Show mouse clicks in Mac screen recordings

You recorded a walkthrough, sent it round, and every reply asks the same thing: "wait, where did you click?" The pointer moves, something opens, but nobody can see the click that caused it. macOS can draw a dark circle around your pointer on every click while recording — one checkbox in the Shift-Cmd-5 toolbar switches it on, and the setting sticks for future recordings too.

Turn it on in the recording toolbar

1. Press Shift+Cmd+5 to open the built-in screen recording controls.
2. Click Options in the floating toolbar.
3. Under the list, tick Show Mouse Clicks.
4. Choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, then click Record.

That's it. From the moment you start, every click renders as a soft dark circle that blooms at the pointer and fades — a visual "here" marker your viewers can actually follow. The checkbox is remembered, so your next recording keeps the highlight without you touching Options again. This is the same recorder that powers QuickTime's File → New Screen Recording, so the option carries over there too.

Or flip it from the Terminal

The checkbox is backed by a single preference, so you can set it without opening the toolbar — handy inside a setup script or when you're already in Terminal:

# Circle every click in screen recordings
defaults write com.apple.screencapture show-clicks -bool true
killall SystemUIServer

# Undo — go back to no click highlight
defaults write com.apple.screencapture show-clicks -bool false
killall SystemUIServer

The defaults write line and the Show Mouse Clicks checkbox are the exact same switch — set one and the other reflects it. The killall SystemUIServer restarts the background process that reads the value; your screen may blink once, which is normal. This works the same on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia.

What the highlight does and doesn't cover

The circle appears only in the finished video, not live on your screen while you record — so you won't see it as you work, but your viewers will. It fires on mouse-down for both left and right clicks and for trackpad taps, which is exactly what makes a demo readable: the eye lands on the ring, then follows the result.

A few honest limits worth knowing. The highlight marks where you clicked, not what keys you pressed, so keyboard shortcuts still need to be narrated or captioned. It applies to Apple's own recorder and QuickTime; third-party tools like OBS or ScreenFlow have their own click-highlight options instead. And it's cosmetic — it never changes the actual click, only draws attention to it.

Before the real take, do a five-second throwaway recording: click a couple of things, stop, and open the clip. You'll confirm the ring is actually showing and get a feel for its timing and size, so you don't discover halfway through a long walkthrough that the option was off. It's the cheapest insurance against recording the whole thing twice — and once you've seen it work, you can trust it for every session after.

Clean up the rest of the frame too

Once clicks are visible, the next thing viewers notice is clutter — banner notifications popping mid-take. Pair this with hiding notifications while screen recording and your walkthrough reads clean from the first click to the last.