Where screen recordings go on a Mac, and how to send one fast

Screen recordings made with Shift-Command-5 are saved to the desktop by default, as a .mov file named Screen Recording followed by the date and time. If yours is not there, either the save location was changed in the Screenshot toolbar’s Options menu, or the file has not been written yet because the thumbnail in the corner is still showing. Both take a few seconds to check.

The default location, and how to see yours

Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot toolbar, then click Options. The first section, Save to, lists Desktop, Documents, Mail, Messages, Preview and Other Location. The item with a checkmark is where your recordings go.

If you once picked Other Location, the folder you chose appears in that list too, and it stays checked until you pick something else. That is the usual reason recordings “disappear”: someone chose a folder months ago and forgot.

Two things share this setting:

• Screenshots. There is one Save to choice for both screenshots and recordings. If screenshots land somewhere unexpected, recordings land there too.
• QuickTime Player. Its File > New Screen Recording command opens the same toolbar, so it follows the same choice.

To stop a recording, click the stop button in the menu bar or press Command-Control-Escape.

Why the file is not on the desktop yet

The most common “where did it go” moment happens in the first few seconds. When you stop a recording, a thumbnail slides into the bottom-right corner of the screen. While that thumbnail is showing, the file has not been written to its folder. It appears on the desktop only once the thumbnail slides away.

During those seconds you can:

1. Swipe the thumbnail to the right, or simply wait, to save it right away.
2. Click it to open a preview window where you can trim the start and end before it is saved.
3. Drag it straight into a document, an email, a Finder window, or a chat app.
4. Control-click it for a menu of other places to save it.

If the delay bothers you, turn the thumbnail off. Press Shift-Command-5, click Options, and uncheck Show Floating Thumbnail. Recordings then save the moment you stop.

Finding a recording that seems to be missing

If the thumbnail is long gone and the desktop is empty, work through these in order.

1. Search for it. Press Command-Space and type “Screen Recording”. Spotlight lists the matches. Select one and press Command-Return to reveal it in Finder, which also shows you the folder it went to.
2. Check Recents. In Finder, choose Go > Recents. New files from anywhere on the Mac appear here, and you can sort by date.
3. Check the Save to setting again. If it is set to Mail, Messages or Preview, the recording opens in that app instead of landing in a folder. Send it or save it from there.
4. Ask Terminal. Open Terminal from Applications > Utilities and run:

defaults read com.apple.screencapture location

If it prints a folder path, that is where captures are being saved. If it reports that the key does not exist, no custom folder is set and the desktop is the default.

If your Desktop and Documents folders sync to iCloud Drive, recordings still appear on your desktop, but a long one can take a while to upload. That matters if you expected to see it on another device straight away.

Choosing a better place for recordings

The desktop is a poor home for large video files, and they pile up quickly. To send them somewhere else:

1. Press Shift-Command-5 and click Options.
2. Choose Other Location.
3. Pick a folder, or click New Folder in the dialog and make one, such as Recordings inside Documents.

From then on, both recordings and screenshots go there. If you would rather keep screenshots on the desktop and only file the recordings, there is no built-in way to split them; move recordings after the fact, or switch the setting before a recording session. How to stop your Mac desktop filling up with files covers the wider habit.

Sending a recording on

Screen recordings are large, especially full-screen captures on a high-resolution display. Before you send one, two built-in steps help:

• Trim it. Open it in QuickTime Player and choose Edit > Trim, or click the floating thumbnail and use its trim control. Cutting the fumbling at the start and end shrinks the file and shows the viewer only what matters.
• Record less next time. Record Selected Portion in the Screenshot toolbar captures just the window or area you care about. It makes smaller files and keeps the rest of your screen private.

If the file is still too big for a chat or email limit, how to make a screen recording smaller on a Mac walks through shrinking it.

The last step is getting the file into the conversation. The thumbnail is gone after a few seconds, and dragging from the desktop means pushing every window aside first. Ledge gives the recording somewhere to wait. Drag the thumbnail, or the saved file, up to the notch and let go; it lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there. When the chat window is ready, open the shelf with Option-Space or a click on the notch and drag the recording into the conversation. The chat app receives the file as an upload.

The same recording dropped on a terminal arrives as its path, which is handy if you convert or compress it from the command line. Dropped on a Finder folder, the file itself moves there, which is a tidy way to get it off the desktop once it has been sent. Ledge has no account and no cloud, so nothing leaves the Mac until you send it yourself. Dropping a file into a chat app the right way and how to hand a screenshot straight to another app cover the same hand-off for other kinds of files.

Questions

Can screen recordings be saved somewhere different from screenshots?

Not with the built-in setting. One Save to choice covers both. Either move recordings after you make them or switch the setting before you start recording.

Why is there no sound in my recording?

The toolbar records without a microphone unless you choose one. Press Shift-Command-5, click Options, and pick a microphone under Microphone before you start.

What happens if I pull the recording out of the thumbnail and drop it somewhere?

The file goes to wherever you dropped it. If you drop it into an email or a chat, it is attached there, and depending on your version of macOS a copy may not be saved to your Save to folder. If you want a copy kept, let the thumbnail save first, then send the saved file.