How to Recover an Unsaved QuickTime Screen Recording After a Crash

You recorded a detailed presentation or demo, clicked stop, and QuickTime froze. Or perhaps your Mac ran out of battery and shut down before you could click save. When you rebooted, your recording was nowhere to be found.

Do not panic. QuickTime Player writes its recording data to disk in real-time as a temporary file. Even if the application crashed before you could name the file, the video is likely still stored in a hidden directory.

Here is the exact step-by-step guide to recovering your lost video file.

Step 1: Navigate to the Hidden Autosave Folder

QuickTime Player X stores its temporary and unsaved documents in a specific system folder.

1. Open Finder.
2. Click Go > Go to Folder... in the top menu bar (or press Cmd + Shift + G).
3. Paste the following path exactly:

   ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/
   

4. Press Enter.

Step 2: Extract the MOV File

In the Autosave folder, you should see files named Unsaved QuickTime Player Document.qtpxcomposition. This is a container bundle.

1. Locate the file with the date and time matching your lost recording.
2. Right-click the .qtpxcomposition file and select Show Package Contents.
3. A new folder will open. Inside, you will see a file named Screen Recording.mov (or similar).
4. Important: Drag this .mov file out of the package and save it to your Desktop or Movies folder.

Once moved, you can rename and edit the file normally.

Step 3: Check Your System Temp Directory

If the Autosave folder is empty, the file might have been cached in your Mac's temporary items folder:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run the command:

   open $TMPDIR
   

3. A folder will open in Finder. Search for a subfolder named TemporaryItems.
4. Check for any recently modified .mov or .tmp files and copy them to your Desktop.

The Secure Alternative: Real-Time Local Saving

Relying on macOS temp directories is risky. If the system overwrites the cache, your work is gone forever.

ScreenKite solves this by storing all recording data inside a robust local project database in real-time. Because it doesn't write to volatile system temp folders, a crash, battery failure, or accidental quit will never corrupt or delete your recorded assets. You open the app, and your project is exactly where you left it.