You’re ready to lay down that perfect guitar riff or capture your best vocal take, but Logic Pro refuses to record. Your input meters might be bouncing, everything looks ready, but hitting that record button gives you nothing but silence or an error message.
This frustrating issue can stop your creative flow completely. Whether you’re a home producer or a professional engineer, a non-recording DAW means lost time and missed opportunities.
Let me walk you through why this happens and, more importantly, how to get your recording session back on track. You’ll learn the main culprits behind recording failures and practical fixes you can try right away.
What’s Actually Happening
Logic Pro’s recording system relies on several moving parts working together smoothly. Your audio interface captures sound, your computer processes it, and Logic Pro writes that data to your hard drive. Any hiccup along this chain breaks the recording process.
Sometimes Logic Pro appears ready but won’t actually capture audio. Your track might be record-enabled with the little red button glowing, yet pressing record produces nothing. Other times, you might get an error popup saying the system ran out of disk space or encountered a CoreAudio failure.
The software could also freeze entirely during recording attempts. This leaves you staring at a spinning beach ball while your creative moment slips away. Files might record but play back as silence, making you think nothing was captured at all.
Your settings matter tremendously here. A single misplaced checkbox or dropdown selection can prevent recording completely. Logic Pro offers incredible flexibility, but that same flexibility creates many places where things can go wrong.
Logic Pro Not Recording: Likely Causes
Several factors can stop Logic Pro from recording properly. Let me break down the usual suspects so you can identify what’s affecting your setup.
1. Input Monitoring Settings Conflicts
Your input monitoring settings control when you hear the incoming signal. Logic Pro has both automatic and manual monitoring modes, and having the wrong mode active creates confusion.
If automatic monitoring is on but your track is already playing audio, Logic Pro assumes you don’t want to hear the input. It mutes the incoming signal even though recording might still work. This makes you think recording failed when it actually succeeded.
Manual monitoring gives you control but requires you to actively enable it. Many people forget this step and then wonder why they can’t hear anything coming through, leading them to believe recording isn’t working at all.
2. Track Record Enable Issues
Every track in Logic Pro needs explicit permission to record. That red button on each track strip isn’t just for show. You must click it before recording will work on that specific track.
Sometimes you think you’ve enabled recording, but you actually clicked a different track by mistake. Logic Pro will happily record on the enabled track while leaving your intended track empty. Multiple tracks can cause similar confusion, especially if you’re working with many channels at once.
3. Audio Interface Configuration Problems
Your audio interface serves as the bridge between your microphone or instrument and Logic Pro. If Logic Pro can’t see the interface or if the wrong inputs are selected, recording becomes impossible.
The interface might be physically connected but not selected in Logic Pro’s audio preferences. Maybe you switched interfaces recently, and Logic Pro is still looking for the old one. Perhaps the interface lost power momentarily, causing the driver to disconnect.
Sample rate mismatches cause problems too. If your project runs at 48kHz but your interface is set to 44.1kHz, recording might fail or produce strange artifacts. These technical mismatches prevent the audio stream from flowing properly.
4. Disk Space or Permission Errors
Logic Pro needs somewhere to write your audio files. If your hard drive is full or nearly full, recording stops abruptly. The software might not even tell you why, leaving you confused about what went wrong.
Permission issues create similar headaches. MacOS security settings sometimes prevent apps from writing to certain folders. If Logic Pro doesn’t have permission to save files to your project folder, recording fails silently or throws cryptic error messages.
Slower hard drives struggle with high track counts. Recording 24 tracks simultaneously to a slow external USB drive might work initially but then fail partway through as the drive can’t keep up with the data flow.
5. Software or Plugin Conflicts
Background processes on your Mac can interfere with Logic Pro’s ability to record. System updates, antivirus scans, or backup software running during your session steal processing power and cause dropouts or recording failures.
Certain third-party plugins create instability. A buggy compressor or reverb on your recording chain might crash Logic Pro when you hit record. Even if it doesn’t crash, it could cause enough latency or processing issues to prevent recording from starting.
Outdated versions of Logic Pro have known bugs that affect recording. Apple regularly fixes these issues in updates, but if you’re running an older version, you might be dealing with a problem that’s already been solved.
Logic Pro Not Recording: How to Fix
Getting your recording capabilities back usually requires checking a few key areas. Here’s what works based on hundreds of recording sessions I’ve troubleshot.
1. Verify Input Monitoring Configuration
Your first stop should be the track header settings. Look at the input monitoring icon on your track strip. It looks like a small speaker symbol.
Click the icon to toggle between different monitoring modes. Try both automatic and manual settings to see which works for your situation. If you’re overdubbing over existing audio, manual monitoring often works better because it gives you complete control.
Go to Logic Pro’s preferences and check the audio settings. Make sure “Software Monitoring” is enabled under the Audio tab. This setting allows you to hear your input signal through Logic Pro rather than relying on direct monitoring from your interface. Some setups work better with this off, so try both options if the first doesn’t help.
2. Check Track Record Enable Status
This seems obvious but gets overlooked constantly. Look at your track strip and make sure the record enable button glows bright red. If it’s dim or off, click it to activate recording for that track.
Here’s a helpful trick: press Option+R on your keyboard while a track is selected. This keyboard shortcut toggles record enable much faster than clicking with your mouse. It’s especially handy during creative moments when you need to work quickly.
Check if you accidentally enabled recording on a different track. Scan through all visible tracks to see if any other record buttons are lit. Logic Pro only records on enabled tracks, so having the wrong one active explains why your intended track stays empty.
3. Reset Your Audio Interface Connection
Open Logic Pro’s preferences by pressing Command+Comma or going to the Logic Pro menu. Click on the Audio tab and look at the input device dropdown. Make sure your audio interface appears in that list.
If you don’t see your interface listed, quit Logic Pro completely. Unplug your interface from your Mac, wait ten seconds, then plug it back in. Launch Logic Pro again and check if the interface now appears. This simple reset fixes connection issues surprisingly often.
Your sample rate settings need to match between your interface and Logic Pro. Check your interface’s control software to see what sample rate it’s using. Then look at your Logic Pro project settings by going to File > Project Settings > Audio. Both should show the same number, whether that’s 44.1kHz, 48kHz, or higher.
4. Free Up Disk Space and Check Permissions
Look at your Mac’s storage by clicking the Apple menu, then About This Mac, then Storage. If you see less than 20GB of free space, your hard drive is too full for reliable recording. Delete old files or move them to external storage to free up space.
Check your project folder location in Finder. Right-click the folder and choose Get Info. Under Sharing & Permissions at the bottom, make sure your user account has Read & Write privileges. If it says Read Only, click the lock icon, enter your password, and change it to Read & Write.
Sometimes changing your recording location helps. Go to File > Project Settings > Assets. Look at the “Project File Recording” path. Try setting it to your Desktop temporarily. If recording suddenly works, you know the original location had permission issues or storage problems.
5. Restart CoreAudio and Logic Pro
MacOS’s audio system (CoreAudio) sometimes gets stuck or confused. You can restart it without rebooting your entire computer. Open Finder, go to Applications > Utilities, and launch Audio MIDI Setup.
With Audio MIDI Setup open, find your audio interface in the list. Click it, then use the dropdown menu next to “Format” to change the sample rate to something different. Wait a few seconds, then change it back to your original setting. This forces CoreAudio to restart and often clears up weird audio issues.
A clean restart of Logic Pro itself helps too. Quit the app completely using Command+Q, not just by closing the window. Wait about thirty seconds before relaunching. This gives your Mac time to release all the audio resources Logic Pro was using.
6. Test in a Fresh Project
Create a brand new empty project to see if the problem follows you there. Go to File > New, choose an audio track, and try recording. If recording works fine in the new project, something in your original project file is causing the issue.
The culprit might be a specific plugin on your recording chain. Go back to your problem project and remove all plugins from the track you’re trying to record on. Try recording again. If it works, add your plugins back one at a time to identify which one causes trouble.
Sometimes project files get corrupted. If recording works in new projects but not your current one, consider starting fresh and importing your tracks. It’s frustrating to rebuild, but a clean project file solves problems that no amount of troubleshooting can fix.
7. Contact Apple Support or a Professional
If you’ve tried everything here without success, you might be dealing with a hardware problem or a deeper software issue. Apple’s support team can run diagnostics and check for problems you can’t see.
Professional audio technicians have specialized tools for testing interfaces and signal flow. They can determine if your equipment needs repair or replacement. Sometimes paying for an hour of expert help saves you days of frustration and lost productivity.
Wrapping Up
Recording problems in Logic Pro feel overwhelming at first, but they usually stem from a handful of simple issues. Most fixes take just a few minutes once you know where to look.
Your audio interface settings, track configurations, and system resources all need to work together smoothly. By checking each area methodically, you can pinpoint what’s stopping your recording session and get back to making music. Keep your software updated, maintain adequate disk space, and always verify your basic settings before starting a session. These habits prevent most recording headaches before they start.