Ways to Stop Screen Recording on your Mac

BySerhat Kurt Posted on Reading Time: 3 minutes

There are two ways to record your screens without using a third-party tool on your Mac. The first one is to use the Screenshot utility tool, and the second one is to use the QuickTime Player app. Your Mac comes with both of these tools. I remember the first time I started to record my screen, I could not easily figure out how to stop it. It seems a lot of users have the same issue.

Since this is a screen recording, there is no big red “stop recording” button because it would be recorded, too and could interfere with your recording. Sometimes users do not know how to stop the recording, or they even forget they are recording; their recordings continue for hours, and they end up with massive video files. This article shows all the ways to stop your recordings.

Your Mac offers different ways to record your screen. You can capture your entire screen or part of your screen. We’ve previously explained how you can take screenshots and recordings on various Apple devices:

All the ways to stop your computer screen from recording

1. Use a keyboard shortcut

Regardless of how you are recording your screen, you can use this keyboard shortcut to end it:

Command-Control-Escape

After pressing these keys together, your recording will be opened as a video file, and then if this is a Quicktime recording, you can share, save and edit it. You will see a video thumbnail in the bottom-right corner of the screen if you used the Screenshot tool (if Show Floating Thumbnail is enabled).

2. Use Touch Bar to stop the recording if applicable

If you have a Mac with Touch Bar, the Touch Bar will show a Red stop button when the recording starts. You can tap this button to stop the recording.

A Mac photo with Touch Bar showing the Stop button

3. Use the menu bar

A button will appear in the menu bar on your Mac when you start your recording. It looks like a square inside a circle. Click the button to end the screenshot.

Mac menu bar Stop button

4. If the above methods are not working, use Activity Monitor

There are, of course, other ways to stop screen recording. But these may not be very practical. I am only including these for two main reasons:

  • You are a geek, and you want to learn other ways.
  • The above methods do not work for you for some reason.

You can use Activity Monitor to quit the recording. Here is how:

  1. Open Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities).
  2. Using the search field, search for “screen.” From the results, select the Screenshot process and then click the (X) Quit icon and then click Quit again. This will end the recording.
Quit recording in Activity Monitor

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Dr. Serhat Kurt worked as a Senior Technology Director specializing in Apple solutions for small and medium-sized educational institutions. He holds a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign and a master’s degree from Purdue University. He is a former faculty member. Here is his LinkedIn profile and Google Scholar profile. Email Serhat Kurt.

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