[HOWTO] Take a video using scrcpy

smu44 · May 11, 2020, 7:09pm

Sometimes a video is more explicit than words or screenshots ! (please avoid dirty comments ).
So you may want to show exactly what’s happening on your phone, without storing any file on it, here is how to.
Rem : if you feel comfortable with the Recorder app, storing the video on your phone, you can simply use it instead; thanks @harvey186 for the reminder !

“chérie, j’ai oublié les gosses !”
You must have :

a working phone
developer mode with adb on your computer (Windows, Linux, MacOS). This is well explained in this howto
scrcpy : https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
a working USB cable between your computer and your phone or a working WiFi network

“show me one finger … or two”
As you want to show what you’re doing, activate “Show taps” in Developer Options :

image533×976 88.9 KB
“Houston, we’re go”
Plug your phone to USB (*see alternate below) and start scrcpy

no need to pre-launch adb server, scrcpy has his own
ensure all files are here, and you have enough free space on your drive :

“I know what you did last summer”
scrcpy is starting :

you can act on your phone, or on the clone window on your computer
when done, just close the clone window on your computer, the video gets recorded

“Daya think I’m sexy ?”
You can now upload it to your favorite /e/ cloud, and share it. Example : Disable keypad vibrate - Samsung 7 - #10 by smu44

3-alternate) “where the Alliance comes to help”

de-activate mobile network data
connect the phone to the same WiFi network as your computer, and activate OTA debugging in your phone :

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note the IP address and the port :

image533×976 141 KB
connect via WiFi using IP+port & start magic remote control :
expect some lag

Want more control ?

scrcpy come with some keyboard shortcuts, just launch scrcpy -h ! You may like ctrl-h, ctrl-b, ctrl-s, ctrl-r
you can also play with framerate, bitrate, video encoding, …
If you’re really an opened mind, you can also share your phone via mobile network …

With gratefully respect to @Manoj, @manish, and all other good guys

harvey186 · May 11, 2020, 7:45pm

Why don’t use the default ‘Recorder’ App ?

smu44 · May 12, 2020, 4:43am

I could, but the purpose here is to use scrcpy

I had some problems with Recorder app including a corrupt file, so I don’t feel comfortable with it.
So I find that the solution of capturing the screen from the outside and not storing the video on the phone is more reliable.
This is just a personal opinion, of course.

Thanks @harvey186, you reminded me i forgot to mention the storage aspect

Didou · December 25, 2025, 8:34pm

Hello, could you help me with this :

girafe@girafe-HP-G72-Notebook-PC:~$ scrcpy
scrcpy 1.25 <https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy>
/usr/share/scrcpy/scrcpy-server: 1 file pushed, 0 skipped. 131.2 MB/s (41650 bytes in 0.000s)
[server] INFO: Device: samsung SM-A202F (Android 14)
[server] ERROR: Could not invoke method
java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: android.content.IClipboard$Stub$Proxy.addPrimaryClipChangedListener [interface android.content.IOnPrimaryClipChangedListener, class java.lang.String, class java.lang.String, int]
	at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:2950)
	at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:2450)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.ClipboardManager.getAddPrimaryClipChangedListener(ClipboardManager.java:128)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.ClipboardManager.addPrimaryClipChangedListener(ClipboardManager.java:138)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Device.<init>(Device.java:100)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Server.scrcpy(Server.java:64)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Server.main(Server.java:334)
	at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.nativeFinishInit(Native Method)
	at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.main(RuntimeInit.java:369)
[server] ERROR: Exception on thread Thread[Thread-2,5,main]
java.lang.AssertionError: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.ServiceManager.getInputManager(ServiceManager.java:75)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Device.injectEvent(Device.java:192)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Device.injectKeyEvent(Device.java:203)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Device.pressReleaseKeycode(Device.java:211)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Device.pressReleaseKeycode(Device.java:216)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Controller.control(Controller.java:66)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Server$3.run(Server.java:132)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1012)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.ServiceManager.getInputManager(ServiceManager.java:72)
	... 7 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
	at java.util.Objects.requireNonNull(Objects.java:207)
	at android.hardware.input.InputManager.getInstance(InputManager.java:277)
	... 9 more
[server] ERROR: Exception on thread Thread[main,5,main]
java.lang.AssertionError: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: android.view.SurfaceControl.createDisplay [class java.lang.String, boolean]
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.SurfaceControl.createDisplay(SurfaceControl.java:83)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.ScreenEncoder.createDisplay(ScreenEncoder.java:278)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.ScreenEncoder.internalStreamScreen(ScreenEncoder.java:84)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.ScreenEncoder.streamScreen(ScreenEncoder.java:74)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Server.scrcpy(Server.java:100)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.Server.main(Server.java:334)
	at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.nativeFinishInit(Native Method)
	at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit.main(RuntimeInit.java:369)
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: android.view.SurfaceControl.createDisplay [class java.lang.String, boolean]
	at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:2950)
	at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:2450)
	at com.genymobile.scrcpy.wrappers.SurfaceControl.createDisplay(SurfaceControl.java:81)
	... 7 more
INFO: Renderer: opengl
INFO: OpenGL version: 2.1 Mesa 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2
WARN: Trilinear filtering disabled (OpenGL 3.0+ or ES 2.0+ required)
INFO: Initial texture: 720x1560
WARN: Device disconnected
WARN: Killing the server...

piero · December 25, 2025, 8:40pm

your version look outdated, mine is scrcpy 3.3.3 when latest is scrcpy 3.3.4
GitHub - Genymobile/scrcpy: Display and control your Android device

Didou · December 25, 2025, 8:58pm

The only way I could have scrcpy working on my laptop is from the repo with sudo apt install scrcpy.

From the official release

Download a static build of the latest release:

scrcpy-linux-x86_64-v3.3.4.tar.gz (x86_64)
SHA-256: 0305d98c06178c67e12427bbf340c436d0d58c9e2a39bf9ffbbf8f54d7ef95a5

and extract it.

Had done this but the scrcpy application in the folder isn’t launching. Even tried to copy it to ./bin with admin right, no luck.

Building it from source, right now.

piero · December 25, 2025, 9:09pm

according to scrcpy/doc/linux.md at master · Genymobile/scrcpy · GitHub