New in OS X Yosemite: Record Your iPhone or iPad Screen with QuickTime

The ability to record an iPhone or iPad screen has long been available, but it required some work to get it going, such as jailbreak-only apps or AirPlay. With OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, Apple has now made recording the iPhone or iPad an easy and simple task. The key is QuickTime.
To record iPhone or iPad output on your Mac, make sure you’re running OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Then connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac using a Lightning cable. Note that you may need to “Trust” your Mac before the iPhone will work.
Launch QuickTime and select File > New Movie Recording from the menu bar. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Option-Command-N. This will launch a new QuickTime window for video recording. By default, QuickTime will activate your Mac’s built-in iSight camera, but ignore that and find and click on the small downward-facing triangle next to the record button. This lets you select an alternate recording source, which now includes your iPhone or iPad.
Record iPhone QuickTime
Select your iPhone or iPad from the list and you’ll see your device’s screen replicated in the QuickTime window. To provide that extra bit of professional polish, Apple automatically shows a clean iOS status bar, with full cellular reception, a full battery, and the historic 9:41 AM time setting, making your own iPhone recordings look just like Apple’s.
Record iPhone Quicktime Portrait
The QuickTime recording also recognizes iPhone or iPad rotation, so you’ll see the preview window on your Mac switch aspect ratios as you rotate your device.
Record iPhone Quicktime Landscape
The recording itself is near real-time, but there is some noticeable lag between performing an action on your device and seeing the action occur in the QuickTime window. This won’t be an issue for actual iPhone recordings, as the software will sync audio and video for the final output, but this does mean that you won’t want to use this feature while live to play games or perform tasks that require minimal latency.
As for audio, you can either record your iPhone or iPad screen and add audio later during post and editing, or you can record audio live with the video. Using the same drop-down menu from which you selected your iPhone screen, select the desired source you’d like to use for audio. This can be your Mac’s built-in microphone for narration, a third-party audio source, or the iPhone itself if you want to record the sound and music produced by the apps you plan to demonstrate.
When you’re done recording, just hit the stop button in the QuickTime preview window. You can then save the recording as a QuickTime movie (.mov) on your computer, or use the presets at File > Export to create a version optimized for certain resolutions or devices.

New in OS X Yosemite: Record Your iPhone or iPad Screen with QuickTime

30 thoughts on “New in OS X Yosemite: Record Your iPhone or iPad Screen with QuickTime”

Jim Connor says:
Thank you for your post, you saved me time and frustration trying to iterate through many possible methods. I brought up a pdf file on my ipad, used a very cheap stylus, connected the mac book to the ipad, started quicktime and it actually worked on the very first attempt. Thanks again for the meticulous directions.
Miya says:
Thanks for your useful tips on how to record your iPhone screen. You may also try to use AceThinker iPhone Screen Recorder. This tool will help you publish screencast of videos and animated images easily. Aside from that, you can mirror your iPhone screen into your pc wirelessly.
Emir says:
I’ve been doing this lately but now when I try the screen remains black but the odd part is quicktime is recognizing my iP.hone but not mirroring the screen.
Marek Mierzwa says:
Works like a charm. Thank you!
kelly pastelli says:
I’m trying to record a movie with my iPhone connected. It used to work before but now it has stopped working. There’s no more visual and when I stop recording it says “Cannot record, try again” I did not upgrade or download a different Quicktime player I have the 10.4 version. Please help.
Claire Attard says:
So it recorded everything well, but at the bottom i still have the recording buttons covering half of my video. What can i do to remove them? also when the camera is changing its focus, it is constantly creating the boxes on where it focuses which is showing up on my video. Can i remove that?
Ken Raye says:
This works wonderfully on Mac. Does anyone know the way this can be done on PC? I just want to record audio played on my iPhone live to PC.
Paul Juarez Lopez says:
Best method ever!!
benmore99 says:
Work perfectly, Thank you
Luong Nguyen says:
Can I record my iPhone screen without using a Mac computer?
Cyndy H. says:
I was able to connect and display my iPhone6 on my MacBook Pro beautifully. However, when I connect to QuickTime, I lose my data connection on my phone. 4 dots and the WiFi bars are displayed. I do not have WiFi or any internet connection other than my phone at my location. Anyone know why recording with QuickTime interferes with the data connection?
Fadi Mikha says:
It does not interfere with your data connections. It just tries t make the recording professional. It gives you full signal, full wifi, removes the carrier name, and makes the time 9:41 AM like all the presentations that apple makes.
Nadene Indraj says:
I clicked the arrow next to the record button but it doesn’t give me any options other than my mac. What do I do???? I’ve also tried alt+cmd+N which didn’t help!
TRISTA HENNEBRY says:
When I was having that problem I launched iTunes so that the computer recognized my iPhone, then I relaunched Quicktime and it showed up!
Hope that helps!
Kenlimepie -The Marble Guy says:
Still doesn’t work. 🙁
Felicity Rain says:
This didn’t help.
Nelsoncolar says:
The recording itself is near real-time, but there is some noticeable lag between performing an action on my iPhone and seeing the action occur in the QuickTime window. Any thoughts on what else I could check to fix this? I used to record my iPhone screen with Acethinker iPhone screen recorder, never had that problem.
[BLANK] says:
I’m trying to record my IPad Air 2 screen on a MacBook Air and the option to use my iPad won’t show up even if I press option + command+ n.
JS says:
I had the same problem but then realized that the drop down menu was not saying “iPhone” or “iPad” or whatever…instead it had my name…which is associated with my phone…I clicked that and there it was…my iphone. Try looking for that instead.
Ehsan Chowdhury says:
how do youtubers put the recording on the picture of a iphone
Matthew Keefe says:
Depends on the desired result, but most simulated screens in video are added in post production. One tool to use would be Adobe Premiere with rotoscoping.
angelica huston says:
This was super helpful!!! Thank you!!!!! 🙂
Kam T says:
So I tried to record my iPhone 5c screen on my MacBook Air:
So I connected my Phone to my laptop using the lightning connecter,
Opened QuickTime,
Selected “New Movie Recording”,
Hit the drop down arrow to select what camera to use, but when I clicked on it my phone wasn’t and option, What do I do?
Allan says:
i know what you’re looking at. you have to press option+command+N it opens a window where the drop down includes your phone. 🙂 works beautifully
Nick says:
I connect my iPad to the Mac and it says there is no camera connected
Vicki Bensinger says:
Can I capture a video directly on my iPhone that I forgot to copy from my Periscope since I don’t have a Mac?
Andrea says:
Did you ever find out how to do this? I have the same issue.
Doe do says:
Mine doesn’t come up with the ipad sign or whatever what do i do
Dushyanth Srinivasan says:
Would this work with the Windows version?
Ender Brick says:
Does this work with older iPad’s (Like the third generation with 30 pin connector)
Magali says:
Nope, only iDevices with lightning connector apparently.
Carson Yip says:
how do you record your voice while recording iphone’s sound? thx 🙂
Luke Sand says:
For some reason it will only record the audio, even when i click screen recording
Pukimak LaSial says:
can i use windows instead of mac?
Cole S says:
I’ve been searching for how to do this and I finally found it.
Ollie Taylor says:
THANK YOU
Matrixeditor says:
Does windows QT pro-version do the same? and I am looking for alternative apps which are cheaper, are there any??
TekRevue says:
No, this only works with QuickTime X, which isn’t available for Windows. As far as I know, the only way to record iPhone video in Windows is with third party software like X-Mirage.
Kervin Lee says:
Great tips! But, I’m afraid that it would be a little
troublesome to record iPhone screen through connecting to Mac. Recently, I have
learned some apps that can record phone screen directly. And the recorded videos
are in high quality. This article has purely clear instructions, maybe it’s
helpful to someone who prefer using phone apps.
http://www.apowersoft.com/record-iphone-6-screen.html

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