How to screen record on Mac

Press Command-Shift-5. In the toolbar, choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, then click Options and pick a microphone if you want your voice. Click the record button, do the thing you came to capture, and stop from the stop icon in the menu bar. The file lands on the desktop unless Options points somewhere else. That is the whole built-in path on a current Mac.

QuickTime Player can open the same control: File, New Screen Recording. Through macOS 26, both tools record the microphone you select. They do not record system audio, which is the sound the Mac itself plays. On macOS 27 or later, Screenshot Options adds Include System Audio. If your file is silent, or it has your voice and not the browser, that is the gap. The rest of this page is the clicks, then that gap.

1. 01Press Command-Shift-5. Command-Shift-4 is still the still-screenshot shortcut. Command-Shift-6 captures the Touch Bar on older Macs.
2. 02Choose Record Entire Screen, or Record Selected Portion and drag the box.
3. 03Open Options. Set the microphone to your voice, or to None if you want a silent picture. Set the timer and the folder if the desktop is not where you want the file.
4. 04Click Record. On the full screen, the countdown starts immediately. For a selection, click inside the box.
5. 05Stop from the stop button in the menu bar. Click the thumbnail if you want to trim, or open the file from the folder you chose.

The first time, macOS asks for Screen Recording permission. If you deny it, you get a black frame or nothing useful. System Settings, Privacy & Security, Screen Recording. Turn the app on, and quit and reopen it if the toggle was already on from an older attempt.

Open QuickTime Player, then File, New Screen Recording. On current macOS this is the same Screenshot toolbar. The microphone menu is the part people miss. None means a silent file even if you talked. A selected mic means your voice, not Safari, not a notification, not a video playing in the corner.

QuickTime saves a MOV. You can trim the ends in QuickTime with Edit, Trim. It will not add the computer’s soundtrack after the fact.

Play the file. If you hear your voice and not the Mac, the mic worked and system audio was never an input. Through macOS 26 there is no speakers checkbox in QuickTime. On macOS 27 or later, record again with Include System Audio turned on in Options, then test with a short browser video.

On earlier macOS, people install BlackHole, a free virtual audio device, and build a Multi-Output device in Audio MIDI Setup so QuickTime’s microphone menu can hear the Mac. Select BlackHole as that microphone, leave your headphones in the Multi-Output so you can still hear the computer, record a ten-second test, then set the Mac’s sound output back to your real speakers. A leftover Multi-Output device is why Zoom or Spotify acts strange the next day.

OBS Studio on macOS 13 or later can take desktop audio from its macOS Screen Capture source without BlackHole. That is the right tool if you already stream. It is a lot of scenes and settings if you wanted one demo.

• A slide, a bug, a click-through: Command-Shift-5, mic or none.
• macOS 27 or later, and you need app sound: Include System Audio in Options, then a test clip.
• Older macOS, and you need app sound once: a native recorder, or OBS if you already use it.
• You want to stay inside QuickTime on older macOS: BlackHole, then switch the output back.