How to Pause and Resume a Loom Recording (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P)

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows (Cmd+Shift+P on Mac) while a Loom recording is actively in progress pauses it instantly, and pressing the identical shortcut again resumes recording exactly from that point — this global shortcut only functions while Loom's recording indicator is genuinely active on screen; it does nothing before a recording has started or after one has already been stopped. **What pausing actually does under the hood**: screen and audio capture both stop completely the moment you pause — nothing during the paused interval is recorded at all, not even silently in the background to be trimmed out later. When you eventually stop the recording, Loom stitches together only the actively-recorded segments into one single continuous video file, with the paused gap simply not present in the final output, as though it had genuinely never happened from the viewer's perspective. **Why this matters for a natural, unedited feel**: because Loom videos are meant to feel casual and largely unedited — recorded once, sent, done — the pause/resume shortcut is genuinely important for anyone who gets interrupted mid-recording (a notification, a knock at the door, needing a moment to gather their next thought) without wanting that interruption baked permanently into the final video the way it would be if you'd simply stopped talking but kept recording through the gap. **The shortcut's version-dependent exact binding**: the specific key combination has varied somewhat across different Loom app versions and between the desktop app and browser extension specifically — if Ctrl+Shift+P (or Cmd+Shift+P) doesn't appear to pause your recording, it's worth opening Loom's own keyboard shortcuts reference inside the app settings, since capture-control bindings are exactly the kind of thing Loom has quietly renumbered between releases without much fanfare. **Global versus in-app scope**: this shortcut is designed to work globally on desktop, meaning you don't need Loom's own recording control bar to be the focused window for it to register — genuinely useful since you're typically actively demonstrating something in a completely different application while recording, and needing to click back into Loom specifically just to pause would defeat much of the shortcut's purpose. **What happens to your webcam bubble and microphone during a pause**: pausing the recording doesn't necessarily turn off your camera or mute your microphone in real time — those remain separate, click-driven toggles (covered on the recording-controls category page) — pausing specifically stops what's being captured into the final video, independent of whatever your camera and mic are actively doing in the moment. **Related shortcuts**: Ctrl+Shift+S (Cmd+Shift+S on Mac) stops the recording entirely, a genuinely different and one-way action compared to pause — worth being careful not to confuse the two, since accidentally stopping when you meant to pause ends the recording session and moves you into the post-recording editor rather than simply freezing capture temporarily. **Mistake to avoid**: forgetting you're paused and continuing to talk or demonstrate something on screen, only to realize later that none of it was actually captured, is a genuinely common small frustration — Loom's recording indicator typically shows a distinct paused visual state, and it's worth glancing at it to confirm you're actually recording again after resuming, rather than assuming the resume keystroke definitely registered without visually double-checking.