Setting Up Phone Screen Recording with Internal Audio

Published 2026-10-16 · Marion Phone Repair

Screen recording on your phone captures what happens on screen, but getting it to also record the audio coming from apps — game sounds, music, video audio, notification tones — requires some specific setup. By default, some phones record only microphone audio or no audio at all. Configuring internal audio capture correctly before you start recording saves you from discovering after a long session that the audio is missing or that you only captured room noise instead of the app sounds you wanted.

What internal audio means

Internal audio is the sound generated by apps and the operating system itself — everything you would hear through your phone speaker or headphones. This includes:

Game sound effects and music
Video and streaming audio
App notification sounds
System sounds like keyboard clicks
Music playing from any app

This is distinct from microphone audio, which captures external sound — your voice, room noise, and ambient sounds picked up by the phone microphone. Most screen recordings benefit from internal audio. Tutorials and commentary videos often need both internal audio and microphone audio simultaneously.

iPhone setup

Adding the screen recorder

Open Settings, then Control Center
Find Screen Recording in the list of available controls. If it is not already in your Included Controls section, tap the green plus icon next to it
Screen Recording now appears in your Control Center when you swipe down from the upper-right corner (Face ID iPhones) or swipe up from the bottom (Home Button iPhones)

Configuring audio before recording

Open Control Center
Long-press (press and hold) the Screen Recording button. Do not just tap it — tapping starts recording immediately with the last-used audio setting
A menu appears showing a microphone toggle at the bottom
Microphone Off: The recording captures internal audio only. App sounds, game audio, and music are recorded. Your voice and room sounds are not. This produces the cleanest recording of app content
Microphone On: The recording captures both internal audio and microphone input simultaneously. Use this when you want to narrate over what is happening on screen — for tutorials, walkthroughs, or commentary
Select your preferred setting, then tap Start Recording. A three-second countdown begins

iPhone audio behavior

The audio setting you choose persists until you change it. If you set it to Microphone Off once, future recordings default to that setting
If your phone is in Silent Mode (the hardware switch on the side), screen recording still captures internal audio. Silent Mode affects the speaker output, not the recording
Volume level during recording does not affect the recorded audio level. You can turn your phone volume all the way down and the recording still captures internal audio at normal levels
Some apps block internal audio recording for copyright protection. Streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Spotify typically mute or block audio in screen recordings. The video portion may also show a black screen

Android setup

Accessing the built-in recorder (Android 11 and later)

Swipe down from the top of the screen twice to open the full Quick Settings panel
Look for the Screen Recorder tile. If it is not visible, tap the pencil or edit icon to customize Quick Settings and drag Screen Recorder into your active tiles
Tap Screen Recorder to open the pre-recording dialog

Choosing audio source on Android

Android presents audio options before each recording starts:

Device audio: Records only internal audio from apps and the system. No microphone input. This is the equivalent of iPhone Microphone Off setting and produces clean recordings of app content
Microphone: Records only external audio from the phone microphone. No app sounds. Use this only if you specifically want voice-only recording without any app audio
Device audio and microphone: Records both simultaneously. The internal audio and your voice are mixed into a single audio track. Good for narrated tutorials and gameplay commentary
No audio: Some Android versions offer a mute option that records video only. Useful for creating GIF-like recordings or when audio is not relevant

Samsung-specific setup

Samsung phones use their own screen recorder with slightly different option names: No Sound, Media Sounds (internal audio only), and Media Sounds and Mic (both)
Access Samsung screen recorder from Quick Settings — swipe down and look for Screen Recorder
Samsung also offers a video quality setting (low, medium, high) and selfie video size option that overlays your front camera in a small circle on the recording
On Samsung devices, the audio source selection appears every time you start a recording, so you can change it per recording without going into settings

Troubleshooting audio issues

No audio in recording

Verify your audio source selection before each recording. The most common cause of missing audio is having the wrong source selected — microphone only when you wanted device audio, or no audio selected at all
Check if the specific app blocks audio recording. Play a recording from a non-DRM app (a game, the camera app, or a basic audio player) to verify the feature works before concluding it is broken
Restart the phone and try again. Occasionally the audio routing gets into an inconsistent state that a restart resolves

Audio and video out of sync

On older phones or devices with less processing power, encoding video and audio simultaneously can cause the audio track to drift out of alignment with the video
Close background apps before recording to free up processing resources
If your Android device offers quality settings, try reducing the recording resolution. Lower resolution requires less processing and reduces sync issues
Short recordings (under five minutes) rarely have sync problems. The issue tends to appear in longer recordings as the drift accumulates

Microphone audio too quiet or too loud

When recording with both internal audio and microphone, the internal audio often overpowers your voice. Lower the media volume on your phone before recording to balance the levels. Your voice will be relatively louder in the mix
For iPhone, the audio levels between internal and microphone are fixed — you cannot adjust the mix directly. Adjusting media volume is the only control available
Using a headset microphone instead of the phone built-in microphone often produces clearer voice audio because the microphone is closer to your mouth and picks up less room noise

Recording tips for quality results

Enable Do Not Disturb: Notifications during a recording interrupt the visual flow and their sounds appear in the audio. Enable Do Not Disturb before starting
Practice the sequence: If recording a tutorial or walkthrough, rehearse the steps once before recording. Hesitation, wrong taps, and navigation mistakes are obvious in screen recordings
Mind the time: Screen recordings create large files. One minute at 1080p generates roughly 100 to 200 MB. Check available storage before long recording sessions
Trim afterward: The start of every recording includes the countdown and Control Center or notification shade dismissal. The end includes you stopping the recording. Trim both ends in your Photos app or video editor for a polished result

Need help with your phone?

If screen recording is not working on your phone, the audio configuration is producing unexpected results, or you suspect a hardware issue with your microphone or speakers affecting recordings, Marion Phone Repair can diagnose software and hardware problems affecting your phone recording capabilities.