Where Do Screen Recordings Go on Mac? Find, Change & Recover

Where does Mac save screen recordings by default?

Screen recordings on Mac are saved to your Desktop by default, exactly like screenshots. When you stop a recording made with the Screenshot toolbar (Cmd+Shift+5), macOS saves it as a .mov file on your Desktop with the name Screen Recording 2026-06-30 at 14.32.15.mov — the date and time you started the recording.

If you previously changed the save location for screenshots using Cmd+Shift+5 > Options, that same location is used for screen recordings too. The setting is shared — there's no way to save screenshots and screen recordings to different folders using macOS alone.

On macOS Tahoe, screen recordings still save as .mov files regardless of your HDR settings. (Screenshots may switch to HEIC on HDR displays, but recordings stay as MOV.)

How to find a screen recording you just made

If you recorded your screen and can't find the file, check these locations in order:

1. Check your Desktop

Look for a file starting with "Screen Recording" on your Desktop. Right-click the Desktop, choose Sort By > Date Added to push the most recent file to the top. Screen recordings can be large (hundreds of MB for long captures), so they're easy to spot if you sort by file size.

2. Check your configured save location

Press Cmd+Shift+5, click Options, and look at the Save to section. The checkmark shows where your recordings are going. If it's set to Documents, a custom folder, or another location, that's where your recording landed.

3. Search Finder

Open Finder, press Cmd+F, and search for Screen Recording. Set the scope to "This Mac" and sort by Date Modified. You can also search by kind: set the search filter to Kind is Movie to narrow results to video files only.

4. Check QuickTime Player's auto-save location

If you used QuickTime Player (File > New Screen Recording) instead of the Screenshot toolbar, QuickTime doesn't auto-save — it opens a preview window and waits for you to save manually with Cmd+S. If you closed QuickTime without saving, the recording might be gone. Check this path for auto-recovery files:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/

Open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G, and paste the path above. If there's an unsaved recording, it will be here.

5. Check the Trash

You might have accidentally deleted it, especially if you clicked the floating thumbnail and chose "Delete" from the markup preview. Open Trash from the Dock and search for .mov files.

How to change where screen recordings are saved

The same setting controls both screenshots and screen recordings. Change it once, and both go to the new location.

Method 1: Screenshot toolbar

1. Press Cmd+Shift+5 to open the Screenshot toolbar
2. Click Options
3. Under Save to, choose a preset (Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview) or click Other Location…
4. Select any folder on your Mac

The toolbar remembers this choice across restarts. Every screenshot and screen recording from this point on goes to the folder you picked.

Method 2: Terminal

To set a custom save location via the command line:

# Change save location for screenshots and screen recordings
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Recordings
killall SystemUIServer

Replace ~/Recordings with any path. Create the folder first if it doesn't exist (mkdir ~/Recordings). To reset back to Desktop:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture location
killall SystemUIServer

Where do third-party screen recorders save files?

If you use a third-party app, recordings go wherever that app is configured to save them — not the macOS default:

If you can't find a recording and you have multiple screen recording apps installed, check which one is configured to handle your recording shortcut. Look in the menu bar for icons from recording apps that might have intercepted the capture.

How to recover a deleted screen recording

If you deleted a screen recording and need it back, try these recovery methods in order:

1. Check the Trash

Deleted files go to the Trash and stay there until you empty it. Open Trash from the Dock, find the recording, right-click it, and choose Put Back to restore it to its original location.

2. Restore from Time Machine

If you have Time Machine backups enabled, you can recover the recording from a backup:

1. Open the folder where the recording was saved
2. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose Browse Time Machine Backups
3. Navigate back in time to find the recording
4. Select it and click Restore

3. Check iCloud Recently Deleted

If the recording was in an iCloud-synced folder (Desktop or Documents with iCloud Drive enabled), it might be in iCloud's Recently Deleted. Go to icloud.com/iclouddrive, sign in, and check Recently Deleted. Files stay there for 30 days.

4. Use data recovery software

If you emptied the Trash and don't have backups, third-party tools like Disk Drill or PhotoRec can sometimes recover files from the disk — but only if the disk space hasn't been overwritten by new data. Act fast and avoid writing new files to the same drive.

Screen recordings vs screenshots: where each goes

Both screenshots and screen recordings share the same Save to setting in Cmd+Shift+5 > Options. If you change it for one, it changes for both.

Tips to keep screen recordings organized

Create a dedicated folder. ~/Recordings/ keeps video files separate from screenshots, which matters because recordings are much larger (50–500 MB vs 1–15 MB for screenshots). Use Cmd+Shift+5 > Options > Other Location to set it.

Rename immediately. Screen Recording 2026-06-30 at 14.32.15.mov is useless three days later. Right-click the floating thumbnail after recording, choose Open in the markup view, then rename before closing. Or rename in Finder right away.

Delete what you don't need. A 5-minute screen recording at Retina resolution can be 200+ MB. Unlike screenshots, recordings eat disk space fast. Review and delete recordings you no longer need at least weekly.

Use a cloud-savvy recording tool for sharing. If you record screens to share with teammates (bug reports, demos, tutorials), tools like Loom upload directly to the cloud and give you a shareable link. No local file management needed.