The Screen Recording permission on Mac, explained

Every app that sees your screen — Zoom when you share it, a screenshot tool, a screen recorder, a screen memory like DejaVu — goes through the same door: the Screen Recording permission. macOS guards it carefully, which is a good thing.

What the permission allows

An app with Screen Recording can see the content of your screen: windows, including other apps’ windows, and the desktop. Apple’s modern framework for it is ScreenCaptureKit, available since macOS 12.3; it lets apps choose exactly which displays, apps or windows they see. Without the permission, an app sees only its own windows and your wallpaper.

In System Settings, the pane is called Screen & System Audio Recording, because the same switch covers system sound. What an app actually uses is up to the app — and should be stated by its developer.

How to allow it

1. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording.
2. Turn on the app. If it isn’t listed, click +, choose it in Applications, then turn it on.
3. Click Quit & Reopen when macOS asks. The app needs a restart to get access.

How to remove it

In the same pane, turn the app off, or select it and click – to remove it from the list. The app loses access immediately.

Why macOS asks you to confirm again

With macOS Sequoia in 2024, Apple added a reminder asking you to confirm that apps may keep seeing your screen. Early betas asked weekly; Apple moved it to monthly before release, then said in macOS 15.1 that you would see fewer prompts for apps you use regularly. Developers reported that it applies to ScreenCaptureKit apps too. Apple hasn’t published the exact rules for later versions of macOS.

The reminder is a privacy feature: it stops an app you forgot about from watching your screen forever. Confirming keeps its access; declining removes it.

For an app that is meant to run all the time, like a screen memory, the risk is losing access without noticing. A well-made app watches for it and tells you, rather than quietly stopping. DejaVu checks its access regularly; if macOS turns the permission off, it pauses, says so in the menu bar and in a notification, and resumes as soon as you allow it again. Nothing already in your memory is lost.

Review your list now and then

Open the pane every few months and look at what is switched on. Old screen recorders, conferencing apps you no longer use, a utility you tried once: turn them off. It takes a minute and is one of the simplest privacy habits on a Mac.

Why DejaVu asks for it

DejaVu needs Screen Recording to remember what is on your screen; without it, it can’t see anything. It uses the permission only on your Mac — your memories never leave your Mac — and never takes audio. The direct edition can also use Accessibility to read text from windows more exactly; that is optional.

Curious how DejaVu uses what it sees? Read How DejaVu decides what to keep.