Issues with recording in Descript can typically be caused by a few different known issues. Check below for details on how you can make the most of your recording experience.
If you had a recording fail, check to see if the recording file can be recovered.
Review your system's available resources
You may find that many issues with recording in Descript can be resolved with one of these solutions.
- Restart your computer - Especially on Windows, camera and audio devices can get tangled up by different apps, and the only way to fix it is a good old restart.
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You’ve run out of memory - Check the Recommended system requirements (You need at least 8GB of RAM).
- Also, try closing other applications that might be using up system resources.
- Free up hard drive space - We don’t recommend using Descript with less than 20GB of free space on your hard drive.
Check your computer and recording hardware
Sometimes, you may encounter problems with specific devices, like virtual cameras/microphones. Here’s the list of devices that we know cause problems.
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Check your graphics card (Windows) - Make sure your GPU drivers are up-to-date.
- If your GPU drivers are up-to-date and have not had any updates in more than two years, then you’ll probably still have issues, and we don’t recommend recording video with Descript.
- Switch your camera/mic recording device - If you’re using a third-party microphone or camera, or a virtual device, try switching to different devices and see if that helps.
- Update your audio drivers (Windows) - if you are using an external audio recording device, make sure the corresponding audio drivers are up to date.
Your recording device is un-responsive or un-selectable
If you are recording with your webcam or an external camera, make sure to give Descript permission to access the camera. Click to learn how to manage camera permissions on Windows or how to manage camera permissions on macOS
Video color is not what you would expect in recordings
Local color settings applied to a built-in or external monitor, internal OS preference, or driver tools for a graphics card will not translate into a screen recording. You may want to try disabling those so that your color remains consistent. Then, you can adjust the source material (what is being displayed on your screen) to better match your desired color values.
Music or voices sound slightly garbled after recording (macOS)
Newer versions of macOS Sonoma come with a new microphone mode called Voice Isolation. While it can improve voice intelligibility in certain circumstances, it can also cause your recordings to come through poorly.
Recorder crashing on macOS Sonoma
In the event that Screen Sharing has been enabled on computers running MacOS Sonoma, there is a known issue that will cause the recording to crash when clicking the Stop Sharing button.
Steps for recovering a recording can be found in our article How do I recover a lost recording?
To prevent this from happening, try turning off Screen Capture Kit from the Debug menu:
The quick recorder toolbar icon is missing
You can run the Quick Recorder without opening the main Descript app. If you have the main app closed and are not seeing the 
icon, either:
- The run-in-background setting is disabled
- Open up the main Descript app to access the Quick Recorder. Then, enable running in the background from the Quick Recorder settings.
- There are too many other apps in the menu bar.
- Quit out of other apps until the
- Quit out of other apps until the
You see a "Missing system files" error on Windows
Although it's very uncommon, some Windows users may encounter an error when attempting to run the Screen Recorder application for the first time:
Missing required system files necessary to run the application. Please refer to the following link on how to download the necessary dlls and libraries: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/mediafeaturepack
In order for Screen Recorder to run, please visit the link to download and install the Media Feature Pack for N versions of Windows 10.
Once complete, please restart your computer and re-attempt the setup.
Your computer audio isn't being captured on a third-party app
You may need to switch the default output to Descript Loopback Audio
Recording permissions issues
Descript users may experience a rare bug – usually after uninstalling and reinstalling the app – that prevents recording permissions from being granted.
If you:
- Open the recorder configuration
- See the permissions prompt instead of the device selection
- Click "Grant permission," and nothing happens
Here’s how to fix it:
- Quit and reopen Descript (Note: Please ensure you do a “full quit” from the Descript menu)
That should be enough. If the issue persists:
- Open system preferences and manually set the permissions
- Quit and reopen Descript after updating