Q: Where does Quicktime X in Mavericks store screen recordings while recording?

I know I can save it anywhere once I click stop. But where's all that info piling up while it's recording?

Same as with previous Mac OS X verson:

Use the "Show Package Contents" option to open the "Library/Containers/com.appleQuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave Information/Unsaved QuickTime Player Document.qtpxcomposition" file and then look for the "Screen Recording.mov" file.

And is there any way to tell Quicktime to record to an external drive in real time like I used to be able to do in Snow Leopard?

No, the target location appears to be default programmed into the system.

What about Terminal? Is there some code I could use to tell Quicktime to autosave screen recordings to an external drive?

Not a major terminal user. (I.e., normally limit my use to turning legacy codecs back on if needed.) Maybe another user (more expert in this area) will post an answer to your more specific question.

Hey Jon, thanks for the help, your solution got me my files back. Quick question though, do you know why i would have to search for the temporary auto-saved screen recordings? For some reason only the oldest ones were opening up in my dock when i launched quicktime, but the most recent ones were buried in the container folders. Thanks again.

Quick question though, do you know why i would have to search for the temporary auto-saved screen recordings? For some reason only the oldest ones were opening up in my dock when i launched quicktime, but the most recent ones were buried in the container folders.

If I understand the question correctly, not a clue. Only the programmers whould know for sure. My guess would be a change in methodology that ensures a scratch write area of known minimum characteristics (a boot compatible drive) coupled with user feedback probably requesting an accessible stored scratch but un-saved (to final target drive location) file which has yet to be added to the app's "Recents" list.

Why the recordings end up in the oddest places? All i can tell you is that the older versions of quicktime youset the place they would be stored by default.  This new version after upgrading to Mavericks you need to generate a short recording, then stop the recoding by clicking stop button in menu bar top right (you will see it pop up when you start recording), the save the recording by selecting FILE>SAVE navigate to your external drive or location on local disk, then save.  After that the location will be the default.

This new version after upgrading to Mavericks you need to generate a short recording, then stop the recoding by clicking stop button in menu bar top right (you will see it pop up when you start recording), the save the recording by selecting FILE>SAVE navigate to your external drive or location on local disk, then save.  After that the location will be the default.

Interesting observation. Thanks for sharing this. It will make a great "Quick TiP" for the next user group meeting.