How do I stop screen recording on my iPhone once it starts

Tips
1

I accidentally turned on screen recording from Control Center on my iPhone and couldn’t figure out how to stop it without locking my phone or closing apps. I’m worried it might keep recording in the background and drain my battery or save a super long video. What’s the proper way to quickly stop or disable screen recording, and is there a way to prevent turning it on by mistake in the future?

2

Fast way to stop it without locking your phone:

  1. Look at the status bar
    • On newer iPhones with Face ID, the time area at the top turns red while recording.
    • On older ones with a Home button, the bar at the top turns red.

  2. Tap the red indicator
    • Tap the red time or red bar at the top.
    • A popup appears saying “Stop screen recording?”.
    • Tap “Stop”.

  3. Or use Control Center again
    • Swipe down from the top right (or up from bottom on older phones).
    • The Screen Recording icon glows red while recording.
    • Tap it once. It stops and the icon goes back to gray.

Once you stop it, it does not keep recording in the background.
You get a “Screen Recording video saved to Photos” notification.
You can check Photos app, in Recents folder, to see the clip and delete it if you want to save battery and storage.

If you want to avoid turning it on by accident:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap Control Center.
  3. Under “Included Controls”, find Screen Recording.
  4. Hit the red minus to remove it from Control Center.

That way you do not tap it by mistake again when you go to adjust brightness or volume.

3

You’re not the first person to get “held hostage” by screen recording.

@reveurdenuit covered the obvious taps, so I’ll add a few extra bits and a different angle:

  1. Use the red “pill” on Dynamic Island
    On newer iPhones (14 Pro and up, some others with Dynamic Island), when screen recording is on, you’ll see a solid red “pill” shape at the top around the camera area.

    • Tap and hold that red pill
    • You’ll get the “Stop screen recording?” prompt
    • Tap Stop

    This is handy if you miss the tiny red time indicator.

  2. From the app switcher
    This is more of a sanity check than a method:

    • Swipe up and hold to open the app switcher
    • You’ll still see the red status indicator at the top if recording is active
    • If there’s no red at the top, it’s not recording anymore, even if you previously started it

    iOS does not secretly keep screen recording running once the icon is off and the red bar is gone. The OS is pretty strict with this.

  3. No, it doesn’t keep recording with the screen off
    This is where I slightly disagree with the “battery worry” level some people have. The moment you lock the phone or the display fully turns off, screen recording stops. It cannot silently record a black screen in the background forever.
    If you hit the side button and lock the device, the recording ends and the file is saved.

  4. Quick paranoia check
    If you’re worried it kept going:

    • Open Photos
    • Go to Recents
    • Open the most recent screen recording
    • Check the duration. It will stop exactly when you either tapped the indicator, tapped the Control Center icon, or locked the phone.

  5. If you constantly hit it by accident but don’t want to remove it
    Instead of removing Screen Recording from Control Center like @reveurdenuit suggested, you can:

    • Move it lower in the Control Center list so it’s not right next to Wi‑Fi / Bluetooth / brightness
    • In Settings → Control Center, drag the three-line handle next to Screen Recording farther down.
      This way you still have it for the rare times you actually want it, but you won’t fat‑finger it as easily.

TL;DR:
Once the red stuff at the top is gone and the icon in Control Center is gray, it is 100% not recording anymore, and it will not quietly eat your battery in the background. Your accidental clip is in Photos waiting to be cringe‑deleted.

4

Short version: if you see no red at the top, it is not recording. iOS is pretty strict about that.

A few extra angles that complement what @boswandelaar and @reveurdenuit already explained:

1. Double‑check it really stopped

Instead of guessing:

  1. Open Photos
  2. Go to Albums → Screen Recordings (or just Recents)
  3. Open the last one and scrub to the end

If the video ends right when you locked the phone or switched apps, that was the stop point. If the clip is only a few seconds, then it never kept running in the background.

I slightly disagree with the idea that you should worry a lot about battery here. Screen recording is pretty visible. As long as there is no red bar / pill / time, iOS is not quietly recording.

2. Check screen recording permissions

To avoid paranoia that “some app” is recording:

  1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone
  2. See which apps have permission
  3. Turn off anything you do not trust

Screen recording itself is an OS feature, but the mic part is app‑linked. If mic is off for most apps, even accidental recordings are less revealing.

3. Use Focus or Guided Access to limit accidents

If you often trigger it while juggling apps:

  • Focus mode:
    Set up a Focus where you are less likely to touch Control Center:

    • Settings → Focus
    • Configure Lock Screen & Home Screen so you rarely swipe into Control Center in that scenario

  • Guided Access (for kids / demos):
    Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access
    Turn it on, set a passcode.
    When active in an app, Control Center can be blocked so nobody can even start a recording easily.

4. Tweak how Control Center behaves

Instead of only removing Screen Recording from Control Center like @reveurdenuit suggested:

  • Settings → Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode)
  • Disable Control Center on Lock Screen

That way, random swipes on a locked screen cannot start recording at all. You still keep Screen Recording when the phone is already unlocked.

I actually find this more useful than just dragging the control down the list, because it removes one of the most common “oops, I started something” paths.

5. Battery & storage sanity check

If you are worried it drained battery:

  • Settings → Battery → scroll to see which apps used most in last 24h
    Screen recording will not show as a separate app. If usage looks normal, nothing weird happened.
  • In Photos → Screen Recordings, check file sizes. Delete anything you do not need to clear space.

6. Brief comparison to the other replies

  • @boswandelaar focused more on what you see on modern models with Dynamic Island and how to end the recording from there.
  • @reveurdenuit covered the direct stop methods from the status bar and Control Center and the idea of removing Screen Recording from Control Center completely.

Both are accurate about how to stop it. Where I push a bit further is hardening your setup so you are less likely to start it unintentionally and verifying via the Photos app and Battery screen that nothing is secretly going on in the background.

Once the red indicators are gone and the icon in Control Center is not lit, the recording is over and the phone is not silently capturing anything.