How To: Record Your iPad or iPhone's Screen (No Jailbreak or Computer Required)

Record Your iPad or iPhone's Screen (No Jailbreak or Computer Required)

If you're using iOS 10 or lower, there is no built-in way to record an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch screen, and Apple doesn't allow any third-party apps to screen record either. If malicious, an app could theoretically continue recording even after you think it's off, allowing it to capture account and password information that you enter on your device. This changes in iOS 11, which introduces native screen recording, but what do you do if you're still running iOS 10 or lower?

Well, the first answer would be to update to iOS 11 and make use of Apple's stock screen recording tool that's found in the Control Center. If that doesn't sound good to you for some reason, then keep on reading below.

Software like Good Screen Recorder Lite and Reflector will let you record your iPad and iPhone screens, but they will only work on a computer, and usually at a cost. Apple's own QuickTime Player lets you do it for free, but you'll need that Lightning cable to do so. Then there are Cydia apps that let you screen record right from your iOS device, but you need to jailbreak first.

There is another option, though, and it's called AirShou, from Shou.TV, which allows you to screen record directly from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch — without having to jailbreak or use a computer. This app is not available in the iOS App Store, so you'll be sideloading it like we've done before in the past for video game emulators like GBA4iOS and NDS4iOS.

This will work with iOS 9 and higher, and may still work in iOS 7 and 8.

Note: This guide previously used an app called iRec, which stopped working. We've updated the guide and video to use AirShou instead.

Step 1: Install AirShou

Directly from your iOS device, head over to emu4ios.net and download and install AirShou — tap on it, then select Install. If you're having issues installing it from Emu4iOS, you can try iEmulators.net instead — they also host the app.

A popup may appear asking you to confirm installation, so go ahead and let it.

Step 2: Trust the Developer

If you get an "Untrusted Enterprise Developer" warning when you try to open the app, you'll need to trust it. So to fix this, go to Settings -> General -> Profiles & Device Management, then find the profile that has AirShou listed in it and hit the Trust button.

Step 3: Screen Record, Play & Save

To start a screen recording, open the AirShou app, then sign in or create an account. From there, select the Record option from the main menu, then name your recording and choose your preferred orientation.

Before recording, you will need to select your own device from the AirPlay list (accessible from the Control Center), and make sure that Mirroring is toggled on for it.

To end the recording, either tap on the red banner, or go back to Shou and select Stop. You'll be automatically taken back to the Record screen. Hit the small icon up top to see your recordings.

Select your screen recording, then tap on Open In... to open the video in another application (Vine, iFile, etc.) or to share it via AirDrop or email. You can also save to your Camera Roll.

Below you can see what the playback looks like for a full-screen game and video from my Camera Roll. The overall quality is excellent, which is great if you're planning on sharing some gameplay videos.

As for issues, some apps can prevent you from recording the screen altogether, but this isn't very common. The only one we found so far is YouTube, which immediately stops AirShou from recording as soon as you play a video — an understandable measure considering the piracy implications.

Other than that, AirShou is very straightforward, simple, and works extremely well for showing off some tips and tricks in apps and games — let us know what you think in the comments below.

Just updated your iPhone to iOS 18? You'll find a ton of hot new features for some of your most-used Apple apps. Dive in and see for yourself:

Cover photo by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks; screenshots by Dallas Thomas/Gadget Hacks

130 Comments

Very useful. Only improvement app needs is, recording video should have some kind of indicator where screen is touched.

Check out step 3!

Its shows screen is being recorded but not where screen is being touched

It won't downl for me, plz help :(

It won't let me eat her it says not available at this time

Swipe left on a recording and tap Delete.

They should make it for iOS 6

Dosent work for me when i see it in my camera roll its all white or all black

Hi everyone , that's not work for me :(, I don't know why, I just can recorded the voice but not the video , why it's that. I cannot use for recorded my ipad screen . This is my ipad , iOS 7.1.1 (11D210) please help me :(

Assistive touch must "ON" on the screen which is being recorded to make it work.

when i view my videos all i see is black nothing but the audio is being recorded

This happens to me aswell bro:(

Does this rec the system/game audio or does that require the mic to be on?

I downloaded the Emu4iOS Store but+ when i try to open it, it just crashes! (Ipad 2, iOS 8) Also, Its not jailbroken, i tried with my iphone 5 iOS 7 jailbroken device, it works just fine when i have the assistive touch on!

emu4ios has downloaded but when I tried to download iRec he doesn't download what can be the problem and can you please help me!

When I record for full screen games and when we watch it it turned upside down , and another question where's the full tutorial

when i record on iphone 6 the recording is diagnal and stretched any help guys pls?

Having the same problem here

Every time I try to export the videos to Photos it never does it. IPad Mini iOS 8

Nice app it helped a lot of people!But I think you can't save you videos to your camera roll.Well at least I can't.If there anybody who can help plz do.

I'm on ios 8.1 iPad 2.Can some one tell me the kernel so iRec black screen can be fixed?

I have the same problem did you ever figure it out

Awesome! Everthing works smoothly. However while playing games, the sound is delayed from the video itself a bit.

How do you get it to record? I went into the app, gave it a name, pressed record, tested it and it won't work. The banner shows up for less than a second then goes away.

shows up for a second after deleting cache or restarting, but then goes black again

i was wondering, is there a time length limit to how long a video can be recorded?

It all works as explained. Any way to remove the iRec bar at the top??

I am wondering about the same thing. Have you found a way?

I have an issue here. After the recording and back to the iRec app and Stop the recording. It shows "merging...Please wait". But this goes like infinity. Anyone hase this issue? I'm running on iso 7.1.2

I have the same issue as you.. "Merging... Please wait" message goes infinite.

EDIT: To fix this just turn on access to mic for the app in the iPhone settings.

Perfect! Just what I've been looking for so I can record gameplay. I did experience a bit of lag during my game though and the sound is a good 2 seconds off. Also I loss the last 3 seconds of video so I didnt get my scoreboard at the end. One lil bug...when I exported the video, the image was rotated 90°. So I was obliges to edit it with imovie which took forever! ( Game is played in landscape. Recorded in landscape. Exported rotated.)

I need to be able to make a tutorial video clip. But when I record, all I get is a black screen. I have turned assist ive touch on in my settings tab. Ipad 4 ISO 7.1.2

Any help?
I read that others have the same " black screen" issue but I did not see any reply's

Videos won't export to camera roll?

iRec wasn't allowing exporting so I updated the article with a new app.

Thanks bro. All s well until it says it saves to camera roll but it wont do it.

Well, save me from the bragging then :-)

Yeah, it was an issue but you can check out the article because I've updated it with a fix!

I have followed the same steps, when I tap on Start Recording and go to home screen, "Rec" appears in red banner at the top just for a fraction of second. When I come back to the app, I see no recording there... also "Stop Recording" is not present.

It doesn't even records. I'm using iPad 3 iOS 8.0.2

Maria Pett same here but I m using iPad 4 iOS 7. The recording did saved but no pictures on the video there is just an audio recording. SAD -.-

iRec has stopped working for lots of people so I updated the article with a new application called Shou, which works perfect.

it works well except "export to camera roll". It won't save to camera roll. any fix?

Yeah, fix is now in the article.

Mmm..Can that work on iPad 4? Please help me because I can't record any videos on my iPad. I want to record some of my replays of clan of clans. AnyFast Replies? Please

I've updated the article with a new screen recording app that should work on your iPad 4.

Has anyone figured out how to fix the diagonal screen playback? I need this feature to showcase some apps in a National Webinar tomorrow!

Article has been updated with a working screen recorder that doesn't do the diagonal screen playback error.

Hi Nelson, I'm trying to create screen capture videos of Adobe Color for my students - but when I play the captured movie back, the portion of the screen showing the camera is just black.

Hi I need help I cannot download emu4iso please help me

I try to download it but all it says it "emu4ios cannot be downloaded at this time". I have iOS 8 on an iPod Touch 5th gen, help?

I have the same problem

Downloaded the emu4ios and iRec 2 weeks back. Heard you have an improved version. Tried reopen emu4ios but it keeps shutting down. Deleted it and redownload. But was unable to download like previous. same issue like the rest above me. Please help. I'm running on iPhone 4 version 7.1.2

Doesn't record properly. After I have finished recording, I check my videos. But when I do, I can only hear the audio being recorded but cannot see the video(its just black). Running on Ipad 2 version 7.1.2. Fix this!

It's not working properly. When i play the recorded video. The screen usually just go black after 20 seconds of watching it. i can hear the sounds tho'

Turn on assistive touch under your phones settings, under general then accessibility.

Sound works fine, home screen works fine, I open an app and it goes to black screen on the playback. I'm running iOS 8.1.1 and I've been looking for a screen recorder for AGES!

not working for me!my assessitive touch is also ON...but it turns black when i see the recording of the video of any game!! please help...

Hi I'm an iPhone user and my phone is iOS 7.0.4, and there is a same problem as others are suffering with Shou. My assistive touch is on, on the screen, and when I record stuffs it seems to be working fine with browsers and the sound is fine. But as I recorded a game, in the playback is black in the game app, and normal again in the home screen and the Shou app. Please help, and I also quite suffer of lags after Shou.

Cause you know who would want a screen recorder and save it when u can't post it on YouTube(sarcasm) I saved my video but it won't upload I'm kinda pissed

it is possible to remove red banner from screen so i can record my full iPhone device screen. Please help me on this

Did you find a solution for this?

The video is upside down how do I fix it?? Please answer

Trees this I button beside the start recording button... Just click it and you'll find what kind of position you want it to be recorded

There's a problem that I encountered.... I don't know if it's only me but the first time I use shou it works well but later on the sounds didsappear. Or just lessens. I don't know what's wrong to it. It also affects my other sounds like the music in my phone. Though fortunately that only happens when the app is running hope you could help me thanks

Any suggestions on installing the app for iphone6? It attempts to install and gives me an error message saying installation failed.

Ive got problems installing emu4ios. It will not install even though I used the time setting trick. Anyone?

It won't even let me download the store app...

I have the same problem as Hansen & Shaun

I can't download the store app. It just gives me an error that says "emu4ios cannot be downloaded at this time". I'm on iOS 8.1 on an iPhone 4S.

Ive downlLoaded the app on my iPad mini but I DONT know hot start recording this is all iGet its says home and shows videos that are live at the bottom it has home gaMe explore and me and I don't know what to press to start recording plz help me.

It dosent work it saus that it cant be downloaded i have iphone 6 iOS 8.1.1

It work until I got iOS 8 now I can't even open the app

And yes I changed then date

Won't let me download I'm on iPad mini 1 and won't let me change the date

How do you record games it's just a blank screen

I can't record while i'm playing a game , its just a blanck screen .. Please help

Turn on assistive touch under your phones settings, under general then accessibility.

I can't sign up for the app, becuase it keeps on saying sign up failed everytime I sign up

I found another application called irec
in emu4iOstore

when i play my video, i get no sound from the video

I get videos saved in camera roll rotated 180 Degrees. Why? How to fix that?

When I try to record gameplay my screen is black I can still hear the sound and I have assisstve touch enabled! Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

It doesn't work when I view it,it black after when u enter a game

This is a very flaky app. As long as you keep it on your iPad or in in your camera roll the video wrorks fine. Try to export it to use it somewhere else, like to edit it in FCPX for an instructional video, and it will go black. you can not export it from Camera Roll except for in its native format which Camtasia nor FCPX like. That take it the file without error, but when you start to try editing in Camtasia for example, the video seems to freeze. You can scrub the entire length of the vido and the same frame shows. In FCPX, the clip shows up in but when you try to scrub it, the clip turns to black. Shou seems to be outputting in some non-standard format, I am not sure. But the produced video is worthless outside a controlled environment.

Major problem with recording, it does not record games, at least the ones that when you play, you don't see the time, battery and such. Examples are bloons td 5, fortress fury, asphalt 8 and so on. Please fix this

By the way, I have the assertive touch on and it still goes black

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH I SEARCH SCRREN REC FOR 3/2 Years Thanks Man :D

I am using iPhone 5S OS 8.3 but after 80 % of the installation installation failed for Emu4iOS. Can you please help me out.

I'm having the same problem, maybe there's an issue on their side; a message on the developer Twitter page states

"Revoked in the last 2 hours:

Emu4iOS Store
vShare
nds4ios
MusicBox
MovieBox
GBA4iOS

Still working:
RemoteFiles
ppsppp
HiPStore

You are correct Robert. I searched up emu4ios on the web and it is displaying that should and a lot of others are not working. I have been a previous user of shou and have uploaded 8 WoT Blitz videos onto YouTube.

You are correct Robert. I searched up emu4ios on the web and it is displaying that should and a lot of others are not working. I have been a previous user of shou and have uploaded 8 WoT Blitz videos onto YouTube.

i can't download the emus4ios it said that not avail. at this time.. i tried it many times :(

pls help me, what can i do to finally install emus4ios. i really need to record my screen :(

Instead of downloading emus4ios, download shou directly... It will work...

This is awesome, thanks so much I had find such app long time :)

Does this automatically upload videos?

tried irec on IPhone 5 & iPhone 6
iPhone 5 has ISO8.2
iPhone 6 has ISO8.3

downloads but fails too install the app
I am guessing the app irec is not supported in 8.2 ir 8.3 ??

How to turn on assistive touch

go to Settings > General > Accessibility > AssistiveTouch

If you are using iOS9, you need to download the Airshou version.

If you have a Mac, you could just skip all of those apps and just record your iPhone's screen using Quicktime. Simply plug your phone in to your Mac using the iPhone cable, open up Quicktime, click on FILE>NEW SCREEN RECORDING. Click on the small arrow to select your iPhone. Your iPhone's screen will then appear on your Mac live and you will be able to record and export the file straight to your Mac.

It wont let me download it, it just says it cant be dowloaded at this time

Can you record a video? Cuz when I try to record a video on YouTube it says the recording has stopped.

Is it safe? And private?

So far for me, so good

See now I have this app, like the directions say. I downloaded it the exact same way, the same error comes up saying it's not trusted. But here's the problem, in the photos of step 2 it says "general -> settings -> personalize and device management" but I do not have a "personalize and device management" in my iPhone's settings. I'm on iPhone 6s+, running the most recent update to day. Help?

Same problem here, I can't see that option; please help!

Should be right towards the bottom in the General area right under VPN.

I'm running iOS 9.3.5 on iPhone 6, but I can't see the options of device management to trust the app. Please help!

Can't play Netflix videos when this thing is recording.

Just joined to thank you guys for this. My needs are pretty basic, and this app solves them. Prior to this I tethered to my laptop and used the screen capture function on Quicktime. This might be an option for the people conplaining about this well designed, functional, and completely free app.

Can I use like Bluetooth or a aux cord to hook up to a speaker so the sound is better?

Unfortunately it seems Airshou does not work anymore. If I may recommend a commercial method, Dr.Fone iOS screen recorder will be a good third party solution.It is available in both windows application which supports recording via WiFi, and iOS app.It can record both orientations up to 1080p, and includes both internal audio recording and microphone recording.

Is suzhou ding chi network technology co.,LTD trust worthy. It sounds un-trust worthy.

I use Airshou to record videos and I want to talk to a friend at the same time while recording but it doesn't let me.I want to record while talking through Discord app VC. What do I do? Pls help

i did everything but when i want to connect to airplay it doesn't work please help me do i need an apple tv?

You definitely don't need an Apple TV.

Can someone pls help!!! It keeps saying "the app couldn't be download this time"

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