How To Use Your Mac To Record Your iOS Screen With Reflector [OS X Tips]

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reflector

I wasn’t sure if this would be a good iOS Tip or OS X Tip, but I figure that since most of the heavy lifting occurs on your Mac, we’d post this as an OS X Tip.

Ever want to record your iPhone screen? Maybe take a video of something you’re doing on your iPad? Well, you can record any portion of your screen with Quicktime Player, which we’ll cover later this week, but the easy way to get a video of what’s going on on your iPad or iPhone is to use an OS X App: Reflector.

What the app does is trick your iOS device into thinking that your Mac is an AirPlay device, like an Apple TV. Once your iPhone or iPad is sending it’s video display to your Mac, Reflector has a built-in recording option.

Here’s how to make it all happen.

First, head over to AirSquirrel’s website and download a trial version of Reflector. It costs $12.99 to keep using it, which is a still a great deal, but you can try before you buy, which is an even better deal.

Once you’ve got Reflector downloaded, launch it on your Mac and then grab your iOS device. Make sure both your Mac and your iOS device are on the same Wi-Fi network, since that’s how AirPlay works.

Now, double click the Home button on your iPad or iPhone, and swipe to the right to find the AirPlay options. In iOS 7, you’ll simply swipe up to bring up Control Center, and manage it from there.

For now, though, once you tap on the AirPlay icon in the multitasking tray, you’ll see your Mac’s name in the list of AirPlay compatible devices on the network. Simply tap on it, then tap the Mirroring option to ON. Your iOS device will appear on your Mac’s screen.

Head up to the Device menu, and notice that you can choose a frame to have around your device video stream, like iOS Black or iOS White for iPhone frames, or the various iPad types, sizes, and colors. To start recording your video, simply choose the Start Recording option from the Device menu, or hit Command-R.

Reflector will start recording whatever happens on your iOS screen, including any notifications and the like, so turn Do Not Disturb on if you don’t want your recording to have any of those in it.

When you’re done recording, hit Command-R again, or choose Stop Recording from the Device menu. Reflector will process the video for you, and save it in a place of your choosing.

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