The reason? AnyDesk records sessions in a proprietary format (usually .anydesk or .ad ) optimized for internal playback, not for universal sharing.
: Return to the main AnyDesk window. Click the menu icon again and select Screen Recording .
There are no reliable free tools for direct conversion. The most effective free method is to use a free screen recorder (like OBS Studio or the AnyDesk built-in recorder) to capture the playback. convert anydesk video to mp4 upd
The "re-recording" method is a bit of a workaround, but it's the most reliable way to "convert" an .anydesk file to MP4. It leverages the fact that you can play the AnyDesk recording and capture its playback using a screen recorder.
Troubleshooting codec and container issues There were times FFmpeg wouldn’t read the file cleanly. The key steps were: The reason
Newer versions of OBS (v30+) have better MP4 encoding with pause/resume. Plus, NVIDIA/AMD hardware encoding makes this real-time conversion faster than before.
Background and first impressions AnyDesk is a remote desktop tool I’d used for quick support and screen sharing. I knew it could record sessions, but I hadn’t paid attention to the format. The file that arrived included a short recording with a .any extension (or sometimes appearing as no extension in the file manager). It wasn’t immediately playable in my usual media player, and the sender hadn’t specified how they recorded it—whether from Linux, Windows, or macOS—so step one was figuring out what the file actually was. Click the menu icon again and select Screen Recording
The .anydesk file extension ensures the data is primarily readable only within the secure AnyDesk ecosystem.