Black Screen Recording on PC/Mobile: Causes and Fixes

Black screen recording is a common problem that many frequent screen recorder users may come across, and the machine could be a desktop/laptop computer running Windows or macOS, an Android-based phone, or an iPhone.

Screen recording is now feasible on all of the mainstream smart devices in our daily life, desktop computer, laptop, and mobile phones, just to name a few. But due to this or that reason, the screen may turn into a black one when the screencasting task is undergoing, or one just got a normal capture while receiving a black screen video afterward. In view of this, there are piles of related questions concentrating on xx records black screen, for example, OBS, Shadowplay, Camtasia, Bandicam, Filmora Scrn, AZ/DU Screen Recorder, and Xiaomi Black Shark.

So what’s the main cause of this matter and how to work this “black screen recording” problem out? Keep reading this post to get more details.

Possible Reasons for Black Screen Recording

● You don’t have the right to do screen capture: From system, or software, to target recording content, you may be forbidden to do screen grabbing by either of them. Most probably, it’s the piracy protection or say DRM that matters.

● System bug: The minor unknown bug of the machine system, especially the Android OS, may get certain users to get involved in this black error. Surly it may be an occasional one that you can get rid of by yourself or a serious bug that needs further system updates.

● Screen Recorder’s bug: Same as the last reason, any screen recorder app may sneak off and get a performance bug, on account of its internal mechanism or recording settings.

● Improper recording environment: Your recording happens to become black because you have overburdened your PC or gadget. Also, when your screen recorder doesn’t work on the same GPU as the recording app, the screen gets black too.

● Outdated GPU driver: An old graphics driver may arise an abnormal display issue, of course including the display during screencasting.

How to Fix Black Screen Recording on Computer and Mobile?

You can follow the steps below one by one or pick the one(s) as you like to troubleshoot the no-image error of screen recording at will. As the black screen recording often happens as a result of unsuccessful playback or recording, the related fixing ideas are all involved in the following part.

1. Play the recorded file with another media player or browser

No matter whether you are taking advantage of the default system-bundled player or third-party player app like VLC, first and foremost, you’d better try several other players to rule out the possibility of such a problem being created by the player app itself.

If you are playing the video on a browser and got black-screen issues, you can try changing different browsers and recording. For example, Firefox, Opera, Brave, Vivaldi, etc.

2. Re-render the black screen video with video processing software

If the video is unplayable anyway, you can try to reprocess it with the help of VLC’s Convert feature or dedicated video transcoder like HandBrake (for PC only). There are such video converters for mobile, too. However, since video reprocessing is a little bit source-intensive, initiating it on a more powerful computer is highly recommended.

3. Restart the screen recorder, and reboot the phone or computer.

Reopening software or machine is the top solution for various unusual phenomena including a black screen during the recording period.

4. Ensure software, system, and driver (for PC only) are all up to date.

If either of them is not upgraded to the latest version, especially the PC’s graphics driver, you may run into this black screen recording snag.

5. IMPORTANT! You must be permitted to record the screen.

If the target app or streaming content has restrictions on screen recording, a black screen will appear for sure. That’s why many people find they only get black screen issues when recording certain apps or saving videos from Amazon Prime, Netflix, and alike platforms. Besides, your antivirus app might also protect you against unwanted screen capture, so do confirm your screen recorder app is among the white list. If you have TeamViewer, uncheck the Show Black screen option.

6. Change recording settings

Basically, you are suggested to alter the in-app recording settings like resolution, frame rate, quality, and so forth. As to desktop screen recorders like OBS, Bandicam, and Filmora scrn, they are usually preloaded with more recording parameter options and even the recording priority to guarantee higher performance. The parameters’ range also varies from the program, the more advanced of which often give users full control of video & audio quality with their down-to-earth choices e.g. format, size, quality, codec, fps, frame rate, sample rate, channels, and more.

You should make a change of capture settings on the application depending on the real situation to see if it helps, for instance, lower the quality level and parameter value if your PC is a low-end one; disable the GPU hardware acceleration (specifically hardware encoder) for video processing; and apply another different parameter combination for the same capture.
See also: >> Best OBS Settings for Recording 1080p/720p

If your PC has more than one GPU and the recorder software and the target recording content run on different cards, a black screen also takes place. At this time, you must take action to have them run on the same graphic card.

7. Use another screen recorder

Although many screen recorders seem to have the same or similar recording features, their actual capabilities, and efficiency differ from one to another. So when you are bumped into the black screen difficulty, why not seek some other alternative(s) to repeat the video grabbing?

Some Best Screen Recorders for Your Reference:

• For Android: Android’s internal screen recorder, AZ Screen Recorder, Screen Recorder, Du Recorder, Google Play Games, Mobizen Screen Recorder…
• For iPhone: iOS’s internal screen recorder, DU Recorder, Apowersoft iPhone Recorder…
• For Windows: RecMaster, Bandicam, Filmora Scrn, OBS Studio, Game Bar, VLC, Snagit…
• For Mac: QuickTime, SoundFlow, Filmora Scrn, Snagit, RecMaster…

RecMaster is an easy computer screen recorder with our recommendation here. If you are willing to give another tool a try to see if it’s your recorder’s problem, free download this simple, lightweight, and feature-rich software here to conduct a recording immediately.

RecMaster, available for both Windows and Mac, is able to record any screen activity with high quality, including but not limited to gameplay, PPT presentation, software how-to, online courses/meetings/interviews, and bug reports. If you have mobile capture needs, you can still free mirror your mobile to computer and then record their screen movements on the computer with RecMaster.

8. Record on another smartphone or computer

If you are not good at troubleshooting computing errors, especially the beginner-unfriendly system settings, you can transmit your recorder to another gadget or monitor for the same capture.

9. Contact the screen recorder’s online support

All commercial screen recorder developers offer pro-level support services, therefore, visit their help centers to find the black screen recording’s fixing guides or contact their human support via real-time chatting or email. Even the free open-sourced screen recorders like OBS have their own forums and communities, where you can access and ask for help from the fellows freely.

More Error Fixes:
How to Fix OBS Black Screen Error
How to Fix Screen Recording is Black with RecMaster
Fix Screen Recording with No sound on iPhone, Mac, Windows