I started recording my screen using the built-in feature on my Mac, but I’m not sure how to stop the recording. The screen recording shows as running and I can’t figure out which button or shortcut to use to end it. Can someone walk me through the steps to stop a Mac screen recording? I need to save my video.
To stop a screen recording on your Mac, just look for that little circle-with-a-square icon in your menu bar—usually at the top right, near the time and WiFi. Click it, and boom, recording ends and the video pops up automatically (by default it’s saved to your desktop). If you’re using the keyboard shortcut to record (Cmd + Shift + 5), you can also just hit “Stop Recording” in the controls that appear at the bottom of your screen. Lost those controls? No prob, the menu bar button’s your backup. Feels kinda like a scavenger hunt sometimes but hey, Mac loves to make us search for hidden UI gems.
Just to throw another wrench into the mix, if you’re like me and your menu bar looks like the spawn of an app hoarder’s nightmare, sometimes that little stop recording circle-square thing is buried behind other icons—super helpful, I know. I’ve literally spent a solid minute clicking random menu doodads ‘cause Spotlight was apparently on vacation. That being said, there’s actually another lesser-known way: If you started your recording in QuickTime Player (because Mac’s built-in stuff is basically QuickTime in disguise), you can just Command-Tab over to QuickTime and look for a Stop button in the little floating control window. Or, if the window got lost in desktop abyss, pressing Control + Command + Esc will instantly stop any active QuickTime recording—yes, Mac has secret ninja shortcuts like that.
I personally never trust the “ends up on desktop” promise either. Recordings sometimes end up in my Recents folder or just… vanish into the void (only to be found months later while searching for a dog photo). So definitely double-check once you hit stop; don’t just walk away. Side note: if your Mac’s acting weird and none of these work, you can force quit QuickTime to save the recording, but you’ll probably get a pop-up “Recovered file” instead of the usual filename.
Not saying @sonhadordobosque isn’t right, but depending on your cluttered menu bar and whether you’re using the built-in or QuickTime, you might have to do a bit more detective work. Macs: making simple stuff complicated since day one.