Recommended antivirus exclusions to prevent lag and recording failures

Summary

If you’re having trouble starting recordings, experiencing lag, or running into missing video or audio in your Loom Desktop app, your antivirus software might be interfering.

💡 Adding Loom to your antivirus “exclusion” or “allowlist” ensures the app runs without interference.

Symptoms:

Video, audio, and performance issues.

• Webcam bubble doesn't appear, is black or green.

• Screen recording stutters or freezes.

• Camera fails to start.

• Microphone isn't detected.

• System audio not captured, even when enabled.

• Audio out of sync, echoing, or missing.

• Long delay after clicking Start Recording.

• Continuous spinning wheel.

• Desktop app crashes or fails to launch.

• Failed or stuck video uploads.

Solution

Troubleshooting steps

Your computer’s antivirus (Windows Defender) could be preventing the app from recording.  To help resolve this issue please try one of the options below based on your operating system. 

Windows

Note: If you are an IT administrator we recommend using Option 2 to make a mass deploy. 

1. On your Windows device navigate to: Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.

2. Under Virus & threat protection settings, select Manage settings.

3. Under Exclusions, select Add or remove exclusions.

4. Select Add an exclusion > Process.

5. Repeat again: Select Add an exclusion, and then Process. Exclude the following processes: Loom.exe , loom-recorder-production.exe, and loom_crashpad_handler.exe

6. Then you will need to make a Folder exclusion. Exclude the following folders: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Roaming\Loom and C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Videos\Loom\Temporary Note: you will need to replace %USERPROFILE% with your actual user profile.

7. Thats it! Restart your app and try to record again. 📹

Option 2: Run a batch script to create the exclusions

1. Ensure you have administrator privileges before running the script.

2. Download the script and locate it in the default downloads folder. If you cannot find it in your download folder, then select View > Show > File name extensions.

3. Once you have located the script, you will need to rename the file from .txt to .bat (as seen below) by right-clicking and selecting Rename.

4. Right-click on the renamed file and select Run as administrator to run the script. 

5. Once you have run the script, you can verify the exclusions by opening Windows Security, navigating to Virus and Threat Protection, and you should see a new exclusions list listed.

If you need a more in-depth walkthrough of Option 2, please watch Loom How to run the script to create Loom exclusions in Windows Security. 

Mac

Manually create exclusions:

1. On your Mac device, navigate to Defender for Endpoint application.

2. Select Manage settings.

3. Select Add or remove exclusions...

4. Select Add an exclusion > Process. Exclude the following processes:

   /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/MacOS/Loom /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Frameworks/Loom Helper /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Frameworks/Loom Helper (Renderer).app /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Frameworks/Loom Helper (GPU).app /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Frameworks/Loom Helper (Plugin).app /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Resources/binaries/loom_crashpad_handler /Applications/Loom.app/Contents/Resources/binaries/loom-recorder-production

   Create a Folder exclusion and exclude the following folders: 

   /Users/$User/Movies/Loom/Temporary  /Users/$User/Library/Application Support/Loom/ /Users/$User/Library/Application Support/Loom/storage/  Note: you will need to replace $User with your actual user profile.

5. Thats it! Restart your app and try to record again. 📹

Questions, comments, concerns? Contact us here.  

Happy recording! 🎥 😄