Why is Mail app screen recording on Mac, and how can I stop it?

Not sure when it started but after one of the last updates, macOS started to randomly show the Mail app is screen recording.

First I thought this might be related to Apple Intelligence but I completely disabled Apple Intelligence and it still shows up in the notification center.


What is the reason for this?

I would like to know why Mail is screen recording. Sounds invasive and similar to Windows behavior.


This was observed by more users and has been discussed on Reddit as well before:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1hdecoi/mail_app_screen_recording_apple_intelligence/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1h6c1fb/apple_mail_app_randomly_recording_screen/

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1hqe9ho/mac_showing_screen_recording_under_privacy_cant/



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.4

Posted on May 1, 2025 05:18 AM

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Posted on May 3, 2025 08:01 AM

I'm having the same problem too (btw, clicking the "Me too" button does nothing). this happens to me when I'm in an app that is fullscreen, such as safari, and a mail notification comes in on the upper right. I click the notification and it opens the mail app in split screen with the app that I had in full screen. Then the purple dot shows up. and it happens every time I do this. I have no plugins installed on any app. I am up to date (15.4.1). In the Privacy and Security -> Screen and System audio recording, there are no items. I have all sharing options turned off in System Preferences -> General -> Sharing. I have Apple Intelligence & Siri turned off. I have tried just restarting the Mac and it will still happen. The only non-Apple apps that I have installed are Chrome, Brave Browser, FileZilla, Speedtest, Visual Studio Code, Azure Data studio and Docker. And I have installed homebrew from the terminal. I'm not sure how to keep screen recording from happening.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 3, 2025 08:01 AM in response to iPhils

I'm having the same problem too (btw, clicking the "Me too" button does nothing). this happens to me when I'm in an app that is fullscreen, such as safari, and a mail notification comes in on the upper right. I click the notification and it opens the mail app in split screen with the app that I had in full screen. Then the purple dot shows up. and it happens every time I do this. I have no plugins installed on any app. I am up to date (15.4.1). In the Privacy and Security -> Screen and System audio recording, there are no items. I have all sharing options turned off in System Preferences -> General -> Sharing. I have Apple Intelligence & Siri turned off. I have tried just restarting the Mac and it will still happen. The only non-Apple apps that I have installed are Chrome, Brave Browser, FileZilla, Speedtest, Visual Studio Code, Azure Data studio and Docker. And I have installed homebrew from the terminal. I'm not sure how to keep screen recording from happening.

Jun 18, 2025 11:54 AM in response to iPhils

Me too. However, I've only noticed that it happens for me when I actually send an email from the Apple mail app. I haven't seen mail notification in the upper right corner like another poster mentioned. My screen attempts to open a split screen view of mail, the purple dot appears in the upper right corner, but the second window from the split screen goes away. It's only showing a split screen for maybe 1-2 seconds, if that. I have Apple Intelligence & Siri turned off (on all of my apple devices - always have) and have tried all of the same remedies that others have mentioned, but nothing has worked. This is a huge invasion of privacy.

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Why is Mail app screen recording on Mac, and how can I stop it?

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