Screen Recording

1. Open OwnClip

After installing, OwnClip lives in your menu bar. Click the icon to see its menu. The first time, macOS asks for Screen Recording: click Allow, and click Restart OwnClip (or Quit & Reopen) if it asks. It asks for the microphone and camera the first time you switch those on. The recording shortcuts in the Hotkey reference below need no permission at all.

2. Choose Capture Mode

Select what to capture: your entire screen, a specific window, a custom region, or an iPhone or iPad plugged into your Mac.

3. Record an iPhone or iPad

Plug the device into your Mac with a cable, unlock it, and tap Trust if it asks. Open the Device tab: the phone appears within a few seconds. Record mirrors it on your Mac and captures its screen together with its own sound — with your camera on its own track if it is on, and anything you draw on the mirror baked into the take. It opens in the editor like any other recording. A running iOS Simulator is listed in the same tab.

• Turn the camera on and you are in the take too. Pick the layout afterwards — a bubble on the phone, the two side by side, or you and the phone as separate cards
• Draw on the phone while it records: open the annotation tools and mark up the mirror on your Mac. The strokes land on the phone in the recording
• In the editor, zoom in on any part of the phone screen. The move is boxed by the phone's own edges, so it never shows anything outside the screen
• System Audio on means the phone's sound is recorded; the Mac microphone is your voice, on its own track — so you can narrate over the phone without a mixer
• While it records, iOS swaps in its clean status bar — full battery, full signal, 9:41 — so the take is ready to share
• On an iPad, whatever you draw with the Pencil is recorded as you draw it. Hold it landscape and put your camera beside it — side by side is the layout that reads best on a wide screen
• Unplugging mid-take does not lose the recording — it is finished and saved, and a notification says what happened

• Good to know: A cable is required. There is no wireless capture
• Good to know: Taps and swipes are not shown — iOS does not send touch information to the Mac
• Good to know: Smart Zoom follows a cursor, and a phone has none. Zoom moves on a phone take are the ones you place in the editor
• Good to know: If another app is already recording the device, close it first

4. Configure Settings

Set your recording quality, codec, audio sources, and webcam preferences. Every option is non-destructive, so you can change it later from the menu bar without restarting.

• Pick HEVC for ~40% smaller files at the same quality
• Turn on noise removal to strip background noise from your mic
• Adjust the countdown delay (0–10s) to match your workflow
• Recording mic + system audio together? Use headphones. Otherwise the mic re-captures the speaker playback and the recording has audible echo.

5. Webcam Bubble

Add yourself to the recording with a draggable webcam bubble. Pick a shape, snap it to a corner, mirror the video, and resize from 60–140 pixels. None of it ever blocks what you're recording.

• Drag the bubble freely during recording; its position is captured live
• Background blur, virtual backgrounds, and Smart Framing all run on the bubble
• Mirror only flips the preview. The recorded file stays correctly oriented

6. Start Recording

Hit the record button or use the keyboard shortcut. A 3-second countdown gives you time to prepare and switch to your target window.

Shortcut: ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + R

• The countdown gives you 3 seconds to switch to your target window
• Recording starts automatically after the countdown
• Press Esc during the countdown to cancel cleanly

7. Floating Controls

A Liquid Glass pill follows your recording. It collapses to a Dynamic-Island-sized capsule (timer, halo, stop) when you're not interacting with it, and expands to the full toolbar with one tap. Live mic level, pause/mute/annotate/stop, a shutter for grabbing a still without stopping, and a click-through annotation overlay for drawing right on your screen while you record. Right-click for Hide / Minimize / Settings / Quit.

• Tap the chevron to expand into the full toolbar; drag never fights expansion
• The camera button (or ⌃⌥⌘S) takes a screenshot of exactly what you are recording, without interrupting the take. A quick ring flash confirms it, and the still lands in Recents
• The mic level meter turns amber if your input is clipping
• Annotation strokes are baked into the recording, perfect for tutorials
• Hidden the pill? Click the OwnClip Dock icon to bring it back

8. Stop & Save

Stop recording with the keyboard shortcut or the floating controls. Your video is saved locally, ready to edit or share. The original file is never overwritten. And if something ends the take before you do, OwnClip finishes and saves it anyway — a take lost to a crash is recovered the next time you open the app.

Shortcut: ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + R

• Close the window you were recording, unplug the display, lose screen-recording permission, shut the lid, or quit with ⌘Q mid-take — the recording is finished and saved like any other, and a notification tells you what happened
• Hardware will not kill the take either: unplug your webcam and the camera overlay drops out while the recording carries on, and your Mac and its display stay awake throughout so a sleeping screen cannot leave black frames in the video
• A take left behind by a crash is completed and restored to your library the next time you open OwnClip, named "Recovered" so you can tell it apart
• Nothing is ever deleted outright. A recording OwnClip cannot open goes to the Trash, where you can still get at it

• Good to know: A recovered recording has no cursor data, so Smart Zoom is not available for it
• Good to know: Recovery covers endings OwnClip can see. A force-quit or a power loss can still cost you the take