Troubleshooting
The problems that come up most, and what actually fixes them.
The cursor isn't in my recording
Or: click effects do nothing, automatic zoom finds nothing.
Screenify needs the Accessibility permission to know where your pointer is. Without it, recording still works — there's just no cursor data attached, so anything built on cursor position has nothing to use.
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, enable Screenify, then quit Screenify fully and reopen it. macOS reads these permissions at launch, so a running app won't pick up the change.
Recordings made before you granted it can't be fixed retroactively — the data was never captured.
Video files you imported also have no cursor data. That's expected, not a fault.
I can't record anything
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, enable Screenify, quit and reopen.
Updates never install
The most common cause: Screenify isn't in /Applications.
If you're running it from the DMG, from Downloads, or from another folder, the updater can download a new version but can't put it in place. Symptoms are an update that seems to work but leaves you on the old version.
Drag Screenify to your Applications folder and run it from there.
My iPhone doesn't appear under Device
- Unlock the phone.
- Tap Trust if the phone asks.
- Try a different cable — charge-only cables carry no data.
- Reconnect; the device list refreshes.
The Simulator records a black screen
Recording the Simulator needs the Accessibility permission, same as cursor tracking. Grant it, quit Screenify, reopen.
Mockups and wallpapers are missing
Backgrounds, device frames and photo mockups download the first time you use them. On a new Mac, or offline, the grid may be empty or partly filled.
Connect to the internet and reopen the panel — there's a Try again button when it can't reach the server. Once downloaded they're cached and work offline.
Export is much slower than usual
3D mockups with shadows, reflections and environment lighting are the expensive part. A plain background exports in a fraction of the time.
If a plain export is also slow, check free disk space.
The export doesn't match the preview
It should. What you see in the preview is what gets rendered — background, mockup, zoom, masks, cursor, captions.
If they disagree, that's a bug. Report it from Help → Send Feedback to Dev with:
- the timestamp where they differ
- a screenshot of the preview
- the exported file, or a frame from it
Preview-versus-export differences are treated as high priority, and that report is exactly what's needed to fix one.
The app quit while I was recording
Recording is written to disk as it goes, so there should be a project with the footage up to that point — check the welcome screen's recent projects.
If you find projects that won't open, Settings → Storage → Local has a Scan button that finds broken projects and lets you remove them.
Please report the crash from Help → Send Feedback to Dev, including what you were recording and roughly how long in.
Something else
Help → Send Feedback to Dev, inside the app. It goes straight to the developer, and replies come back in the app and by email.
Screenshots help more than descriptions. If it's a preview-versus-export problem, attach both.
Account and license
Activating a key, how many Macs you can use, moving to a new machine, and what lifetime licenses include.
Command Line
Drive Screenify Studio from the terminal — record, turn any website into a polished demo, and let an AI direct it, all from a single JSON-speaking command built for people, agents, and CI.