How do I screen record on a Mac with internal audio?

The built-in recorder cannot capture system audio, so you need one of four routes: OBS, which records screen and system audio in one pass on macOS 13 or later; a virtual audio device that presents system audio as a microphone the recorder can select; or recording the audio separately with a dedicated app and combining it with the video in an editor.

Why does my Mac screen recording have no sound?

The microphone defaults to None in the Command-Shift-5 Options menu, so recordings are silent unless you turn it on. Even with it on you capture your microphone, never the audio coming from apps. Both are working as designed, which is why the fix is a different tool rather than a different setting.

Can I screen record with system audio and my voice at the same time?

Not with the built-in recorder, which has a single microphone slot and no system audio. OBS handles all three in one pass. Otherwise record the screen with macOS and capture system audio plus your mic together in a multi-source recorder, then line them up in an editor.

Does screen recording on a Mac reduce audio quality?

Capturing digitally does not. A process tap or virtual audio device copies the stream before it reaches your speakers, with no analog stage. Quality problems in screen recordings almost always come from recording speakers through a microphone instead of capturing the audio digitally.

How to Screen Record on a Mac With Audio

You record your screen, play it back, and the video is perfect while the audio is either silence or your own voice echoing off the desk. The thing you were actually trying to capture, the sound coming out of the app, is not there.

This is by design. The macOS screen recorder, whether you reach it through Command-Shift-5 or QuickTime Player, captures microphone input only. It has never captured system audio, and that is still true in macOS 26 Tahoe.

There are four ways around it, and which one is right depends on whether you want one pass or the best possible result.

First, Check the Obvious Thing

If your recording is completely silent, the microphone is probably off.

Press Command-Shift-5, click Options, and look under Microphone. It defaults to None, and macOS does not reliably remember your choice between sessions or capture modes. A workflow that produced sound last month can quietly produce silence today.

Turning it on gets you your voice. It will still not get you the app audio, which is the rest of this page.

Why System Audio Is Missing

Apple treats one app reading another app’s audio as a privacy boundary. Unrestricted capture would mean any app could silently record your FaceTime calls or a passcode read aloud.

So the capability sits behind a permission. In macOS 26 Tahoe it appears in System Settings under Privacy and Security as Screen and System Audio Recording, and the underlying APIs have existed for a while: ScreenCaptureKit since macOS 13, Core Audio process taps since macOS 14.4.

Apple built all of it and never updated QuickTime Player or the Screenshot toolbar to use it. The capability is there, the button is not.

Option 1: OBS (free, one pass)

The best free answer if you want picture and sound in a single file.

On macOS 13 Ventura or later, OBS captures system audio through ScreenCaptureKit with no driver. OBS 30 added a dedicated macOS Audio Capture source that targets either all desktop audio or one specific application.

Install OBS.
Add a macOS Screen Capture source.
Add a macOS Audio Capture source, and point it at the app or at all desktop audio.
Add an Audio Input Capture source if you also want your voice.
Grant the screen recording permission, restart OBS, and record.

Free, does per-app audio, records all three streams at once. The cost is that OBS is a live-streaming suite, so you are configuring scenes and encoders to do something you assumed was a keyboard shortcut. If you record often, set it up once and stop thinking about it.

Option 2: A Virtual Mic the Recorder Can Select (one pass)

There is a neat trick here: the built-in screen recorder is happy to record from any input device. So if you give macOS an input device that carries your system audio, QuickTime will record it without knowing the difference.

Soundshine creates exactly that. It installs a virtual audio driver that presents a Soundshine Microphone input carrying your system audio, while your speakers keep working normally.

Install Soundshine and run the guided setup.
Click the menu bar icon and toggle routing on.
In QuickTime Player, choose File > New Screen Recording.
Click the chevron next to the record button and select Soundshine Microphone.
Record.

One pass, no editor, and it uses the recorder you already know. It is $11.99 one time, and it needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later.

The tradeoff is inherent to the approach: there is still only one microphone slot, so you get system audio instead of your voice, not alongside it.

Option 3: BlackHole (free, more setup)

The free version of the same idea. BlackHole is an open-source virtual audio driver.

Install BlackHole from existential.audio.
Open Audio MIDI Setup, click +, choose Create Multi-Output Device.
Tick BlackHole 2ch and your real output, so you can still hear.
Set that Multi-Output Device as your output in System Settings > Sound.
In QuickTime, select BlackHole 2ch as the microphone.
Record.

Free and dependable once it is configured. Skip the Multi-Output Device and your speakers go silent, which is the most common complaint about it. Remember to set your output back afterwards, or your Mac keeps using it indefinitely.

Same single-slot limitation: system audio instead of your voice.

Option 4: Record the Audio Separately (best quality and control)

More steps, and clearly the best result if the recording matters.

Start Soundshine Record and pick your sources: the app you are capturing, plus your microphone if you are narrating.
Press record there.
Press Command-Shift-5 and record the screen as normal.
Stop both.
Combine the video and the audio file in iMovie, Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve, or any editor.

Why bother: you get every source at an independent level, adjustable while recording, so app audio that is far louder than your narration is fixable without a retake. You get per-app capture, so a notification arriving mid-take does not land in the file. And you get a clean 48 kHz stereo file rather than whatever the screen recorder decided to do.

Syncing is easy. Clap once at the start, or just line up the first waveform spike.

Requires macOS 15 or later, $14.99 one time.

Which to Use

	Cost	One pass	Voice + system audio	Per-app
OBS	Free	Yes	Yes	Yes
Soundshine virtual mic	$11.99	Yes	No	No
BlackHole	Free	Yes	No	No
Separate audio capture	$14.99	No	Yes	Yes

Recording regularly, or streaming too: OBS.

One quick clip, no editor, willing to pay for the fastest setup: the virtual mic route.

Free and you do not mind an evening in Audio MIDI Setup: BlackHole.

Tutorial with narration where the audio actually matters: record separately and combine.

Does screen recording on a Mac record audio?, the short version
How to record internal audio on a Mac, every system audio method compared
How to record audio on a Mac, the full overview