How to Screen Record Mac — Quick Guide

In this article, we’ve included the actionable and easy-to-follow steps to screen record a Mac using the BetterBugs extension for bug reporting and debugging in web apps — it’s perfect for QA, developers, project managers, and customer support teams in software. 

We’ve also covered the steps to record a screen on Mac systems using built-in tools: the Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player.

You can screen record on a Mac using:

1. BetterBugs Chrome Extension (Lightweight and free extension with quick sharing features)
2. Screenshot toolbar (Built-in Mac, only for Mojave OS or later)
3. QuickTime Player (Built-in Mac, supports all macOS versions)

BetterBugs is a lightweight and easy-to-use Chrome extension that enables you to take screenshots and record screens on Mac (and all other operating systems). 

It’s a fully-fledged bug reporting tool that allows you to create and share context-rich, visual, and technically sound bug reports upto 10 times faster than traditional bug reporting methods in software.  

With every screenshot or screen recording, BetterBugs automatically attaches debugging details from devtools (for developers) to the report, such as:

• Environment and device info
• Console logs (Info, warnings, log, error, network error)
• Network requests (Fetch/XHR, JS, CSS, WS, Media, Font, Method, Status)
• Back-end event logs (with Sentry integration)
• Steps (Page navigation, network errors, user activities)
• Metadata (Custom)
• Application storage state (cookies, local, session)

Steps to record a screen on a Mac using BetterBugs:

Step 1: Download and install the BetterBugs extension for Chrome

Download and install the BetterBugs extension from the Chrome Web Store. Pin it to your browser for quick access.

Step 2: Sign up to create an account to manage recordings 

Open the extension and sign up for a BetterBugs account to manage your recording from a central dashboard. You can sign up using your:

• Email 
• Google account
• GitHub account

Step 3: Open a web app or a web page on your browser

On Chrome, open the web app or webpage that you want to record.

Step 4: Click the “Screen Record” button to select record mode: Current Tab or Entire Window 

Open the extension and click the “Screen Record” button. You’ve two options for recording:

• Current Tab (allows you to record the browser tab that you’re currently on)
• Entire Window (allows you to record the entire window — all tabs and the visible screen)

NOTE: The Current Tab option DOES NOT RECORD the URL address bar, bookmarks bar, and the menu bar on your Mac.

Step 5: Enable Mic and Webcam (Optional)

You can enable the mic to record audio with the screen recording. Plus, you can add video messages to the screen recording by enabling the webcam option. It's perfect for adding personalized video messages or additional information that you may want to share with the screen recording.

Step 6: Start recording: Click on the “Current Tab” or “Entire Window” button

Click the “Current Tab” button to start the recording. A three-second countdown appears on your screen, and the recording starts. A recording toolbar pops up with controls for:

• Pause/Resume 
• Adding annotations to the video while it’s being recorded (perfect for highlighting things to add additional context) — Optional
• Blurring sections in your video (perfect for masking sensitive data/info in the recording) – Optional

Step 7: Stop recording 

Once you’re done recording your screen, hit the “Stop” button on the recording toolbar.

Step 8: Add title and upload 

Add a title for the screen recording and hit the “Upload Bug Details” button. You’re good to go.

A new browser tab instantly opens with the complete report, including the session video, added information, and auto-attached debugging details (console logs, network requests, device info, and others). 

Share the report link with others or with the integrated project management and issue trackers (Jira, GitHub, Asana, GitLab, and many others).

• Take one-click screenshots: Cropped, Visible, and Full Web Page
• Record screens (upto 15 mins): Current Tab and Entire Window
• Rewind: Get the last 2-minute recording of all browser activities to capture issues that just happened.
• Get developer logs: front + backend event logs from Sentry
• Quick sharing: Share and access the complete report with a simple link
• Integrate with Project tools and issue trackers (Jira, GitLab, Linear, and many others)
• Include AI descriptions and steps to reproduce: with the “Write with AI Assistant” button
• AI debugger: Get root cause analysis and possible solutions in seconds with the “AI Debugger” button after report upload.
• And many others

You can use BetterBugs for: 

• Bug reporting  
• Bug tracking
• Debugging
• Bug bash events
• UI issue reporting
• Software testing activities 
• Quality assurance (QA) overall 

You can add a title, description, steps to reproduce the issue (manually or using AI), and other details to create perfect bug reports for developers. With every bug report, BetterBugs auto-attaches:

• Environment and device info
• Navigation steps
• Frontend and network logs (console logs, network requests, warnings, and others)
• Event logs from the backend (with Sentry integration)
• Local storage and session 
• Cookies 

You share comprehensive bug reports with developers or directly to your bug tracking tools (Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Linear, Notion, and many more) using the report link. You can do this right from your browser without switching tools.

You do not have to save/share anything separately. Others can access the complete report by clicking the report link. Plus, the bug report comes with an AI debugger (after report upload) that gives you instant:

• Auto-repro steps of the issue
• Root cause analysis
• Test cases 
• Possible solutions for the issue

Also Read: Top 10 Screen Recording Tools

On a Mac, you can record the whole screen or a part of the screen with or without audio.

Steps to record a screen on Mac using the screenshot toolbar:

Step 1: Click “Shift + Command(⌘)+ 5” : Shortcut

On your Mac system, open the screen or app you want to record and use the shortcut “Shift + Command(⌘)+ 5”. This opens the screenshot toolbar.

Step 2: Select record mode: Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion

From the screenshot toolbar, select the recording mode you want to use:

• Record Entire Screen (records the entire visible screen)
• Record Selected Portion (drag the corners of the selected area to adjust the dimensions of the screen recording)

Step 3: Enable screen recording with audio using “Options > Built-in Microphone” (Optional)

To record the screen with your audio, click “Options > Built-in Microphone”. In the “Options” menu, you can also configure other settings for the recording, such as:

• Save the recording file to: Desktop, Documents, or Other Location 
• Set delay with countdown timer: 5 seconds or 10 seconds
• Show mouse clicks: Perfect while recording tutorials or guides

Step 4: Hit “Record” to start

To start recording, hit “Record”.

Step 5: Stop recording with the “stop” button or using the shortcut “ Command(⌘)+ Control (^) + Esc”

Once you’re done with the recording, hit the “stop” button available on the top menu bar. Alternatively, you can use the shortcut “Command(⌘) + Control + Esc” to stop the recording.

Step 6: Recording gets saved as a .mov file

The screen recording will be saved as a video file in the default or the selected saving location. Mac auto-saves your recording with the .mov format and gives the video “date.mov” as the default file name.

QuickTime Player is another built-in tool on Mac to record your whole screen or a part of the screen, with or without voice or audio. The steps are very similar to recording with the Screenshot toolbar.

Steps to record a screen on a Mac using QuickTime Player:

Step 1: Open the QuickTime Player app on Mac

Open QuickTime Player from the Launchpad or the Applications folder, or if it's available in the Dock.

Step 2: Go to “File > New Screen Recording” from the taskbar

In QuickTime Player menu from the top, click File > New Screen Recording. Then you'll see the screen recording controls, which are identical to the Screenshot toolbar's controls (introduced in Mojave). 

NOTE: For older macOS versions where QuickTime Player was the primary screen recorder, the interface was different but allowed full or partial screen recording.

Step 2: Select record mode: Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion

Select the screen record mode that you want:

• Record Entire Screen (to record full screen)
• Record Selected Portion (to record a cropped area on screen)

Step 3: Enable audio capturing using “Options > Built-in Microphone” (Optional)

Click “Options > Built-in Microphone” to record the screen with audio or your voiceover. You can also configure options to:

• Save the recording file to: Desktop, Documents, or Other Location 
• Set a 5 or 10-second delay with a countdown
• Show mouse clicks while recording the video

Step 4: Click “Record” to start recording

To start recording, hit “Record”.

Step 5: Stop recording with the “stop” button or using the shortcut “ Command(⌘)+ Control (^) + Esc”

To stop the recording, press the small stop button on the menu bar. You will see that appear on the menu bar. You can also press the key combination of “Command(⌘) + Control + Esc” to stop the recording. 

Step 6: The screen record gets saved as a .mov file

The screen recording will be saved as a video file in the default or the selected saving location. Mac auto-saves your recording with the .mov format and gives the video “Screen recording date at time.mov” as the default file name.

1 - How to cancel the recording before I start recording on Mac?

Use the “Esc” key before the recording starts to cancel the recording.

2 - How to edit the screen recordings on Mac?

Use built-in options, such as the QuickTime Player or iMovie, to do basic editing and trimming of screen recordings on a Mac. Or, you can also use a Chrome extension, such as BetterBugs, to trim your screen recordings right off the bat after recording and share it using quickly using the record link.

3 - How to allow screen recording on a Mac?

On your Mac, you can allow recording by opening System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording. Here, using the toggle switch(s), enable the apps for which you want to provide recording permissions.