How to Pause a Screen Recording on Mac

You can't pause a screen recording on Mac with the built-in tools. The Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5) and QuickTime Player's New Screen Recording only start and stop. That leaves two workarounds: stop and start a new recording, then join the clips in QuickTime Player, or keep recording and cut the dead section out afterward. If you want a real Pause button, a dedicated recorder such as Screen Bolt has one, and it keeps your webcam, cursor and teleprompter in step when you resume.

Can you pause a screen recording on Mac?

Not with the tools that come with macOS, and that includes QuickTime screen recordings. When you record with Command-Shift-5 (⇧⌘5) or from QuickTime Player, the only control during recording is the stop button in the menu bar (or ⌃⌘⎋, Control-Command-Escape). Stopping ends the file. Starting again creates a second, separate file.

That leaves three practical options:

If you only record now and then and don't use a webcam, the QuickTime workarounds are enough.

Workarounds with QuickTime

Stop, record again, then join the clips

This is the closest thing to pausing with built-in tools.

1. Start recording with ⇧⌘5 (or File ▸ New Screen Recording in QuickTime Player).
2. When you need a break, stop the recording with the stop button in the menu bar or ⌃⌘⎋.
3. When you're ready, start a new recording with the same settings.
4. Repeat for each "pause." Each stop gives you a separate file.
5. Open the first recording in QuickTime Player.
6. Choose Edit ▸ Add Clip to End, and pick the second recording.
7. Repeat step 6 for any further recordings, in order.
8. Save the joined movie with File ▸ Export As.

QuickTime won't restore your window layout or cursor position between takes, so each join can show a visible jump. Record the same area each time, and put windows back where they were before you start the next take. If you can't find the files, see where screen recordings go on Mac.

Keep recording, then cut the break out

If stopping and restarting is more trouble than it's worth, let the recording run through the break and remove that stretch afterward.

1. Open the recording in QuickTime Player.
2. Move the playhead to where the break starts and choose Edit ▸ Split Clip.
3. Move the playhead to where the break ends and split again.
4. Select the middle clip and press Delete.
5. Click Done, then save with File ▸ Export As.

QuickTime's Trim (⌘T) only cuts from the start and end of a video, so use Split Clip for a break in the middle. The catch: whatever was on screen during the break was recorded, so don't open private tabs or messages while it runs. For more ways to cut, see how to trim a screen recording on Mac.

Pause and resume in Screen Bolt

Screen Bolt is our Mac screen recorder (macOS 14 Sonoma or later). Its recording bar has a pause button, and the paused stretch is left out of the recording.

1. In the recording bar, choose Display, Window or Area. If you need them, pick a camera, microphone or system audio option from the Camera, Mic and Audio menus.
2. Click the red record button (or press ⌃⌘↩, Control-Command-Return, while Screen Bolt is the active app).
3. When you need a break, click Pause on the recording bar. The red status dot turns amber.
4. Get your screen back into position for the next part.
5. Click Resume (the same button) to carry on recording.
6. Pause and resume as often as you need, then click Stop. Details that matter:

• The recording bar isn't captured. The bar, the camera preview bubble and the teleprompter are hidden from the recording, so clicking Pause doesn't show up in your video.
• Pause is a button, not a shortcut. ⌃⌘↩ starts and stops a recording, so pressing it mid-take ends the recording. Screen Bolt also has no global hotkeys: its menu shortcuts only work while the app is active.
• "Discard and restart" throws the take away. That button deletes the current recording and returns you to setup without creating a project. Use it when the take is ruined, not when you want a break.
• Click Stop before you quit. Quitting Screen Bolt while a recording is in progress, including a paused one, quits without finalizing the recording.
• Long breaks are fine. Recording length isn't limited. Screen Bolt checks free disk space before you start and shows an amber "Low disk space" warning if you run low during the recording.

The free version records without a time limit, but exports are capped at 3 minutes and 720p, carry a watermark and can't be GIFs. A Pro license removes those limits for a one-time $79 (as of November 2026); see Screen Bolt pricing.

What stays in sync when you pause

A Screen Bolt recording can have several things running at once: the screen, one or two cameras, cursor tracking, key-press timing for typing sounds, and the teleprompter. When you pause and resume, the gap is removed from all of them together, so nothing drifts out of step.

Pause can't hide what changed during the break. If you move a window or scroll while paused, the video jumps at the resume point, so put things back where they were before you click Resume.

Cut the break out instead of pausing

Sometimes it's simpler to keep going and fix it later. You don't have to remember to pause, and you can cut more precisely than you can click. In Screen Bolt's editor:

1. Move the playhead to the start of the part you want gone and press I (Set In point).
2. Move to the end of it and press O (Set Out point).
3. Click Cut I-O (or press Delete) to remove that range.

You can also drag across a range on the timeline and click the scissors (Delete selected region), or press S to split a clip at the playhead and delete one half. Cuts carry into the export along with your camera, cursor and zoom edits. The editing docs cover the timeline in full.

One free-version catch: the export sheet checks the 3-minute limit against the full recording, not the trimmed result. Cutting a 4-minute take down to 2 minutes won't get it under the free limit. Pausing keeps the break out of the recording in the first place.

Pick pause if you need a real break (a phone call, setting up the next screen) and want nothing private recorded in between. Pick cut if you stumbled mid-sentence and want to keep going without breaking your flow.

If it doesn't work

• You can't find a pause button in QuickTime or the Screenshot toolbar. There isn't one. Use one of the workarounds above.
• Screen Bolt's recording bar is off-screen. Choose Window ▸ Reset windows positions to center it again.
• The recording ended when you meant to pause. You probably pressed ⌃⌘↩, which stops. Use the Pause button on the bar instead.
• The teleprompter stopped but the timer kept going. You paused the teleprompter's scroll, not the recording. Click Pause on the recording bar.
• You quit mid-take and the recording is gone. Quitting doesn't finalize the recording, and Screen Bolt deletes leftover temporary recordings the next time it launches, so that take usually can't be recovered. If a recording stopped with an error while the app was still open, try File ▸ Recover unfinished recordings... before you quit. See how to recover a lost screen recording.
• You hear clicks or see stutters in the recording. Screen Bolt shows an amber banner after recording if frames were dropped or the microphone timeline had breaks. The likely causes it names are a slow disk or thermal throttling; our fixes for choppy recordings walk through them.

FAQ

Does pausing in Screen Bolt create separate recordings? No. Pausing and resuming gives you one project, with the paused stretches left out.

How do I stop a screen recording on Mac? Click the stop button in the menu bar or press ⌃⌘⎋. Details are in how to stop screen recording on Mac.

Is there a limit on how long I can pause? Screen Bolt doesn't limit recording length. On long sessions, watch your free disk space; the app warns you when it's running low.