How to record your screen on a Mac

Create a video record of what happens on your display

Apr 17, 2020, 12:00 PM UTC

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Whether you want to save a video of what’s playing on your screen, share what you’re looking at with friends, or film a tutorial, recording your Mac’s screen can come in handy. Luckily, Macs have this feature built in (your iPhone does as well), letting you record part or all of your screen.

It also lets you record external audio — anything coming in through your mic — but the Mac’s built-in options don’t let you record internal audio. For that, you’ll have to download a third-party app, like Soundflower. You can, of course, turn on the external mic and turn up the volume, but this won’t give you great audio.

One more caveat: some apps, like Apple’s built-in DVD Player, will block you from doing any screen recording.

You can record your screen through QuickTime Player for all versions of macOS up to Mojave, but in newer versions of macOS (Mojave and Catalina), there’s a separate app called Screenshot which lets you record your screen. We’ll go through using that first, then cover the steps for using QuickTime.

Record your screen in macOS Mojave or Catalina