How to use Steam Game Recording

Steam Game Recording is a brand new way for players to save clips of their plays. This new system boasts a background recording setting, manual recording, and even a timeline and clipping functionality. Below you’ll find information on how to use Steam Game Recording and where your videos are saved.

How to use Steam Game Recording

Steam Game Recording uses a sort of two-step recording process. You must first record your gameplay and then export it using a different menu. Before you begin recording, ensure you have everything set up correctly.

The Record Manually option will prevent Steam from using the background recording option.
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Open Steam Settings and navigate to the new Game Recording section OR click View, Recordings & Screenshots, then the Settings gear. Here you can select how the recording takes place, either in the background or manually. When background recording is active, Steam will record 120 minutes of footage that you can then clip or export however you want. When manual recording is selected, Steam will only start recording when you tell it to using the indicated button input.

Be sure to set the Start/Stop Recording button, confirm the frame rate you want to use, and if you’re using Background Recording, confirm the video length, quality, and how long a clip should be. Once this is done, you can begin recording.

After recording a clip, you must export it via the Recordings & Screenshots menu. This is found by clicking View on the Steam launcher (the Media tab on Steam Deck). Find the video you want to export/save and click it to enter a more detailed editing mode. Here you can use the Clip button to cut a segment of the recording or use the Share button and then Export Video File to save it right away.

After editing your video using the Clip tool, you can click Share and Export Video File. This new screen will let you pick the file size and save location before starting the export procress.
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When you’re ready to save the video, select Export Video File and then use the File Size option to choose how big the file should be. The larger the file, the higher the resolution and the better the frame rate. Click Export Video to begin saving it to the chosen folder.

Where Steam Game Recordings are saved

The save location for the Steam Game Recordings is wherever Steam is installed, but you can change this to your preferred folder.
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Steam Game Recordings are usually saved wherever you have Steam installed and then within a few sub-folders. You can check where Steam saves the clips by opening Settings, going to Game Recording, and checking the Recordings Folder. Ideally, this should be assigned to a drive with considerable storage. Before exporting a video, the recordings exist as .json and .m4s files.

You can also find your recordings by clicking View Recordings & Screenshots. This will show you everything Steam has recorded and this is where you will need to edit and export your videos into actual .mp4 files.

Steam’s Game Recording system is a welcomed addition to the line-up of game recording software currently available. It’s a bit rough around the edges at the moment, but after setting up the game recording save file and working the clipping system, you’ll be sharing your sick plays in no time. Be sure to check out our Steam page for more information on Valve’s storefront.