Record Video From Screen Mac
Final Words
All in all, QuickTime player is a nice choice if you are going do some basic recording without internal sound. However, if you are a video nerd and will frequently document screen videos for your vlog, work or so, adopting a decent and affordable application like RecMaster is a wiser choice.