Written by
Vain Rowe
[8 Ways] How To Recover Unsaved/Deleted QuickTime Recording
Summary: You can gain multiple methods on how to recover QuickTime recordings in this article, including the ones that were unsaved/replaced and deleted/lost. iBoysoft Data Recovery Software exceeds a lot in disk scanning and data recovery, which helps you recover lost QuickTime files with ease.
QuickTime Player functions remarkably as a built-in video player and video clipper on macOS computers, completing the normal video player's work, including playing videos or audio and trimming/clipping/cropping videos, Furthermore, it is also a perfect utility for users to complete the Mac screen/audio recording and capture movies.
However, accidents happen sometimes when the screen recording work suspends due to a device's sudden power failure, app quit, software interruption, system crashes, and so on. All of them may result in the unfinished QuickTime recording items not being saved or lost.
Luckily, this post focuses on how to recover unsaved QuickTime recording files with sorts of effective solutions. Moreover, ways to recover lost QuickTime recordings due to mistaken deletion or disk corruption are also covered. Just keep reading!
Table of Contents:
- 1. Is it possible to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings on Mac?
- 2. How to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings on Mac?
- 3. How to recover deleted/lost QuickTime recordings on Mac?
- 4. QuickTime screen recording didn't save on Mac, how to fix it?
- 5. FAQ about how to recover QuickTime recordings on Mac
Is it possible to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings on Mac?
Generally, Mac designed its pre-installed apps like QuickTime, Preview, Apple Notes, Numbers, and Pages with an autosave feature. This feature is set to open when the Mac is shipped. Once the Mac shuts down or the app quits because of any reasons, the autosave feature works and saves the unfinished files automatically.
Followingly, this feature reopens the unfinished project window and presents the modifications that you've made to your work. So, it's certainly possible to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings on your Mac.
Note: Note that the unfinished file will not be saved if you disabled the autosave feature of QuickTime previously or if you chose not to save before you shut down your Mac or quit QuickTime.
If you find this article informative, kindly share it on your favorite platform with more people!
How to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings on Mac?
Kinds of culprits can be blamed for leading to QuickTime recording not being saved. Yet let's put the possible causes aside for a moment since the unsaved QuickTime recordings matter much. We provide several methods for you to bring the unfinished QuickTime items back here:
Method 1: Recover unsaved QuickTime recordings with iBoysoft Data Recovery Software
The most reliable and trustworthy way to bring the unfinished and unsaved QuickTime recordings back is to utilize iBoysoft Data Recovery Software, one of the top data recovery tools in the market. It is configured with advanced disk scanning skills and excellent data recovery algorithms, always being ready to scan bit by bit and sector by sector for any traces of lost files on both internal and external hard drives.
It fully supports macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and macOS Catalina on Intel-based Macs & Apple Silicon Macs (including M3 Apple Silicon chip). Its interface is similar to Apple's design which allows you to perform the unsaved QuickTime file recovery with ease.
Once QuickTime keeps crashing or stops working unexpectedly, making the projects you're working on unsaved or lost, you can launch this software to bring them back. It invokes the built-in Mac ausosave function and lists you the scanned QuickTime reocrdings that were unsaved or replaced, freeing you from repeating to find them in scattered folders one by one.
Step 1: Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery on your device. Do not save on the partition/volume/disk where you suffered from data loss.
Step 2: Select the partition/volume/disk where the data loss happened.
Step 3: Click the Search for Lost Data to begin the disk scanning process for the unfinished or replaced QuickTime recording files.
Step 4: When the data recovery software finishes its disk scanning, iBoysoft Data Recovery Software will present the scanned results in a visual table. You can type in relevant file format or file name in the search box to index the wanted file.
Once you locate the desired files, select it and click Preview to check it beforehand.
Step 5: Select the scanned files you want and click the Recover button to begin the data recovery. Please save the recovery results to another location to avoid further data loss. Please back up them well if possible.
Method 2: Recover unsaved QuickTime recordings from the AutoSave Location
If you prefer to find the unsaved files by yourself and feel no worry about the repeatting affair, this section meets your requirement. Read the succeeding content and carry on based on your Mac operating system:
Recover unsaved QuickTime recordings with AutoSave on macOS Catalina and easier macOS versions
- Click the Go tab on your left desktop corner and select Go to Folder from the dropdown menu.
- Copy the following path and paste it into the Go to Folder box:~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/
- Click the Go button and then you'll see the AutoSave Location of QuickTime recordings.
- Control-click on the wanted recording files, select Open With and choose QuickTime Player.
- Click the File tab on Mac top menubar and tap Save from the context menu.
- Fill information required and choose a location to save the recovered QuickTime files.
- Click Save to confirm your actions.
How to recover unsaved QuickTime recordings with AutoSave on macOS Big Sur and later macOS versions
- Launch Finder and click the Go menu on the Mac top menubar.
- Select Go to Folder from the dropdown menu.
- Copy the given path and paste it into the Go to Folder box:~/Library/ScreenRecordings/
- Hit the Enter/Return key to this folder.
- Open the QuickTime recordings if you want to or copy them to another location for storing as you like.
When you want to access the QuickTime recording you recovered, go to the location where you saved it directly.
Method 3: Recover Unsaved QuickTime recordings from the Temp folder
The temp folder stores temporary files created by macOS and applications when a process is ongoing. You may need to access the temp folder for unsaved QuickTime recordings recovery.
Here is how to recover unsaved QuickTime recording files by accessing the temp files:
- Run Mac Terminal via the Spotlight Search shortcut.
- Input the command lines below and press the Enter/Return key to run it.open $TMPDIR
- You will go to the temp folder then. Go to the TemporaryItems folder and check if the unsaved QuickTime screen recordings stay there.
- If you find the unsaved QuickTime Player videos there, right-click them and click Open With > QuickTime Player. Then the file will be opened in QuickTime Player.
- Click the File tab and then tap on the Save button to save them to another location.
Method 4: Recover unsaved QuickTime recordings by app reboot
The one last solution to recover the unsaved QuickTime recording is to reboot the app. Although iffy, it has been proved functional by sorts of users. If you have any interest, try it now!
Much appreciated if you would like to share this article with more people!
How to recover deleted/lost QuickTime recordings on Mac?
Data loss always happens unexpectedly due to accidental deletion, disk corruption, device system crashes, and so on. The priority you should do is to stop any writing actions to your device or the lost files can be overwritten completely, leaving no opportunity for data recovery.
You will get 4 doable solutions to recover the deleted or lost QuickTime Player screen recording files here:
- iBoysoft Data Recovery Software
- Mac Trash
- Time Machine backup
- QuickTime Player Recent files
Method 1: Recover deleted/lost QuickTime screen recordings via iBoysoft
Besides recovering unsaved or replaced QuickTime reocrdings or videos, iBoysoft Data Recovery Software also works brilliantly in recovering deleted or lost files on Mac.
It can recover files from unreadable, corrupted, unbootable, broken, and even failing hard drives. If you lose any QuickTime reocrdings, rest assued and let iBoysot Data Recovery Software to bring them back!
Method 2: Recover deleted/lost QuickTime screen recordings via Mac Trash
When you drag QuickTime screen recordings to Mac Trash, you have 30 days to put them back. Mac Trash allows users to restore files deleted in 30 days if they haven't emptied the Trash. So going to Mac Trash for data recovery is worth a shot.
- Open Mac Trash on your computer.
- Search the file that you want to restore with the file name/file format in the search box.
- Locate the screen recording you want, right-click it, and select Put Back.
After these actions, your deleted QuickTime Player recording files will be back to the original location.
Method 3: Recover deleted/lost QuickTime screen recordings via Time Machine backup
Time Machine backs up everything on your Mac automatically, even including the modifications or changes to certain files/folders. If you have enabled Time Machine previously, then you can recover the deleted/lost recordings via the Time Machine backup drive on your Mac.
- Connect the Time Machine drive to your Mac and launch Time Machine.
- Find the wanted files in the TM window.
- Click the Restore button to recover the QuickTime recordings on your device.
Method 4: Recover deleted/lost QuickTime screen recordings via the recent folder
The QuickTime Player recent folder contains the recording files that you opened recently, so you can access this menu to see if it stores the deleted or lost recordings.
Step 1: Launch QuickTime Player on your device.
Step 2: Click the File tab on the left upper corner of the Mac desktop.
Step 3: Select Open Recent to see if it has the files that you are looking for.
QuickTime screen recording didn't save on Mac, how to fix it?
If you encounter the trouble that QuickTime screen recording didn't save on your Mac, try the solutions below:
- Check if any QuickTime Player update is available.
- Check if there is enough space for the QuickTime Player screen video to save.
- Force quit the apps using high CPU via Activity Monitor.
- Perform QuickTime screen recording/audio recording/movie capture one at a time.
- Boot your Mac into macOS Safe Mode to see if the QuickTime screen recording goes well.
Wrap up
We gather 8 solutions to recover unsaved/replaced and deleted/lost QuickTime reocrdings on Mac in this post. If you suffer from QuickTime reocrding data loss, do not hesitate and try the methods mentioned in this post immediately!
FAQ about how to recover QuickTime recordings on Mac
A
For the macOS Big Sur and later macOS versions, the location where QuickTime screen recordings is: ~/Library/Containers/ScreenRecordings/
A
You can recover the deleted recording via Mac Trash, Time Machie backup, and iBoysoft Data Recovery Softwae.
