Did you accidentally delete an important QuickTime recording, or are the screen recordings lost from your Mac for some unknown reason? You have probably saved them in a folder that is not visible on your Mac right now. No matter what the reason behind your QuickTime recordings’ disappearance is, please don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world, and you can still recover the deleted QuickTime screen recording files on Mac. In this article, we will examine the reason behind your QuickTime recordings’ disappearance and show you the tricks to recover them. Let’s jump straight in.
Why Can’t I Find the QuickTime Recording in My Mac?
Are you unable to find your QuickTime screen recordings? It’s likely because you didn’t save the files properly on your Mac. And even if you save the file appropriately, it may still not be saved on your device for several reasons. Here are a few common reasons that might lead to trouble regarding saving your QuickTime screen recordings:
Does Your Mac Not Have Enough Space?
If you overload your Mac with files and don’t perform regular cleanups, you might not have enough space to save your QuickTime recordings. To avoid such situations, you should always back up important files in the cloud or a secondary storage device, while removing unnecessary files from your computer regularly.
Do You Have Lots of Active Apps?
These apps can consume a pretty large chunk of your CPU. If yes, then you should close the unneeded apps before starting the QuickTime player. Too many active apps might use a lot of your CPU’s processing power. This might lead to failure in recording your Mac screen or saving the recorded file.
Corrupted Storage
Believe it or not, storage media corruption is one of the biggest reasons for QuickTime screen recording deletion. If your Mac’s storage drive has been corrupted, it wouldn’t be able to store or save the screen recording files. What’s more, your previously saved QuickTime screen recordings might also be deleted from your device.
Human Mistakes
Human error is one of the biggest reasons for QuickTime file deletions. Sometimes, Mac users forcefully quit the QuickTime app without going through the proper process to save the file. While the screen recording can still be saved, there is a big chance that it won’t. On the other hand, people might accidentally format their Mac or delete the folder holding the screen recordings. No matter how careful you are, you might still end up accidentally erasing videos you recorded on QuickTime. In the following sections, we will show you four methods to recover the deleted QuickTime recording on Mac.
1. Check the Trash Bin to Recover Deleted QuickTime Screen Recording on Mac
Can’t find the QuickTime screen recordings? If that’s the case, the first place you should be checking is your Mac’s “Trash” folder. Whenever you delete a file from your Mac, it moves to “Trash” first. After that, the file remains in the Trash for 30 days before getting automatically wiped out from your device. Therefore, as long as it has been less than thirty days after the deletion of the screen recording, you can recover the file from Trash. Here’s what you need to do:
- Take your cursor to the “Dock” and click on the “Trash” icon.
- Now, go through the files available in the “Trash” folder and look for the QuickTime screen recording you have accidentally deleted.
- Once you find the file, right-click on it to open the drop-down menu.
- Next, click on the “Put Back” option.
That’s all. The file or files you selected will be restored to the original location.
2. Look for QuickTime Multimedia in the Temporary Files Folder on Mac
Sometimes, your QuickTime screen recordings can be stored in the Temporary Files folders. These folders, like any other folders on Mac, keep the files stored as usual. However, these Temporary Files folders are hidden, and you can’t find or open them using the Finder. Here’s what you need to do to open the Temporary Files folder and recover the QuickTime recordings if they are stored in it:
- Go to “Launchpad” and click on the “Search Box.” Here, type “Terminal” and once the Terminal shows up in the search option, click on it.
- Now, type the “echo $TMPDIR” command in the Terminal and press the “Return” button. A new folder location will show up.
- Next, type the “open $TMPDIR” command in the Terminal and press the “Return” button to open the folder.
- Once the list of folders opens, look for the folder that contains the data for the “QuickTime Player” and open it. You should find your QuickTime Screen recordings here.
- If you still haven’t found the screen recording files, open the “TemporaryItems” folder and look for the screen recordings.
If you still didn’t find the screen recordings even after following all the five steps mentioned above, they are most likely not on your Mac anymore. But don’t worry. You can still recover the deleted QuickTime screen recording on Mac using the next two methods.
3. Recover Deleted QuickTime Screen Recording on Mac Using Time Machine
Time Machine is a native Mac app that helps users back up the data of their Macs and restore it when it’s needed. With this built-in app, you can automatically backup your data at regular intervals. Moreover, if you have set up an automatic data backup and have a Time Machine backup that is dated before you lost your QuickTime screen recordings, you can easily recover them. Here’s what you need to do:
- Plug in the storage media that contains the Time Machine backups to your Mac.
- Now, click on the “Time Machine” icon from the “Menu” on the top of your Mac screen.
- Next, click on the “Enter Time Machine” option.
- Once the Time Machine app opens, use the “Timeline” on the right side of the app and find the right backup file. Remember, the correct backup file will always be from a date before your QuickTime screen recordings were deleted.
- Now, use the “Sidebar” to look for the QuickTime recordings in your selected backup file.
- Once you find the recording files you were looking for, select them, and click on the “Restore” button.
Congratulations! You have successfully recovered your QuickTime screen recordings.
4. Use Third-party Data Recovery Software to Search for QuickTime Files
Had no luck with any of the methods mentioned above? No problem. You can always use a third-party data recovery application to restore your deleted files, including the QuickTime screen recordings. But before that, you need to download and install a professional data recovery app. While you can choose an app, you should always pick one that has a plethora of positive reviews and make sure that it comes from a reputable data recovery company with a good customer satisfaction rate.
Also, you should always download and install your data recovery app in a separate storage media unless you have no choice. If you download the application on your Mac, there’s a chance that your deleted files will be overwritten from its SSD. If that happens, no matter which data recovery app you use, it would be incredibly hard to recover the overwritten data anymore. With these things in mind, let’s see what you need to do to restore your QuickTime recordings using a professional data retrieving application:
- Connect the media drive containing the data recovery software to your Mac and launch the application.
- Now, select the “Storage Device” where you kept your QuickTime files, and then click on the appropriate “Drive.”
- Click on the “Search for lost data” or “Scan” button to start the scanning process.
- Once the scan is complete, the app will show all the recoverable files available in the selected drive. Look for the files you want to recover and select them.
- Click on the “Recover” option.
- Choose a location or folder where you want to keep the files you recover. Next, click on the “OK” button.
That’s it. Now, your selected files will be downloaded to the location of your choice.
