Mac screen recording has no sound? Here’s how to fix it

If your Mac screen recording has no sound, the file almost always captured the picture and skipped the audio source you thought was on. On macOS that source is usually the microphone, not the computer. QuickTime and Command-Shift-5 do not record system audio by default. The recording is not “broken.” It never subscribed to internal sound.

Work through the checks below in order. Most people stop at step two once they hear the difference between mic and Mac output.

Apple’s built-in screen capture is designed around privacy and a simple mic picker. That is good for a voice memo over a Keynote deck. It is bad for a product demo that includes UI sounds or a tutorial that plays a video in Chrome. Search queries like “no audio on screen recording,” “screen recording no sound Mac,” and “QuickTime no sound” are the same complaint.

A second class of silence is operational: microphone permission off, the wrong input (iPhone microphone via Continuity, a dead USB interface), volume at zero on the source tab, or a virtual device left selected from last week’s OBS experiment.

1. 1Play the file and watch the audio meters in QuickTime or Finder preview. If the waveform is flat, nothing was recorded. It is not a speaker problem.
2. 2Ask: did you need your voice, the computer’s sound, or both? Mic-only tools will never pick up YouTube in a browser.
3. 3System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and Screen Recording. Toggle the app off and on after a macOS update.
4. 4In Screenshot Options or QuickTime, confirm a real microphone is selected, not “None.”
5. 5If you need internal audio, do not keep retrying QuickTime alone. Use a virtual driver or a native system-audio recorder, then run a 10-second test with a loud browser video.

QuickTime’s New Screen Recording control records the display plus the microphone you choose in the dropdown. There is no “Mac speakers” checkbox. If the dropdown was None, the MOV is silent even if you talked. If a mic was selected but the product’s soundtrack is missing, that soundtrack was never an input.

People then install BlackHole so QuickTime can “hear” the Mac. That works when Multi-Output routing is correct. It is also easy to leave BlackHole as the system output and wonder why Zoom or Spotify misbehave later. If you only needed one demo this week, a recorder that captures system audio without that driver is less cleanup.

The Screenshot toolbar Options menu includes Microphone. If it is off, you get video only. If it is on, you get mic. Same limitation as QuickTime for internal audio. Command-Shift-5 is the capture shortcut; Command-Shift-4 is stills.

You have two honest options. Route Mac output through BlackHole (or Loopback) into QuickTime or OBS. Or use an app that captures Mac system audio natively. Glisio is in the second group: enable system audio in the recorder, optionally add the microphone, and test with a clip that plays sound from the computer. Details live in how to screen record on Mac with audio and the without-BlackHole use-case page.

Denied Microphone access produces a silent voiceover even when system audio is fine. Denied Screen Recording can produce a black frame, not just missing audio. Fix that first. Bluetooth headsets sometimes appear as an input with no level until you open Sound settings and speak. Safari or Chrome muted on the tab you are demoing will record a quiet computer even if the rest of the Mac is loud.

In an editor, a muted track, a disabled audio lane, or an export preset that drops the audio stream can make a good capture look broken. Re-export with audio enabled. If you used iMovie or Final Cut, check the clip’s audio inspector. If you used a cinematic Mac recorder, confirm you did not solo a video-only compound clip.