Mac Screen Recording Troubleshooting: Black Screen, No Sound, Lag

When Mac screen recording is not working, the cause is usually one of three things: the app doesn’t have permission to record the screen, the audio source isn’t the one you think, or the Mac locked or slept while you were recording. Each one has a quick fix, and you can find the right one by working through the symptoms below in order.

If you just need the basics of recording, start with how to screen record on Mac.

Find your symptom

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The whole recording is black	The app has no Screen & System Audio Recording permission	Turn the app on in Privacy & Security, then reopen it
One window or video is black	Protected content, such as the Apple TV app	Nothing to fix: no setting changes it
Only the wallpaper shows	The Mac locked or the display slept	Lengthen the display timeout, or keep it awake with caffeinate -d
Your voice is missing	No microphone selected, or no microphone permission	Pick a microphone in the recorder, allow it in Privacy & Security
The sound your Mac plays is missing	Built-in toolbar before macOS 27, or a recorder without permission	Use Include System Audio on macOS 27, or a third-party recorder
Choppy video	Too many pixels, or other apps using the CPU	Record a window, close heavy apps, plug in
Recording won’t start or stops	Missing permission, full disk, stuck app or a plan’s length limit	Check permissions and storage, then reopen the app
Huge files	Full-screen Retina recording, long takes	Record a window, trim, export with HEVC

Triage: check these in order

If the table didn’t point you to the cause, start at the top. The first three checks take a minute.

Black screen or only the wallpaper

The whole recording is black

The most common cause is a missing permission. macOS only lets apps capture the screen if you allow it.

If the app is already on and you still get black frames, or macOS keeps asking for permission, our screen recording permission fix goes through the stubborn cases.

Only one window or video is black

Some content is protected. Apple notes that some apps, such as the Apple TV app, may not allow recording of their windows. Streaming video in a browser can behave the same way. That’s on purpose, and no setting changes it.

You see only the wallpaper

This one is easy to miss. If the Mac locks or the display goes to sleep while you’re recording, the windows aren’t on screen any more, and the recording can end up showing only the desktop picture from that point. We ran into exactly this while building JustRec: recordings made while the Mac was locked showed nothing but the wallpaper.

To prevent it during long recordings:

• Lengthen the display timeout. In System SettingsLock Screen, set Turn display off on battery when inactive and Turn display off on power adapter when inactive to a longer time.
• Keep the display awake from Terminal. The built-in caffeinate -d command prevents the display from sleeping until you stop it with ⌃C.
• Don’t lock the Mac to step away. If you’re recording something that runs on its own, stay logged in with the screen on, and remember that anything on screen is in the video.

No sound

First work out which sound is missing: your voice (microphone) or the sound your Mac plays (system audio). They’re set up separately.

Your voice is missing

• Select a microphone. In the ⌘⇧5 toolbar, open Options and choose a microphone; None turns it off. Third-party recorders have a similar setting.
• Allow microphone access. Go to System SettingsPrivacy & SecurityMicrophone and turn on the app.
• Check the input. System SettingsSoundInput shows which device macOS uses and lets you adjust the input volume. A headset or external interface can quietly become the default.
• Watch the indicator. The recording indicator in Control Center shows when a microphone is in use, a quick way to confirm the app is listening.

The sound your Mac plays is missing

Until recently, the built-in tools recorded only the microphone. Apple’s instructions now include an Include System Audio option in the Screenshot toolbar, on macOS 27 Golden Gate or later. On earlier versions you need a third-party recorder, and that app needs the Screen & System Audio Recording permission. Our guide to screen recording on Mac with internal audio covers every version.

Choppy video, lag and dropped frames

A recording that stutters means the Mac is struggling to capture, encode and save frames while doing everything else.

• Record fewer pixels. A full 5K display is a lot of data. Record a window or an area, or choose a lower resolution in your recorder. See how to record one window or part of your screen.
• Close heavy apps. In Activity Monitor, click CPU, then click a column heading to sort the list and see what’s busy. Browsers with many tabs, video calls and exports in the background are the usual suspects.
• Plug in. In System SettingsBattery, Low Power Mode reduces energy use to increase battery life. If recordings stutter on battery, try again on power with the Energy Mode set to Automatic.
• Check whether it’s the recording or the playback. Open the file in QuickTime and press ⌘I to see its frame rate. If the file is fine, the player or the network was the problem.

Recording doesn’t start or stops on its own

• Permission. If nothing happens when you click Record in a third-party app, check Screen & System Audio Recording first.
• Storage. Video needs room. Check System SettingsGeneralStorage and free up space before long recordings.
• Length limits. Some recorders limit recording length by plan. In JustRec, for example, the maximum is 10 minutes on Lifetime and 30 minutes on Personal and Team.
• Stuck app. Quit and reopen it. If ⌘⇧5 itself doesn’t respond, restart the Mac.
• Can’t find the file? After a ⌘⇧5 recording, a thumbnail appears in the corner; if you ignore it, the file is saved to the desktop by default. More in where screen recordings go on Mac.

Huge files

A few minutes of full-screen Retina recording can take a lot of space. Record a window instead of the whole screen, trim the ends, and export with HEVC in QuickTime (FileExport As1080p, then Smaller File Size). The details are in how to make a screen recording smaller on Mac. If the file is big because you need to send it, send a link instead of an attachment.