How to Stop QuickTime Screen Recording

The stop button on QuickTime screen recording will appear at the very top toolbar of your Mac screen, towards the right-hand side. This button is often near the battery indicator. It will appear as a “button” style icon. You need to hit Ctrl + Command + Esc if you are using QuickTime to make a screen recording, which forces it to quit. But different software has its own different set of controls and shortcuts you can use to stop recording.

Using Screenshot in the QuickTime Player app, you can make a video recording of your computer screen. You can open the QuickTime screen recording in the app and save it on your Mac. In the QuickTime Player app on your Mac, choose File > New Screen Recording to open Screenshot and display the tools. You can click Options to control what you record — for example, you can set the location where you want to save your recording, or include the pointer or clicks in the recording.

To stop recording, click the Stop Recording button in the menu bar (at the top right of your screen) or use the Touch Bar. Depending on where you chose to save the recording, an app may open. After you have started a recording, all you need to do to stop the recording is click on the “Stop” button that appears on your menubar once you have launched the QuickTime screen recording.

While Quicktime can be useful for recording your screen on the Mac, it can often be confusing when it comes to stopping the QuickTime screen recording.

Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to do this. During QuickTime screen recording, the menu bar is hidden from view to prevent it from being seen in the video. You can not bring it back to the screen by hovering where it was. Right-clicking on the QuickTime icon will not help either. While it may seem like a hassle not to have the toolbar reappear, there is actually an easy way to stop recording.

You can do this by accessing your Mac’s menu bar, which is located at the top of the screen. QuickTime screen recording can be stopped by clicking the round icon next to the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi icons. Alternatively, you can end recording with the help of keyboard shortcuts. Just press the Control + Command + Esc keys together to stop recording immediately.

However, keep in mind that the keyboard shortcut to stop QuickTime screen recording may not work if you have other shortcuts with similar keys set up on your Mac. To screen-record on a Mac, open QuickTime Player from your dock or the Applications folder (Go > Applications). Then, in the top left corner of the screen, choose File > New Screen Recording.

You can also press the Control + Command + N keys simultaneously to activate the new task.

Adjust the QuickTime screen recording settings, such as the audio source. Then click the record button to start recording. Sometimes, you will not be able to stop screen recording in QuickTime using the methods mentioned above. If QuickTime is frozen, you have to force quit the app. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor. Alternatively, you can go to Spotlight Search (F4) and type in Activity Monitor.

Once Activity Monitor opens, click the Energy tab. Then choose QuickTime Player and click the X (Stop) button to force quit the app. Note that if you terminate QuickTime Player from Activity Monitor, the app will be closed, and the QuickTime screen recording will stop. However, you will lose the recording as it does not get saved. The screen recording process in QuickTime is a bit complicated for many users.