How to Screen Record One Monitor on a Mac

To screen record one monitor on a Mac, press ⇧⌘5 (Shift-Command-5) and click Record Entire Screen. The pointer turns into a camera. Click anywhere on the display you want, and only that screen is recorded. To stop, click the stop button in the menu bar or press ⌃⌘Esc (Control-Command-Escape).

In Screen Bolt, click Display in the recording bar, pick the monitor from the menu, and press the red record button. Neither the built-in tool nor Screen Bolt can record two displays into one video at the same time. The last section covers what to do instead.

Screen record one monitor with Shift-Command-5

The screenshot toolbar is built into macOS. It's all you need for a quick, unedited recording of one monitor.

1. Press ⇧⌘5.
2. In the toolbar, click Record Entire Screen.
3. Move the pointer to the monitor you want. The pointer turns into a camera icon.
4. Click anywhere on that monitor. Recording starts on that display only.
5. To stop, click the stop button in the menu bar, or press ⌃⌘Esc. The recording is saved to your Desktop by default. To change that, open Options in the toolbar before you record and choose a different location under Save to. The microphone choice is in the same menu. If you lose track of the file, see where screen recordings go on Mac.

To record only part of the second monitor, click Record Selected Portion instead and drag the box on that display. Recording part of the screen covers this in more detail.

QuickTime Player opens the same toolbar. Choose File > New Screen Recording and follow the same steps.

What the built-in method can't do: it records the monitor exactly as it looks, at full size. Nothing zooms in on what you click, and there's no background, cursor styling or timeline. On a large external or ultrawide monitor, people watching on a laptop or in a chat window will see very small text. You can trim the clip in QuickTime afterwards (how to trim a screen recording), but anything more needs an editor.

Choose a display in Screen Bolt

Screen Bolt records one display, one window or one dragged area. It then opens the recording in an editor that adds zooms based on your clicks, a smoothed cursor and a background.

Before you start: Screen Bolt needs macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later and Screen Recording permission. On macOS 14, quit and reopen Screen Bolt after you grant the permission, or the change won't take effect.

1. Open Screen Bolt. The floating recording bar appears.
2. Click Display. With more than one monitor connected, it opens a menu that lists each screen by name and size.
3. Choose the monitor you want to record. The current choice has a checkmark.
4. Set Camera, Mic and Audio if you need them.
5. Click the red record button. You can also press ⌃⌘↩ (Control-Command-Return) while Screen Bolt is the active app.
6. When you're done, click the stop button in the recording bar. The editor opens with the recording when you stop. If you'd rather get a file straight away, open Settings > Recording and set After recording to Export to file. The file is saved inside the project and shown in Finder. On the free version, a quick export of a recording longer than 3 minutes fails without a message.

A few behaviors matter on multi-monitor setups:

• The starting choice is the display the recording bar is on. To record a different monitor, pick it from the Display menu.
• ⌥⌘3 (Option-Command-3) always records the first display. It ignores what you picked in the Display menu. To record a specific monitor, use the menu, then the red button or ⌃⌘↩.
• Shortcuts only work while Screen Bolt is the active app. There are no global hotkeys, so click the recording bar first.
• The recording bar isn't captured. The camera preview bubble and the teleprompter window aren't captured either, so they can stay on the monitor you're recording.
• Live blur zones only appear on the main display. If you're recording a second monitor, the Blur zones you draw before recording won't cover it. Use Add Blur Region or Auto-Detect Sensitive Text in the editor instead (see the effects help page).
• With one monitor there's no menu. Clicking Display selects your only screen straight away.

The recording help page covers webcams, audio and the teleprompter.

Which method to use

Use the built-in tool for a raw clip of one screen, for example to send a colleague. Use Screen Bolt if the video is for other people to watch at a smaller size: demos, tutorials, help-center clips. That's where zooms and a cleaner frame show.

Record a second, external or ultrawide monitor

Recording a big monitor works the same way as recording a laptop screen. The problem is the result: a 27-inch or ultrawide screen shrunk to a viewer's window makes menus and text hard to read.

You have three ways around it.

Record an area instead of the whole display. In Screen Bolt, pick the monitor in the Display menu first, then click Area. The area overlay opens on the display you selected. Drag a box around the part you'll use. The overlay shows the dimensions while you drag, so you can aim for a 16:9 shape if the video is going to YouTube or a landing page. Press Return or click Record Area to confirm.

Record one window. Window records a single app window on its own, even if other windows cover it. On an ultrawide monitor this keeps the video on one app instead of three side by side. See how to record a single window.

Let auto zoom do the framing. Screen Bolt turns your clicks into zoom regions after you record. The view moves in to where you clicked and follows the cursor while zoomed, so the action stays readable on a wide screen without cropping the whole recording. You can change the zoom level per region or add zooms by hand with ⌘K. What auto zoom is explains how it works.

If you keep the full ultrawide shape, the editor's Aspect Ratio setting (in the Screen panel) includes 21:9 and Original. It also has 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 9:16, 3:4 and 4:5 for other platforms.

Resolution on Retina and non-Retina monitors

macOS measures screens in points. On a Retina display, each point is drawn with 2×2 pixels, so a Retina screen that "looks like" 1920×1080 is drawn at 3840×2160.

Screen Bolt captures at twice the display's size in points. On a Retina screen that matches the pixels macOS draws, so the recording is sharp. The catch is that Screen Bolt assumes every display is Retina. Many external monitors are not: on a standard 1080p or 1440p monitor, one point is one pixel. On those monitors the recording is made at twice the panel's resolution. The file is larger, but it holds no extra detail.

What to do about it:

• Know which kind you have. The built-in displays on current Macs are Retina. Many standard 1080p and 1440p external monitors are not. If you're unsure, check the monitor's specs, or open System Settings and search for "Displays" to see its resolution settings.
• Export at the monitor's real size. On a 1080p external monitor, export at 1080p rather than Original or 4K. You keep all the real detail with a quarter of the pixels.
• Mind the free version. Free exports are capped at 720p and 3 minutes, and carry a watermark. 1080p, 4K and Original need Pro. Presets larger than the recording are disabled.
• Big captures need a fast disk. If Screen Bolt reports dropped frames after a 4K or ultrawide recording, set Frame rate to 30 FPS in Settings > Quick export. That setting controls the recording frame rate as well as exports.

Screen recording in 4K on Mac goes further into high-resolution captures and file sizes.

Can you record two displays at once?

No. The macOS screenshot toolbar records one screen per recording. Screen Bolt also records one display, one window or one area, never two displays in a single recording.

If you need both screens, these are the options that work:

1. Move everything onto one monitor. Usually the simplest fix. Drag the windows you'll show onto the display you're recording, and keep notes and chat on the other one.
2. Record them one after another and join the clips. In Screen Bolt's editor, drop the second video file onto the clip track to add it before or after your recording. The clips play in sequence, not side by side. The added file has no Screen Bolt cursor data, so auto zoom and cursor effects won't apply to it. Add zoom regions by hand if you need them.
3. Use a general video editor for side-by-side layouts. Screen Bolt can show a second video as an overlay in the editor preview, but those overlays are not rendered in exports. For a true split screen of two monitors, you need an editor that composites two videos.

If it doesn't work

The wrong monitor was recorded. With ⇧⌘5, the recording follows the screen you click after choosing Record Entire Screen, so click inside the monitor you want. In Screen Bolt, ⌥⌘3 always records the first display. Pick your monitor in the Display menu and start with the red button instead.

Screen Bolt shows "No displays detected" or "Failed to get screen sources". Screen Bolt doesn't have Screen Recording permission. Open Help > Screen Bolt Help, check the Permissions panel, and click Open Settings next to Screen Recording. Turn Screen Bolt on in the list that opens. On macOS 14, quit and reopen Screen Bolt afterwards. On macOS 15, the system asks again for screen recording access about once a month, which is normal. See why your Mac keeps asking for screen recording access.

The external monitor isn't in the Display menu. Make sure the Mac sees it first: open System Settings, search for "Displays", and check that the monitor is listed and showing your desktop. Then quit and reopen Screen Bolt so it loads the screen list again.

The recording is black or shows only the wallpaper. This is usually a permission problem. Screen recording shows a black screen walks through the fixes.

The recording stutters on a 4K or ultrawide monitor. Switch to 30 FPS (Settings > Quick export > Frame rate) and free up disk space. Screen Bolt won't start a recording if the disk lacks room for 60 minutes at the expected bitrate, and it warns when space runs low mid-recording. More fixes are in choppy screen recording on Mac.

Blur zones don't cover the second monitor. Live blur zones only work on the main display. Blur that part in the editor with Add Blur Region, or run Auto-Detect Sensitive Text to find email addresses, phone numbers and your own keywords.

FAQ

Does recording one monitor include the other screen's audio? Audio isn't tied to a display. Your microphone and system audio are recorded whichever screen you capture, as long as you turned them on. Recording your Mac screen with audio covers the setup.

What happens if the cursor moves to the other monitor? Only the selected display is recorded, so the cursor leaves the frame until you bring it back. Keep the pointer on the recorded screen during the parts that matter.

Can I record my MacBook's screen while working on an external monitor? Yes. Pick the built-in display in Screen Bolt's Display menu, or click it after choosing Record Entire Screen in ⇧⌘5. Keep the windows you're showing on that screen.

If you want the recording to look edited without opening a video editor, download Screen Bolt. The free version records with no time limit, and Pro is $79 once (as of November 2026) for full-resolution, unwatermarked exports.