Fortnite Recording Symbol - Why does it say Recording on Fortnite?

Epic Games' latest Fortnite "Vibin" update has been a hit among fans, who have enjoyed the slew of new content in Chapter 3 Season 3, ranging from new weapons, characters, POIs, cosmetic skins, and more.

More recently, players have noticed a red recording symbol on the top right corner of their screens in Fortnite, prompting widespread confusion and suspicion that they were being watched. This guide will explain why Fortnite says it's recording and how to turn it off.

Why does it say Recording on Fortnite?

The red recording symbol is not part of a seasonal quest or easter egg but is actually just an in-game glitch. As a result, it's not something that players can resolve or turn off. Interestingly, this bug even affects players who are not actively trying to record their games.

Fortunately, the Fortnite rec bug has been reported by enough players to warrant immediate attention from Epic Games; consequently, the recording symbol bug has been fixed.

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In a 17th June 2022 Tweet, Epic Games acknowledged the bug, writing: "Due to an issue, we've turned off the ability to manually Start and Stop recording mid-match. Capturing replays of your entire match still works as usual."

Due to an issue, we've turned off the ability to manually Start and Stop recording mid-match. Capturing replays of your entire match still works as usual. pic.twitter.com/Qt3yK82pfo

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) June 17, 2022

Then, roughly an hour later, the developers gave an update, announcing that they had reverted the "errant 'Rec' icon" displaying on players' screens. The rollback comes after a recent implementation by Epic Games to allow players to record special in-game moments with ease.

However, as data miner iFireMonkey explained on Twitter, the Rec symbol in Fortnite is "more so related to the Postparty app" Epic Games is working on, which will let players "create clips [or] highlights of game moments in Fortnite [and] Rocket League as MP4 files."

To slightly explain further; this REC symbol is showing up on devices that don't have a replay mode as well mainly due to it showing up after the following hotfix:

bEnableReplayDemoSplitting=false

— iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) June 17, 2022

So, while it's clear that Epic Games has resolved the issue (for now), iFireMonkey contends that the developers did not properly polish the feature before its implementation in the game.

Accordingly, we can likely expect this bug to return at a later time. That's everything we know about the Recording Symbol on the top right corner in Fortnite.

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Featured image courtesy of Epic Games.