How to record your iPhone screen on a Mac

Step by step

1. 01

   Connect your iPhone

   Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a USB cable. When the iPhone asks whether to trust this computer, tap Trust and enter your passcode. Keep the phone unlocked, with its screen on.

2. 02

   Open Device Recording

   In ScreenFlowy’s capture bar, click Device, or press ⌥⌘6 from any app. The Device Recording window opens, finds your iPhone and shows its screen live. With more than one device connected, choose yours from the menu at the top.

   If macOS asks to let ScreenFlowy use the camera, allow it: that is how the iPhone’s screen reaches the app.

3. 03

   Choose what to record with it

   Along the bottom, Camera adds your Mac’s webcam in a bubble, Microphone records your voice and System Audio records the iPhone’s own sound. Turn off anything you don’t need.

4. 04

   Record

   Click Start Recording. Recording starts straight away, with no countdown, so have the first screen ready. Then use your iPhone as usual.

5. 05

   Stop

   Click Stop Recording. The window closes and the editor opens, with your recording already set in an iPhone frame chosen to match its screen.

6. 06

   Choose the frame and finish

   In the Background tool, Device Model lets you pick another iPhone and its colour, or turn the frame off. Add zooms by hand on the zoom track, then export.

If your iPhone doesn’t appear

• On the iPhone, tap Trust again if it asks, and make sure its screen is unlocked.
• Try a genuine or certified cable, or another USB port on your Mac.
• Restart the iPhone and plug the cable back in. If that doesn’t help, restart your Mac and try again.
• Make sure the iPhone runs iOS 11 or later and that USB Restricted Mode is off. The window’s own iOS device not recognized? link walks through all of this too.

Keep the screen awake

ScreenFlowy records what the iPhone shows, so if the phone locks or its screen goes to sleep, the mirroring stops. Keep it unlocked while you record; setting Auto-Lock to Never, in the iPhone’s Display & Brightness settings, keeps it awake through long takes.

If the feed is cut off, or the cable comes out, ScreenFlowy tells you and keeps everything recorded up to that moment.

Zooming in on an iPhone recording

Automatic zooms follow mouse clicks, so an iPhone recording starts without any. Click an empty spot on the zoom track to add one wherever you want the view to move in, and adjust it in Zoom Settings like any other.