How to Record an iPhone’s Screen Using Your Mac

While the iPhone’s built-in screen recorder is handy, this method has its own advantages.

Your iPhone has a built-in screen recorder, but did you know that you can also record your iPhone’s screen with your Mac?

Apple introduced this feature in OS X Yosemite. You can easily use it to record your best gaming moments or an app walkthrough with an audio voiceover recorded with an external microphone.

All you need is a USB to Lightning cable and QuickTime on your Mac, but before we walk you through the steps, let’s explain why it’s better to use a Mac to record your iPhone’s screen .

Why use a Mac to record your iPhone screen?

The iPhone already has a built-in screen recorder, so why bother using your Mac for it? Here are a few good reasons why:

For starters, you get much better video quality with QuickTime Player. Videos recorded with QuickTime are saved as MOV files, while iPhone saves on-screen videos as MP4 files. The former is not as compressed as the latter. However, MP4 files are more commonly used and are smaller. However, that shouldn’t be a problem as you can easily convert MOV to MP4 later on your Mac.

Another reason is that you can easily edit and quickly merge your videos with QuickTime Player on your Mac. And that distracting red dot that appears in the top left of your iPhone’s screen when you start recording? This is not visible when recording with QuickTime on Mac.

You can also use QuickTime to record external audio. You can either use your Mac’s internal microphone or connect an external studio microphone, which is especially useful if you want to include voiceovers with your screen recordings. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s built-in screen recorder only records internal audio.

And finally, you can access your videos right on your Mac, another useful feature that can come in handy when AirDrop isn’t working for some reason.

Record your screen with QuickTime Player

To record your iPhone’s screen with QuickTime Player, you should first connect your phone to your Mac with a USB to Lightning cable. Now follow these simple instructions:

1. When you connect your iPhone to your Mac for the first time, iOS will prompt you to allow your Mac to view files. Beat trust on your phone.
2. Now open QuickTime Player on your Mac and go to file > New footage from the menu bar.
3. A new window is going to be opened. Click on the small arrow next to the red dot in the middle of the window. A list of options is displayed. Under the camera In the section, select your iPhone. Video recording starts. You can also use the Touch Bar on your Mac to start and stop recording.

4. To record your iPhone audio, click the small arrow again and select your iPhone under microphone Section. To record external audio, connect a microphone to your Mac and select External microphone.
5. To use your Mac’s internal microphone, simply unplug and select the external microphone Internal microphone in the drop down menu. Unfortunately, it is not possible to record both the iPhone audio and external audio.
6. You can switch between them High or Maximum Video quality in the same menu.
7. When you’re done recording, click File > Save from the menu bar.

However, remember that if you change the orientation of your iPhone’s screen while recording, QuickTime Player will throw an error and stop recording.

Also remember that you cannot record DRM-protected apps like Netflix using this method.

Start recording your iPhone’s screen

Now that you know how easy it is to record your iPhone screen using Mac, use this method to show all your friends your best gaming moments.

Of course, it’s easier to use the iPhone’s built-in screen recorder or rely on third-party apps, but with QuickTime Player in macOS you get the best video quality and the option to record external audio.