Recording files and formats

Every recording is a set of ordinary files in one folder, so they outlast any project they land in. This page lists what each recording writes and in what format.

Menu: File ▸ New Recording…
Keys: ⌥⌘N
Agent tools: record_screen

Where recordings are saved

Recordings go in ~/Movies/Frame Job Recordings/, which Frame Job creates the first time it needs it. The panel’s footnote shows the folder before you start.

They’re never stored inside the project package. A recording is original footage, so it survives even if you never save the project it opened in, and undoing a landing leaves its files on disk. To carry recordings into the package, use Consolidate Media.

What each recording writes

File	Example name	Format
Screen movie	`Screen Recording 2026-09-10 at 14.03.22.mov`	QuickTime movie, HEVC or H.264
Its microphone	`Screen Recording 2026-09-10 at 14.03.22 (Microphone).m4a`	AAC audio
Its cursor file	`Screen Recording 2026-09-10 at 14.03.22.fjcursor`	Frame Job’s own
Voice-over	`Voice-over 2026-10-02 at 09.15.04.m4a`	AAC audio
Camera on its own	`Camera Recording 2026-10-26 at 17.14.33.mov`	QuickTime movie, HEVC or H.264
Camera beside the screen	`Screen Recording 2026-10-26 at 17.14.33 (Camera).mov`	QuickTime movie, HEVC or H.264

How files are named

A file is named by the date and time it began, on a 24-hour clock in your Mac’s time zone.

A pause ends a file and a resume starts a new one, so each stretch of a paused recording is its own set of files, named by the time that stretch began.

When a name is already taken, Frame Job adds (2), (3) and so on.

The screen movie

A screen recording is a QuickTime .mov in HEVC where your Mac offers it, otherwise H.264. Its size comes from the panel’s Size row, Nominal (points) or Best (pixels), measured on the display or on a picked window’s own size.

With System Audio on, the movie has one stereo 48 kHz sound track of what your Mac plays. Frame Job’s own sound is left out, so playing your timeline during a recording doesn’t get into it.

The microphone is never a track of the movie.

The microphone file

The microphone is written beside the movie, named after it with (Microphone) added, as an AAC .m4a file.

Keeping it apart from the system sound means you can set the level of your voice and your computer’s sound separately. See System audio and the microphone.

Voice-over files

A voice-over is an AAC .m4a named Voice-over <date> at <time>.m4a, one file for each stretch between pauses.

Camera files

A camera recording is a QuickTime .mov at the camera’s format, in HEVC where that can be used at the format’s size, otherwise H.264. It has no sound of its own.

A camera on its own is named Camera Recording <date> at <time>.mov.
A camera beside the screen is named after the screen movie with (Camera) added, one for each stretch.

Any microphone file sits beside the movie, named as for a screen recording.

Why a still screen gives a low frame rate

macOS delivers a new frame only when something on screen changes, so a mostly still screen gives a file with a low, fractional frame rate. That rate comes from the file itself and isn’t a fault. The picture holds until the next change.

Rate, 30 or 60 fps, is the most frames per second the file can hold. A new project uses it as its frame rate, while the media in the project keeps the file’s real rate.

Where the picture stops changing before the sound ends, the last frame is held to the end of the clip.

With an agent

An agent can record into another folder, created if it’s missing, which the panel can’t. It names the folder only: the file always takes its dated name.

The call’s answer gives the files it wrote, as path, mic_path and camera_path. See Record with record_screen.