How to Use Screen Recording on iPad

Before you start

Screen recording on iPad uses the built-in Control Center feature, so the process runs locally on the device. The recording captures the iPad display and, if you enable it, sound from the microphone. Make sure the control for screen recording is available in Control Center before you need it. On iPadOS and iOS versions that support this feature, you can add the control manually if it is not already visible.

Step-by-step instructions

• Open the Settings app and tap Control Center.
• Look for the Screen Recording control in the included controls list. If it is not present, find it under More Controls and tap the add button next to Screen Recording.
• Open Control Center. On iPads without a Home button, swipe down from the top-right corner. On iPads with a Home button, swipe up from the bottom edge.
• Tap the Screen Recording button. A circular recording icon appears in the status bar or Control Center after a short countdown.
• To include audio from the iPad microphone, touch and hold the Screen Recording button, then tap Microphone to turn it on before starting the recording.
• To stop recording, tap the red recording indicator in the status bar or open Control Center and tap the Screen Recording button again, then tap Stop when prompted.
• The video is saved to the Photos app under Recents or the screen recordings album if one is available.

Check the output

Open the Photos app and play the saved recording to confirm that the expected screen activity and any intended microphone audio are present. The recording format is typically a compatible video file that can be shared from Photos. Quality depends on the iPad display and the recording settings available on the installed software version; higher frame rate and bitrate are not separately adjustable through the standard screen recording toggle.

Common problems and next steps

• If a video shows only the microphone audio and a black or frozen screen, the capture source may have been blocked by protected content or an unsupported app view. Start the recording from the Home Screen, then open the target app to see whether the display is captured.
• If the Screen Recording control is missing, add it again in Settings under Control Center. On an older system such as iOS 10, the feature may not be available or may appear with fewer options.
• If the recording has no sound, check whether the microphone was enabled before the capture began. System audio may be limited by the app or by the iPad audio routing.
• If the video file is unexpectedly large or small, remember that recording format and encoding are handled automatically by the operating system. You can trim the clip in Photos or export it through a compatible app for further compression.