How to add Screen Recording permission to Google Chrome in Catalina

catalinagoogle-chromepermissionSecuritysystem-prefs

Please note: this question is very similar to this one and others, but none of them involve giving Google Chrome access to the Screen Recording permission! The link above is for giving Slack permission, but that is not what I'm trying to do, and as you'll see by my screenshot below, Catalina is behaving especially strange in the case of Chrome. Please do not DV/CV as a dupe!


Mac OS Catalina 10.15.3 here. In Chrome I am joining a Google Meet video conference and cannot present my screen because Chrome doesn't have screen recording permission. The generally accepted solution is to go to System Preferences >> Security >> Privacy and allow Chrome to have Screen Recording permissions as indicated by the following screenshot:

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However when I go to System Preferences >> Security >> Privacy, all I see is:

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Which indicates only my Slack app has screen recording privileges. I need to add Google Chrome to this list, but I can't figure out how to do that! I do not see where I can search for apps to add to the Screen Recording permissions list. Any ideas?

If I try to present my screen from inside an existing Google Meet meeting, I get a warning that I need to give my camera permission, and I am given a link to go into System Preferences and change permissions. However when I click the link, again, only Slack is available as an option.

Best Answer

It looks like as long as an app does not try to capture or record the screen, the app cannot be manually added to the "Screen Recording" list. For other permission types such as Full Disk Access, I have successfully dragged and dropped an application to add to the list.

In that case, you can open Google Chrome, visit this site and click the "Get Started" button. I have tried it on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4 with Google Chrome 83.0.4103.61 (Official Build) (64-bit), and it worked. After pressing the "Get Started" button, Chrome requested permission to record screen, and then afterwards, I could go to settings->Security & Privacy and then grant permission for Screen Recording.

During my test, I already had the Security & Privacy window open, and already clicked the Lock icon to make changes and entered my password.

Afterwards, I have tested with Google meetings and confirmed that I can share my screen. I have also confirmed that when I deselect Chrome from the Screen Recording list, I can't share the screen.

Hope that works for you, too.