I’m trying to make a video tutorial using my Mac, but I can’t figure out how to capture the screen with audio included. I tried the built-in screen recording but the sound isn’t coming through. What do I need to do to record both my screen and audio together?
So here’s the deal: Apple’s built-in screen recorder (either through QuickTime Player or hitting Cmd+Shift+5 for the screenshot toolbar) is comically useless for recording system audio. It’ll grab your mic, sure, but if you want that sweet, crisp computer sound (like app noises, music, etc), you’re stuck.
Here’s the actual workflow everyone uses: get a “virtual audio device” like BlackHole or Loopback. BlackHole is free and works just fine for most people. After installing, you set your Mac’s audio output to BlackHole in System Settings > Sound, then in QuickTime, set audio input to BlackHole too. This routes your Mac’s internal audio to the recording. Problem solved, right? More like problem replaced, because now you can’t hear anything—it’s all being sent to BlackHole. Solution: in Audio MIDI Setup, create a “Multi-Output Device” that combines BlackHole and your usual speakers. Select that Multi-Output Device as your audio output. Now your tutorial is recording AND you can actually hear what’s going on.
Some apps like OBS Studio can mix this all in a single place but there’s no real shortcut: MacOS just doesn’t make this obvious or easy. Bonus tip: sometimes permissions mess with audio capture, so if you don’t see input options, check System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and Screen Recording, and make sure your recording app is allowed.
TL;DR - Built-in recorder can’t grab system audio. Download BlackHole, wrangle your audio settings, record. Welcome to the party, pal.
You think Apple, with all their flair for “it just works,” would actually give us a way to record system audio out of the box, but NOPE—somebody at Apple must be deathly afraid of people recording their own gameplay with audio or something. Yeah, like @jeff said, the BlackHole/Loopback/thingamajig route is the standard hack, but let’s be honest, it’s kind of a pain to wrangle virtual devices if you aren’t already used to digging around in Audio MIDI Setup (which looks like it was designed for aliens, not humans).
Honestly, though, if you don’t want to futz around with BlackHole and you’re not obsessive about having perfect audio quality, there’s a dumb but effective workaround: run an aux cable from your headphone jack to your mic input and set QuickTime to record from your external mic. This is what we did back in the olden days before everyone went virtual device crazy. It’s a little janky, and you might pick up a bit of noise, but it technically works and you can hear what you’re doing. Unless you have a new MacBook with no audio in, in which case—never mind, you’re Apple’s favorite type of customer.
Or, if you just want to record EVERYTHING you see and hear like a pro Twitch streamer, skip Apple and just use OBS Studio (it’s free, works on Mac, and once you scale that learning curve, you can mix sources and do all the fun stuff). It sets up its own virtual device too, so you’re not totally avoiding the added steps, but the interface feels more transparent than hacking QuickTime.
One other thing—some iOS devices, you can AirPlay mirror to your Mac and THEN record that with audio in QuickTime, but that’s another rabbit hole.
Or, you know, lobby Apple to give us what every other OS can lol. Not holding my breath.
So, tl;dr: You either fight with virtual audio devices, get retro with cables (if you own the right dongle), or jump to OBS and just pretend macOS doesn’t hate content creators. Options, yay?