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Yosemite & iOS 8 How-To: Record video from your iOS device on the Mac

Have you ever wanted to create an iOS gaming video or a tutorial of how to use your iOS device? Now, with Yosemite and iOS 8 you can record and make a video of what you are doing on your iOS device using your Mac. Here’s how:

In order for this to work, you need to have a newer iOS device with the Lightning connector and the Lightning cable. This includes the iPhone 5 or newer, iPad 3 or newer, iPad mini or newer, and iPod touch (5th gen).

To get started open up the QuickTime app included with your Mac. Then in the upper left hand corner where your menu bar is located, click on File and then select New Movie Recording, or press Command-Option-N on the keyboard.

QuickTime opens up and immediately you see yourself on the computer screen if you have a web cam built-in or connected. Next to the record button, there is a drop down menu. Selecting that will give you the option to change which camera you are using, either the one that’s built -in directly into your Mac or the iOS device. Select the iOS device to use that as the source. You also have the option to choose which microphone you want to use for the recording, either the one that’s connected to the computer or the one from your iOS device.

While your iOS device is unlocked you will see its display on the computer.

When you are ready to record, press the red record button in the center. When you do something on the iOS device like a tap or a swipe you will see the action on the computer while it’s recording. You will also see it when playing back the video.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXyCssGA_rE]

To save the video, select File from the menu bar in the upper left hand corner then press save. Alternatively, you can press Command and S at the same time on the keyboard. You can also easily share the video via Mail, Messages, AirDrop, Vimeo, Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube by hovering the cursor over the video and pressing the Share button that appears in the upper right hand corner of the gray box in the center. The Share button is the one that has the square with the arrow aiming up from the middle. 

That’s it! Now you have a high quality video recording of something you wanted to capture from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This feature is available on Macs running OS X 10.10 Yosemite with iOS devices running iOS 8. How will you use Yosemite and iOS 8’s built-in screen capturing feature for iOS devices?

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Comments

  1. scumbolt2014 - 9 years ago

    Cool tip! Thanks!

  2. applemagichd - 9 years ago

    Unfortunately, you can’t record your screen on iPad 3 because this model doesn’t have a Lightning connector.

  3. bad it does not work on iPAD 2

  4. beardman64 - 9 years ago

    I opened the camera app on my iPhone while I recorded with QuickTime on my Mac, so you can use your iOS device as an external camera or like a webcam. Awesome.

  5. John Smith - 9 years ago

    ipad 3 does not have a lightning connector.

    • airmanchairman - 9 years ago

      Correct! I just tried it, fingers crossed, with my iPad 3, but no cigar.

      Hmmm… I wonder if it’d be fooled into working with some combination of lightning adapter?

  6. Mark Armitage - 9 years ago

    Or you could just get the reflector app and do a ‘start recording’. Much simpler, uses any iOS device and connects via USB or WiFi.

  7. Mark Armitage - 9 years ago

    (app runs on any Mac – http://www.reflectorapp.com)

  8. Jim Hassinger - 9 years ago

    Excellent! I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and I’ve seen that little downward arrow next to the record button, but it never occurred to me to see what was under it!

  9. airmanchairman - 9 years ago

    Super tip and write-up!

  10. It doesn’t include the audio.

    • J.Johnson - 9 years ago

      Yes it does. You have to select audio source. You can use the device’s audio or the audio from the microphone on the MacBook

  11. macxpress - 9 years ago

    Doesn’t work on with Mac mini and iPhone 5C. :(

    • nekomichikun - 9 years ago

      It should, but you must be running OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Some iPhone 5C models come with iOS 7 and need to be updated.

      • macxpress - 9 years ago

        I am running the latest versions of both iOS and OS X, still doesn’t work on my Mac mini.

  12. Amgad Ali - 9 years ago

    i got a retina Macbook with os x 10.10.2 and an iphone 6 with 8.2 and an ipad mini 3 with 8.2.. and no sign of any iOS device within the cam list.. only the built in cam and the built in microphone :((((

  13. Raymond Constantino - 9 years ago

    It works perfect on my 6 Plus and 2013 Mac Pro Retina! Awesome! Thank You!

  14. mattsoneblog - 7 years ago

    I cannot get my iPad Air or iPhone 6 to connect – I don’t see them as an option in the drop down menu on quicktime. I used to record my iPhone screen with Acethinker iPhone screen recorder, never had that problem.