Perhaps your iPhone is doing something odd and you want to take a video of this behaviour to show to a tech expert. Maybe you’re playing an iOS game and want to share your performance with friends or YouTube followers. Or you might just be wondering whether you can surreptitiously capture some video that’s playing on your iPhone and save it.
If that sounds like you then you’ve come to the right place. In this tutorial we explain how to record a video of what’s happening on your iPhone or iPad screen so you can keep or share it.
Recording your screen is a good solution if you’re using the TV app on your iPhone and have found out that it no longer autoplays the next video. Here’s what to do if autoplaying next video is a problem.
How to record your iPhone screen in iOS 11 or 12
Screen recording is easiest if you’re running iOS 11 or later. ( iOS 12, at time of writing the latest version of iOS, also has the screen recording feature. Here’s how to install iOS 12.)
To enable screen recording, you first need to make sure the feature is in Control Centre:
- Open Settings and tap Control Centre > Customise Controls.
- The top list shows what’s included. Assuming ‘Screen Recording’ is not there, find it in the bottom list and tap the + button beside it.
Now we can start a recording any time we like.
- Bring up Control Centre (swipe down from the top-right of the screen on an X-series iPhone, or from the bottom on an iPhone with a Home button).
- The Screen Recording icon is a circle with a dot inside it. Tap this to start recording.
- Following a three-second countdown, everything on the screen will be recorded.
- While you’re recording, there will be a red bar at the top of the screen, or a red blob around the time in the status bar.
- When you’ve finished, tap on the red bar or blob, and confirm to stop recording. If that doesn’t register, bring up Control Centre and press the record button again.
- Your screen recording video will be saved in Photos where you can access and edit it if you wish.
Note that for certain apps – such as FaceTime – this method won’t capture audio, just the video. For advice on getting round this, see How to record a FaceTime call on Mac & iPhone.
How to record videos on your iPhone
Thanks to the screen recording feature which was added in iOS 11, it’s possible to make a copy of a video that’s playing on your iPhone or iPad.
To do so, follow these steps:
- Open YouTube (or other video website).
- Find the video you wish to record.
- Get ready to start playing it in landscape.
- Swipe up on the Control Centre and tap on the Record button as above.
- Wait while the video plays and then stop the recording when it’s done.
- The video will be stored in Photos.
Remember that just because it’s easy to copy video this way, it doesn’t mean it’s ethical to do so. Please respect video makers’ copyright.
How to record in iOS 10 or earlier
You can use QuickTime on your Mac to record the screen on your iPhone or iPad if you haven’t updated to iOS 11 or 12. Here’s how.
Open QuickTime on your Mac (read more about using QuickTime to record video on your Mac). Right-click on the QuickTime icon in the dock, or use the menu to choose New Movie Recording.
Plug your iPhone or iPad into your Mac and make sure it’s a trusted device (tap trust on the device when prompted).
In QuickTime, click the small arrow to the right of the record button and select your iOS device. It should then be displayed onscreen, ready for you to start recording.
If you’d like to edit together your best photos and videos, here’s how to edit a Home Movie in Memories. We also have a complete guide to using iMovie on the Mac to edit your iPhone video.