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Why is Mail recording my screen?

1

123123123

macrumors regular
Original poster
Had Mail open (on 15.5) and the blue "Screen Recording" dot appeared in the upper right screen corner – checked Control Center and apparently it was Mail recording my screen. Why and how? I don't have Mail (or anything else) authorized for screen recording (see below):

Closed Mail and the dot went away, but googling suggests that I'm not the only person who's noticed this. Anyone know what's going on? This is a newish machine with few third-party apps installed, and Intego VirusBarrier didn't flag anything on a scan.
 
123123123 said:
Had Mail open (on 15.5) and the blue "Screen Recording" dot appeared in the upper right screen corner – checked Control Center and apparently it was Mail recording my screen. Why and how? I don't have Mail (or anything else) authorized for screen recording (see below):

Closed Mail and the dot went away, but googling suggests that I'm not the only person who's noticed this. Anyone know what's going on? This is a newish machine with few third-party apps installed, and Intego VirusBarrier didn't flag anything on a scan.
Click to expand...

The only blue dot I get from mail (briefly) is location services, which is blue.

Screen/audio recording is usually orange.

Sure you aren't confused?
 
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throAU said:
The only blue dot I get from mail (briefly) is location services, which is blue.

Screen/audio recording is usually orange.

Sure you aren't confused?
Click to expand...
Yes. I am capable of telling the difference between orange and blue. 🙂. Also, control center explicitly displays a screen recording element.
 
123123123 said:
Yes. I am capable of telling the difference between orange and blue. 🙂. Also, control center explicitly displays a screen recording element.
Click to expand...
It was purple then.

Blue: Location Services
Purple: Screen/Audio Recording
Orange: Microphone is in use
Green: Camera is in use

Examples:
1750265736602.png

1750265757043.png

1750265745103.png
 
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123123123 said:
I keep my backlight low, and the screen recording dot usually looks like blue to me (I admit that right next to the Location dot, it definitely looks more purple). That being said, when I opened Control Center, it said "Screen Recording".
Click to expand...
Interesting. The Mail app does not have any built in Screen Recording options. So I would assume it was probably just a bug that was being displayed or maybe you did not see what you think you saw. But as other users have said, you can just reset the mail app permissions in terminal.
 
xaqt93 said:
Interesting. The Mail app does not have any built in Screen Recording options. So I would assume it was probably just a bug that was being displayed or maybe you did not see what you think you saw. But as other users have said, you can just reset the mail app permissions in terminal.
Click to expand...
I'm assuming it was a bug – but Googling this suggests that I'm not the only person who has had this happen, so I'm skeptical that it didn't happen.
 
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I suggest adding Mail to the list of apps that have screen-recording permission, then run Mail to see how long the indicator stays lit. Quit Mail.

I'd then remove Mail from the list of apps allowed to screen-record, then run Mail again and see if the indicator lights up.

I'd also try the same things using a newly created throw-away local Mac user account, which isn't attached to any Apple ID. This is mainly to see what the default for a new account is. If there's also a throw-away email account you have from an email-provider, I'd add that to Mail under the new user account, then see what Mail does both with and without the screen-recording permission.
 
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chown33 said:
I suggest adding Mail to the list of apps that have screen-recording permission, then run Mail to see how long the indicator stays lit. Quit Mail.

I'd then remove Mail from the list of apps allowed to screen-record, then run Mail again and see if the indicator lights up.

I'd also try the same things using a newly created throw-away local Mac user account, which isn't attached to any Apple ID. This is mainly to see what the default for a new account is. If there's also a throw-away email account you have from an email-provider, I'd add that to Mail under the new user account, then see what Mail does both with and without the screen-recording permission.
Click to expand...
That does seem like a good start to an analysis of the problem. I'm unimpressed with the quality of the current versions of Apple OSes across Mac/iPad/iOS, though – I switched to Macs as my primary devices years ago because I didn't have the time to keep sorting out Linux and Windows issues. The bugs are starting to mount, though, and I've spent more time troubleshooting macOS 15.x issues this year than I have all other macOS versions combined over the last five years.
 
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bogdanw said:
TCC is known to be buggy, resetting sometimes helps.
To reset all screen recording permissions, from Terminal
Code: 
tccutil reset ScreenCapture
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. If this is a problem with macOS' permissions control system, that's a pretty gargantuan security hole.
 
Sometimes when you switch from a window fullscreen to windowed (or the inverse), macOS will show that dot.
It shouldn't, but it does.
 
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Created an account just to comment on this thread. I had this happen last week after clicking an email link that opened the mail app. In addition to the screen recording icon, I noticed that the app would open in the split-screen mode for a few seconds before going away. I didn't realize I was still on Sequoia (whoops), and after updating to Tahoe it has stopped. I'm sure it was just a bug like others have said, but it is strange.
 
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Not an expert on Macs, but, 5 decades with PCs later?

1) First thing on my mind would have been the possibility of something having indavertently being "installed".
If i had not found anything?
* do you have an app you can do real search with? Not Finder/Spotlight crappola search, i mean properly, as in see everywhere? If not, you should get FindAnyFile.

2) I'd have had a look at my local network + input monitoring permissions. Which one should know by heart, it being why they're second on the list.

3) If still nothing? What bogdan said above. Kill permissions for Mail, reboot Mac, re-open Mail.

You do not specify whether you tried these, but.. in matters this sensitive, first we go pre-emptive, then wait a day or two for forum responses.

Hope it's benign 🙂
 
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