If Chrome crashes or your laptop sleeps mid-recording EN

Rekorder uploads your recording in the background while you're still recording, so an interruption usually doesn't cost you the whole take - only whatever hadn't been saved yet at that exact moment.

Why most of it survives

While you record, the recorder tab saves your video to your computer in short chunks and sends each one to your account as soon as it's ready. See Your recording uploads while you are still recording for the full mechanism. This is what makes crashes and sleep recoverable: most of your footage is usually already off your computer by the time anything goes wrong.

What survives

• Every chunk that had already uploaded before the interruption. It's safe on your account no matter what happens to your laptop afterward.
• Any chunk that was saved on your computer but not yet uploaded. Rekorder picks these up automatically the next time you open Chrome and finishes sending them in the background.

What can be lost

• The last moment of footage Rekorder was still capturing in memory when the crash happened, that hadn't been written to a chunk on your computer yet.
• Any chunk still waiting on your computer if you don't reopen Chrome within 24 hours of starting that recording - it's deleted automatically to free up space, and can't be recovered after that.

Sleep or a closed lid vs. a hard crash

These don't behave the same way:

• Your laptop sleeping or its lid closing usually interrupts screen or tab capture immediately. Rekorder treats this the same as clicking Stop: it saves everything recorded up to that point and ends the take cleanly. You end up with a shorter recording, not a missing one. See My recording stopped by itself.
• Chrome crashing, or being force-closed (for example, to finish an update) doesn't give Rekorder any warning, so it can't wrap things up. Recovery then depends entirely on what had already been uploaded or saved locally, as described above.

Where to look afterward

1. Reopen Chrome. Rekorder resumes any pending upload automatically once the extension starts back up.
2. Open your recordings library. If any part of the take made it out, the recording appears there, initially marked Processing while Rekorder finishes assembling it. See What happens between stopping and the video being ready.
3. If the interruption happened seconds into the recording, before any chunk had a chance to upload, nothing will appear at all.

If you want to check whether anything is still sitting on your computer waiting to upload, you can look at the OPFS Explorer in the extension's Advanced settings - see The OPFS Explorer, and when to reach for it.

This article covers Cloud mode. In Offline mode your recording is built and kept entirely on your computer instead of being uploaded, so an interruption affects it differently - see Cloud mode and Offline mode: which one you are in.

Troubleshooting

• Stuck on "Processing" after a crash. This is normal for a short while as Rekorder finishes uploading and assembling whatever chunks were left. If it doesn't clear up, see It has been "processing" for a long time.
• Nothing shows up in your library. If the recording never got past its first few seconds, there was nothing to save - see The recording never appeared in my library.
• The upload seems to have restarted but never finishes. See An upload that seems stuck.

Related articles

• Your recording uploads while you are still recording
• What happens between stopping and the video being ready
• My recording stopped by itself
• It has been "processing" for a long time
• The recording never appeared in my library
• An upload that seems stuck
• The OPFS Explorer, and when to reach for it