How to screen record on Mac with audio

What macOS records, version by version

Free route: the Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5)

The Screenshot app is the recorder already on your Mac, and on macOS 27 it does the whole job. On older versions, the same steps get you your voice and nothing else.

1. Press ⇧⌘5 and pick a recording button: the entire screen, a window (macOS 26 Tahoe or later), or a portion of the screen.
2. Click Options and, under Microphone, choose the microphone to record your voice. Choose None for no microphone.
3. On macOS 27 Golden Gate or later, also choose Include System Audio in the same menu. On macOS 14 to 26 the option is not there.
4. Click Record. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar or press ⌃⌘Esc. The recording is saved as a .mov file, on the desktop unless you chose another Save to location.

Two notes from Apple's support article (published 14 September 2026, checked 15 October 2026): some apps, the Apple TV app among them, may not let you record their windows, and if you hear feedback, lower the volume or use headphones. Apple doesn't say whether the microphone and the system audio land on one track or two.

Free route: QuickTime Player

Open QuickTime Player and choose File → New Screen Recording (⌃⌘N). What happens next depends on your Mac. If the Screenshot toolbar appears, Apple's article says the Screenshot app is doing the recording, so the steps above apply, Include System Audio included on macOS 27. If QuickTime's own Screen Recording window appears instead, it offers a microphone choice and a monitoring volume slider. Either way, on macOS 14 to 26 it does not record the Mac's sound. Its real advantage is afterwards: it opens the recording the moment you stop.

The old way: BlackHole and a Multi-Output Device

On macOS 27, skip this section. Include System Audio does in one click what the following takes six steps and a driver to do. On macOS 14 to 26 it is still the standard free workaround, and it works because of a trick: the built-in recorders can record any input device, so you invent an input device that carries the Mac's sound. BlackHole is a free, open-source virtual audio driver (GPL-3.0, Intel and Apple silicon, checked 15 October 2026) that does exactly that. A Multi-Output Device then sends the sound to your speakers and to BlackHole at once, so you can hear what you record.

1. Install BlackHole 2ch from existential.audio or with brew install blackhole-2ch, and restart if the installer asks.
2. Open Audio MIDI Setup, click the + button at the bottom left and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
3. Tick Use for your speakers or headphones and for BlackHole 2ch. Keep the speakers at the top of the list as the primary device, and tick Drift Correction for every device except that one.
4. Right-click the Multi-Output Device and choose Use This Device For Sound Output. The volume keys stop working while it is the output: BlackHole's documentation notes that macOS can't change a Multi-Output Device's volume, so set each device's level in Audio MIDI Setup instead.
5. In the Screenshot toolbar's Options, or QuickTime Player, choose BlackHole 2ch as the microphone and record.
6. When you're done, choose your speakers again as the sound output in System Settings → Sound.

The catch is in step 5. The recorder takes one input, and you just gave it BlackHole, so your real microphone is no longer recorded. The usual fix is a second invented device, an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup that joins BlackHole and your microphone, but how the Screenshot app treats a multi-channel input is not documented, so make a ten-second test recording before the real one.

If you'd rather pay to skip the plumbing, Loopback from Rogue Amoeba builds the same kind of virtual device in a window, combining audio from chosen apps and input devices into one source any recorder can pick. It is paid, with a trial that applies limits, and lists macOS 14.5 to 27 as supported (checked 15 October 2026).

Free route: OBS Studio

OBS Studio is the free, open-source recorder streamers use, and on macOS it no longer needs a virtual driver for system audio. Its knowledge base says that OBS Studio 30 on macOS 13 or later has a macOS Audio Capture source that records all desktop audio or just one application (checked 15 October 2026).

1. Download OBS Studio from obsproject.com. Version 30 or later on macOS 13 or later has the macOS Audio Capture source.
2. Add a macOS Screen Capture source for the display, window or app you want to show.
3. Add a macOS Audio Capture source and choose all desktop audio or a single application.
4. Add an Audio Input Capture source for your microphone, or set it in Settings → Audio, but not both, or you'll hear yourself twice.
5. If you won't edit the file, leave every source on track 1 in Advanced Audio Properties, because standard players play one audio track at a time. Then click Start Recording.

OBS's multi-track guide puts that last step plainly: "all standard video players will only play back one audio track at a time." Separate tracks are for an editor. OBS's best trick here is recording a single app: a call without the notification pings.

Microphone and system audio as two tracks: Snapline

Snapline records both sources on macOS 14 and later, without a driver, a Multi-Output Device or a scene editor. Both are off by default, so a recording is silent until you ask for sound.

1. Press ⌥⌘R (rebindable) and choose a region, a window or a display.
2. On the Record Screen bar, click the Microphone toggle. The chevron beside it picks which microphone: System Default unless you choose another.
3. Click the System Audio toggle, the speaker, for what the Mac is playing. It needs nothing beyond the Screen Recording permission Snapline already has.
4. The first time the microphone is on, macOS asks for Microphone access. If it is refused, the recording goes ahead without the microphone and says so.
5. Record and stop as usual. The movie carries the microphone and the system audio as two separate tracks, never mixed.

The toggles are a setting, not a one-off: they match Settings → Recording → Recording audio, so the next recording starts the way you left them. A few things follow from how the audio is captured:

• System audio comes with the picture. It is ScreenCaptureKit's own audio stream, delivered alongside the video, which is why it needs no second permission. Snapline's own sounds, such as the capture chime, are left out of it.
• The two are independent. Either can be on alone. A refused or missing microphone, or one unplugged mid-take, never stops the recording: the video and the system audio carry on, and you are told at the time rather than on playback. A chosen microphone that isn't connected falls back to System Default, with a notice naming it.
• Two tracks, on purpose. An editor can lower the music under your voice, or drop one source entirely, because nothing was mixed. The flip side is OBS's warning above: a player that plays one audio track at a time will play one of them. If the file is going straight to someone, check it in their player first, or record it as a Studio take.
• A GIF has no sound. Converting a recording to a GIF drops the audio, as every GIF does. See how to turn a screen recording into a GIF.

In a Snapline Studio take

A Snapline Studio take, on a Mac with Apple silicon, records the same microphone and system audio when you turn them on, then lets you mix them. Flip the Record Screen bar's switch from Quick to Studio and record. In the editor's Audio section (⌘4), Loudness brings the mix to a target of -14, -16, -19 or -23 LUFS (-16 is the default) and keeps it under -1 dBTP, and Volume has its own slider for the microphone and for the system audio. The export is an MP4 with one mixed stereo track, which is what you want for a file that will be played rather than edited. Studio is included in every Snapline license.

Snapline is free to try in full for 14 days (after the trial, capture unlocks with a one-time license: no subscription, no account) and requires macOS 14 or later. Screen Recording is the one permission a recording requires, and system audio rides on it. Microphone is asked for only when you switch the microphone on, just as Camera is only for the camera bubble and Input Monitoring only for Show Keystrokes. Download Snapline and record your first take with sound in under a minute.

Troubleshooting

No sound in the file

• Check the microphone choice. In the Screenshot toolbar it is under Options, and None means none. In Snapline, both audio toggles start off.
• Check the permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone. Once refused, macOS won't ask again, so this pane is the only way back.
• Check your macOS version. On macOS 26 or earlier, the built-in recorders never record the Mac's own sound.
• Check the BlackHole plumbing. If you used the old way, the Multi-Output Device must be the sound output and BlackHole must be the recorder's microphone. Either one alone records silence.
• Check the format. A GIF carries no audio, ever.

Echo or a doubled voice

With speakers on, the microphone hears the Mac and records it a second time, a fraction of a second late. Use headphones, which is also Apple's advice, or turn the speakers down. In OBS, a microphone set both in Settings → Audio and as an Audio Input Capture source is recorded twice; OBS's own documentation warns about exactly this echo.

Only one side of a call

You hear yourself but not them: system audio wasn't recorded, which on macOS 14 to 26 is the built-in tools' normal behaviour, and with headphones on the microphone can't pick the other side up either. Turn on system audio (Include System Audio, BlackHole, OBS, or Snapline's System Audio toggle). You hear them but not yourself: the microphone was off, or BlackHole took its place as the input. And if the file has both but a player plays only one, that's a two-track file in a one-track player: open it in an editor, or mix it into one track (OBS's track 1, or a Snapline Studio export). Whatever the tool, tell the people on the call you're recording.

The wrong microphone

The Screenshot toolbar uses the microphone ticked under Options, and Snapline uses the one picked from the chevron beside its Microphone toggle, which lists every connected input. A display's or a webcam's built-in microphone is often the one picked by accident, so check the name before a long take. AirPods as the microphone are a known compromise: BlackHole's documentation warns that their microphone runs at a lower sample rate, and in a Multi-Output Device they should never be the primary device.

Audio out of sync

In the BlackHole route, drift between devices is the usual cause: make sure Drift Correction is ticked for every device in the Multi-Output Device except the primary one. In Snapline, the microphone and the system audio are both stamped on the Mac's host clock, the same clock as the picture, and the writer fills any gap in a track with silence rather than letting the rest of the track slide earlier. If a recording still drifts, send it to support@snap-line.app; that's a bug, not a setting.

Questions

Can a Mac screen record internal audio without extra software?

Yes, on macOS 27 Golden Gate or later: press ⇧⌘5, click Options and choose Include System Audio. On macOS 14 to 26, neither the Screenshot toolbar nor QuickTime Player can record what the Mac plays; they record a microphone only, so you need a virtual audio device such as BlackHole, OBS Studio, or a recorder that captures system audio itself.

Why does my Mac screen recording have no sound?

Usually one of four things: the Microphone option was set to None, the recorder was denied Microphone access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone, you wanted the Mac's own sound on a macOS version before 27 where the built-in tools cannot record it, or you converted the recording to a GIF, which has no sound at all.

How do I record my voice and my Mac's audio at the same time?

On macOS 27 or later, choose both a microphone and Include System Audio in the Screenshot toolbar's Options. On earlier versions, use OBS Studio (a macOS Audio Capture source plus your microphone), Loopback to combine the two into one virtual device, or Snapline, which records the microphone and the system audio as two separate tracks.

Do I still need BlackHole on macOS 27?

Not for a plain screen recording with system audio: the Screenshot toolbar's Include System Audio option covers that from macOS 27 Golden Gate. BlackHole is still useful on macOS 14 to 26, and for routing audio between apps, which is a bigger job than recording it.

Does recording system audio need an extra permission?

In Snapline, no: system audio comes through ScreenCaptureKit on the same stream as the picture and is covered by the Screen Recording permission. The microphone is a separate macOS permission in every app, asked for the first time you record with it.

Is it legal to record a video call on a Mac?

That depends on where you and the other people are, not on the Mac. Some places require everyone on the call to agree. The simple habit that covers you almost everywhere is to say you are recording before you start.