How to Screen Record on a Mac: Shortcuts, QuickTime and When to Use a Recorder

You need to show someone what is happening on your screen, and typing it out is not working. The good news is that a Mac can record its own screen out of the box. The less obvious news is that there are two built-in ways to do it, they behave slightly differently, and neither one will tell you where the file went.

This guide covers both, in order of how often people need them, and then says honestly where they stop being enough. Every step below was checked against Apple's own support pages for recording the screen on a Mac and for QuickTime Player.

How do you screen record on a Mac with Shift-Command-5?

This is the fastest way to activate screen recording on a Mac, and it works on every supported Mac.

1. Press Shift-Command-5. A toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen.
2. Choose a recording mode. Record Entire Screen captures the whole display. Record Selected Portion lets you drag the borders of a rectangle. Record Selected Window is available in macOS Tahoe 26 or later.
3. Open Options to set the microphone, a timer, the save location and whether mouse clicks are shown.
4. Click Record. For a selected window, click the window you want.
5. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar or press Command-Control-Esc.

A thumbnail appears in the corner. Click it to trim the clip, or leave it and the file saves itself. If you change your mind before recording starts, press Esc.

Can you record with QuickTime Player instead?

Yes, and some people prefer it because the result opens straight into a player.

1. Open QuickTime Player from the Applications folder.
2. Choose File > New Screen Recording, or press Control-Command-N.
3. Click the small arrow beside the Record button to choose a microphone and whether to show mouse clicks in the recording.
4. Click Record, then either click once to capture the whole screen or drag to select an area and click Start Recording.
5. Stop with the menu bar button or Command-Control-Esc. The recording opens automatically so you can play it, trim it or share it.

Depending on your version of macOS, New Screen Recording either opens the same Screenshot toolbar described above or shows QuickTime's own small recording window. Either way you get a .mov, and the only difference is where the microphone choice lives: under Options in the toolbar, or in the arrow beside Record in QuickTime's window. ReScreen vs QuickTime Player compares the built-in tool with a dedicated recorder in more detail.

Where do screen recordings go on a Mac?

To the Desktop, unless you have told the toolbar otherwise. The file is a .mov named Screen Recording followed by the date and time, which is why a busy Desktop turns into a pile of near-identical names.

To change it, open the Screenshot toolbar with Shift-Command-5, click Options, and choose a folder under Save to. Everything you record afterwards goes there. If you are wondering where to find a screen recording on a Mac or a MacBook, look on the Desktop first, then search Spotlight for "Screen Recording", which finds the .mov by name wherever it landed.

How do you stop or end a screen recording on a Mac?

To end a screen recording, or turn it off, click the Stop button in the menu bar, which appears as soon as the recording starts, or press Command-Control-Esc. The shortcut is the one to remember, because it needs no menu bar at all, which is handy when a full-screen app is hiding the button. If you instead want to turn off screen recording for an app, that permission is under Privacy & Security in System Settings.

What about sound?

The built-in tools let you choose a microphone and, on earlier versions of macOS, nothing else. Apple documents an Include System Audio option from macOS 27. If the app you are demonstrating makes a sound, an older Mac will record your voice but not the app. How to screen record on a Mac with audio goes through every case and how to fix each one.

What do the built-in recorders leave out?

Apple's documentation lists these options for screen recording: a microphone, a timer, a save location, whether to show mouse clicks, and on newer systems a capture format. It does not list zooming into what you click, styling the cursor, keeping your voice and the app's sound on separate tracks, or an editor that opens when you stop.

That is not a criticism. A quick clip for a colleague does not need any of them. They matter when the recording is going to be watched by people who cannot ask you what you meant: a tutorial, a demo, a support answer, a lesson.

How do you screen record with ReScreen?

1. Open ReScreen and choose a display, window, application or a region you draw.
2. Switch on the microphone, system audio or camera if you want them.
3. Press ⌥⌘R to start. Press it again to stop.
4. The take opens in the editor with zooms already built from your clicks, which needs the Input Monitoring permission to detect them, and a playable MP4 is waiting beside the project.

The full list of what you can capture is on the screen recording feature page, and the timeline editor covers what you can do to the take afterwards.

Why would a screen recording not start?

Two causes cover most of it.

Permission. macOS asks for Screen Recording permission the first time an app captures the screen. If you declined, or the prompt never appeared, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security and enable the app under Screen Recording. Then quit and reopen the app. ReScreen also asks for Input Monitoring, which is what lets it see clicks and build zooms; without it, recording still works.

The window refuses. Apple notes that some apps, such as the Apple TV app, might not let you record their windows. That is the app protecting its content, not your Mac misbehaving, and no recorder will get around it.

Should you film the screen with a camera instead?

No. People who ask how to videotape a screen, or how to film a computer screen, mean the same job as recording it, and pointing a camera at the monitor is the one way not to do it: the picture is dim, the text is blurred and the colours are wrong. The recorder captures the pixels directly. On a MacBook or any other Mac laptop the laptop's own display is what is recorded, unless you choose another one. Streaming video can be captured too, with a caveat: some apps protect their content and will not appear in a recording, and a streaming service's terms apply to what you do with the capture.

How do you record an OS X screen on an older Mac?

On a Mac running Mac OS X, before the Screenshot toolbar existed, QuickTime Player's New Screen Recording was the built-in route, and it still is. The steps are the same: open QuickTime Player, choose File > New Screen Recording, choose a microphone and click Record.

Can you record an iPhone or iPad screen on a Mac?

Yes, and QuickTime Player is the built-in way. Connect the device with a cable, open QuickTime Player, choose File > New Movie Recording and pick the iPhone or iPad from the arrow beside the Record button. A cell phone screen recorder is already built into the phone, in its control centre, which is the quick option for a short clip; the Mac route suits longer takes. ReScreen records the Mac's own screen only.

Which should you use?

For a one-off clip, use Shift-Command-5. It is already there and it is fast. If you record regularly, or the video will be watched without you in the room, the zooms, audio tracks and editor are what save you the evening, and the best screen recorder for Mac, by job shows how the options compare. If cost is the deciding factor, the guide to free screen recorders for Mac is honest about what you give up.

When you are ready to try a dedicated recorder, see pricing or download ReScreen for macOS.