How to Find and Recover Screen Recording on Mac 2024 (Unsaved or Deleted)

avatar
Connie Yu
Updated on July 02, 2024 Preview 26.4K Preview 5
share it facebook share it Twitter

Screen recording unsaved or deleted on Mac? No worries!

Anytime when you need to explain a process or capture the screen activity on your Mac, you will initiate QuickTime Player to do it. It is an indispensable and reliable tool to record screen videos on Mac. However,  leaving a screen recording unsaved or mistakenly deleting it happens indeed. 

Rather than starting the recording over again, you can just sit down, use a shortcut, a built-in macOS tool or a dedicated app, find and recover an unsaved or deleted QuickTime screen recordings on Mac with ease.

 

Where Are QuickTime Screen Recordings Saved?

There are 2 locations to save a QuickTime screen recording on Mac: the selected location and the autosave location.

On macOS earlier than Big sur, after the screen recording, you will be asked to choose a location to save the screen recording. While on macOS Big Sur or later, the screen recording is saved to Desktop by default, you can check the Save or Options to find where you screen recordings are saved:

quicktime save

Across all macOS versions, QuickTime has the autosave feature to store screen recordings automatically, that’s to say, a recording in process will be automatically saved in the defaulted folder, until you save the recordings later. And the autosave location is a bit different according to macOS versions. 

In macOS Catalina and earlier macOS X, the location where QuickTime screen recordings are auto saved is:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/

Users have to click the Save button to save the recordings on Catalina or earlier. That’s the reason why many users may leave a screen recording unsaved and have to recover from the autosave folder. 

And since the release of macOS 11 Big Sur or later, the location where QuickTime screen recordings is auto saved has been changed to:

~/Library/ScreenRecordings/

By default, a complete screen recordings on macOS Big Sur or later is auto saved to Desktop. You don’t even need to click Save button after finishing a recording, which means the chances that you leave a recording unsaved is quite low, maybe you just don’t know where it is saved on your Mac.

 

How to Find Screen Recordings on Mac That Is Unsaved, Deleted, Even Corrupt?

You are recommended to check the Desktop first if you cannot find a screen recording, basing on the knowledge where are screen recording saved on your Mac. If failed, there are 2 ways to find. 

1. Find Screen Recordings on Mac by Search

You may have realized that unsaved QuickTime screen recordings will be saved in file name starting with "unsaved" on macOS earlier than 10.15, or “screen recording” on macOS 10.15 or later. Therefore, we can search and find a screen recording according to file name, by using Spotlight.

  1. Click Finder app, press Command + F to bring up the spotlight tool.
  2. Enter the keyword "Screen Recording" into the search box, all the recordings will be listed.find screen recording mac
  3. Preview the files and find back to your preferred location.

 

2. Find Screen Recordings on Mac That Is Unsaved, Deleted, Even Corrupt

If you want to find and recover an unsaved, deleted or even a damaged screen recording on Mac, here is the easiest way, using a professional file scanning and recovering tool.

Cisdem Data Recovery is an ideal choice, which is designed to scan and recover 200+ types of files, including QuickTime recording videos/audios, screen recordings created by other tools, MP4, AVI, M4V, MKV, MP3, WAV, WMA, DOCX, DOC, XLSX, XLS, PPTX, PDF, JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF, ZIP, RAR, EXE, etc. Even if your QuickTime recordings are corrupted and cannot be played, Cisdem can repair them fast and well.

Cisdem applies to different situations, no matter your files are mistakenly deleted, formatted, or lost due to virus attack, system crash, partition loss, hard drive damage, mount failure or other human errors, no matter the files are stored on internal hard drive or external hard drive. In addition, it allows users to preview the files before finding them back.

Main Features of Cisdem Data Recovery

  • Recover files lost due to different situations: delete, format, update, virus attack, etc.
  • Restore 1000+ types of files: video, audio, photo, document, archive, etc.
  • Repair various videos: mp4, mov, avi, mkv, m4v and so on
  • Restore lost or deleted files from internal and external hard drive
  • Support file recovery from iCloud and crashed Mac
  • Preview files before recovery
  • Fast scanning and recovering speed
  • High recovery rate
  • Recover files to local drive or cloud platforms

Steps to Find & Recover Unsaved, Deleted or Corrupt Screen Recording on Mac

  1. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery onto your Mac.
    Free Download macOS 10.9 or later
  2. Click on Cisdem Data Recovery app menu from Apple’s menu bar, go to Preferences, select Videos to find and recover screen recordings on your Mac.recover recording cisdem01
  3. Go to Hardware Disk and choose the hard drive where you lost the QuickTime screen recordings.recover recording cisdem02
  4. Click Search for lost files, Cisdem will scan all over the selected drive and list all the files it finds for you.
  5. Go to Type > Videos > MOV. Also you can use the Filter or search box to quickly find specific QuickTime recordings with keyword, file size, etc.recover recording cisdem04
  6. Then double click on the found QuickTime screen recordings to preview, select and click Recover to restore them to local drive or Cloud.recover recording cisdem05
  7. (Optional) To recover corrupted or repair QuickTime screen recordings that cannot be played on your Mac, use the Video Repair tool to fix it.recover recording cisdem06

Also, you can refer to the following YouTube tutorial, starting from 02:05.

 

How to Recover Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recording?

An unsaved QuickTime recording may be caused by sudden power off, app quite unexpectedly, or others. Indeed, there are extra 3 methods to recover an unsaved QuickTime screen recording, but the recovery is still a matter of luck, it depends on many factors. Anyway, they are worth a try, since these methods won’t make the situation worse nor do harm to your Mac.

#1. Recover Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recording from AutoSave Location

One of the greatest benefits macOS brings to Mac users is its AutoSave feature, which will auto save your files before your click the Save button in different macOS applications, like Preview, QuickTime Player. That’s to say, if you can find the AutoSave location of QuickTime Player files, we might be able to recover an unsaved QuickTime recording.

According to the 1st part, the QuickTime autosave location on on Big Sur and later is different from the location on Catalina and earlier, so the steps will be different as well.

How to Recover Unsaved QuickTime Recordings with AutoSave on Big Sur or Later?

  1. Click on Apple icon > Go > Go to Folder.
  2. Then copy and paste ~/Library/ScreenRecordings/ as following, press Enter.recover from autosave 01
  3. Open the QuickTime recordings or copy the files to another location if necessary. recover from autosave 02

How to Recover Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recordings with AutoSave on Catalina and Earlier?

  1. Click on Apple icon > Go > Go to Folder.recover unsaved quicktime autosave01
  2. Then copy and paste "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/" as following, click Go.recover unsaved quicktime autosave02
  3. Now, you will find the AutoSave Location of QuickTime screen or audio recording files.recover unsaved quicktime autosave03
  4. Right click on the recording file, Open With > QuickTime Player.recover unsaved quicktime autosave04
  5. Go to File > Save.recover unsaved quicktime autosave05
  6. Rename the QuickTime recording file, click Save to recover the unsaved QuickTime screen or audio recordings to your Mac.recover unsaved quicktime autosave06

 

#2. Recover Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recordings from Temporary Folder

Another method to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings is using Temporary folders, it is again a matter of luck, but basing on my successful experience to find back my unsaved files before, you are recommended to have a go.

Steps to Recover Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recordings from Temporary Folder

  1. Go to Finder > Application, run Terminal.
  2. Then input "open $TMPDIR" and press Enter to run the command line.recover unsaved quicktime tem01
  3. You will be navigated to the Temporary folder, go to TemporaryItems and check if your unsaved QuickTime screen or audio recording located there. Open with QuickTime Player and save to a designated folder.recover unsaved quicktime tem02

 

#3. Recover Unsaved QuickTime Recordings by Reboot

The last but not the least important method to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings is to reboot the app or your Mac, it sounds weird, but sometimes it just works like a magic, as some Mac users have restored unsaved QuickTime files successfully with a reboot.

reboot

Reboot QuickTime Player App

  1. Click QuickTime Player on the menu bar.
  2. Choose Quit QuickTime Player.reboot02
  3. Open the QuickTime app again and find the recordings in defaulted folder.

Reboot Mac

  1. Click Apple icon.
  2. Choose Restart.reboot03
  3. Find the QuickTime recordings in defaulted folder.

 

How to Recover Deleted Screen Recording on Mac?

Without installing a professional data recovery, we can still recover deleted or lost QuickTime recordings on Mac, here we have 4 ways listed as follows.

#1. Recover Deleted Screen Recordings on Mac from Trash

The deleted QuickTime recordings will be moved to Trash bin and kept there until you empty the trash bin, if haven’t purged it, you can put back the deleted QuickTime recordings to original folder.

  1. Open Trash Bin app.
  2. Find and select the deleted QuickTime recording files, right click Put Back.put back

 

#2. Recover Disappeared QuickTime Screen Recordings on Mac

Besides finding lost or disappeared QuickTime using Spotlight, there is another method to quickly recover a recording on your Mac, if you have opened the recording once in the QuickTime app.

  1. Run QuickTime app on your Mac.
  2. Go to File > Open Recent, then you can save the recording to a preferred location.open recent

 

#3. Recover Deleted Screen Recordings from iCloud Backup

If you have backed up the QuickTime recording to iCloud drive, you can restore from iCloud backup by logging into icloud.com.

  1. Visit www.icloud.com, sign in and go to Drive.recover quicktime icloud 01
  2. Browse all the screen recording backup files, select the one you want to restore, click ... and choose Download a copy.recover quicktime icloud03
  3. Select the location where you want to save the restored QuickTime recording.recover quicktime icloud 02

 

#4. Recover Deleted Screen Recordings via Time Machine

In the case that you’ve set up Time Machine backup on your Mac and backed up the recordings to an external hard drive, we can also easily recover a deleted QuickTime screen recording via the Time Machine back and here is how.

  1. Connect the Time Machine backup drive to your Mac.recover recording time machine 01
  2. Click on the Time Machine icon and Enter Time Machine.
  3. Go to the folder that stores the screen recordings, then select the screen recording file you want to recover and click Restore. recover recording time machine 02

 

Why Did My Screen Recording Not Save on Mac?

QuickTime keeps unsaving your recordings? Here are the reasons why and fixes that get it solved. 

#1 Outdated QuickTime Player or macOS

We are always recommended to update to the latest version when macOS and its apps release a new version, because they come with enhance performance and fix prior bugs. If your QuickTime doesn’t work properly, check if there is an update, if the problem persists after an update, maybe it is time to update your macOS to the latest one too.

software update

#2 Not enough space on Mac for created recordings

A QuickTime recording is never small in size, we need to leave enough space for a newly created recording video, otherwise, the program will quit unexpectedly. This also proves that we should have a good habit of Mac cleanup, files backup, etc.

mac storage

#3 High CPU on Mac

When one or several heavy programs run on your Mac and use high CPU, it becomes harder to other applications working properly, your Mac responds slowly or some programs just stop working. Therefore, before a QuickTime recording starts, we should quite those Apps that use high CPU as many as possible.

mac cpu

#4 QuickTime Multitasking

QuickTime Player can perform multiple tasks at the same time, playing or recording videos, but if you want to avoid unsaved QuickTime recordings, we’d better focus one task at one time, to gear your QuickTime player up for current recording task.

quit quicktime

 

Conclusion

With macOS AutoSave feature, things do become easier when talking about unsaved file recovery, this is also true for unsaved QuickTime audio and screen recording recovery, though it is a matter of luck, we have to try. But to find and recover QuickTime recordings that are unsaved, deleted,even corrupted, with high recovery rate, a tool like Cisdem Data Recovery is the best solution.

avatar
Connie Yu

Connie Yu has been a columnist in the field of data recovery since 2011. She studied a lot of data loss situations and tested repeatedly to find a feasible solution tailored for each case. And her solutions are always updated to fix problems from the newest systems, devices and apps.

Comments (5) Leave a Reply

Name *

Comment *

  • Ernest Gunter

    I was almost there to give up and planned to re-record the video. Thanks for your solutions, finally I brought it back. I tried the solutions from part 3, but failed, until I installed Cisdem and scanned. So, just hire an expert tool do the job.

    4 months ago commonReply

    Name *

    Comment *

  • Marian

    Thank you so much! I had a 36 minute screen recording that disappeared after recording. This step helped me: " Then copy and paste ~/Library/ScreenRecordings/ as following, press Enter. "

    1 years ago commonReply

    Name *

    Comment *

  • Barbie

    Helpful tips. I found Temporary folder a nice place to recover unsaved files from. You guys can have a go if your unsaved QuickTime recordings were created not long ago.

    1 years ago commonReply

    Name *

    Comment *

  • Miruna

    Thank you for the help! I did interviews and the recordings weren't saved in the usual place so I panicked for a good while until I found this article.

    1 years ago commonReply

    Name *

    Comment *

  • BernardBiz

    Thank you very much for the information provided I'm very impressed

    4 years ago commonReply

    Name *

    Comment *

Hot Articles

Hard Drive Failure Signs, Fixes and Data Recovery Tips for Failed Hard Drive 11 Fixes for USB Flash Drive Not Showing up on Mac 2023 How to Remove Write Protection from SD Card in Windows or Mac
Home > How to Find and Recover Screen Recording on Mac 2024 (Unsaved or Deleted)