How to write a bug report? [Free tool + Template]

When talking about software development, it is impossible not to talk about bugs. And when there are bugs, there are bug reports.

This guide covers what a well-written bug report looks like, how to write one that helps your team find and fix errors quickly, and how Vmaker can cut the time and energy spent on bug reporting.

A good bug report is precise, effective, and simple, yet detailed enough that your team can quickly identify the issue and resolve it without follow-up questions.

If you can write a good bug report, the odds of the issue actually getting fixed go up significantly.

Now that you have a rough idea of what makes a good bug report, let us zoom in on the elements every report needs.

Keep it short and precise. Like any other type of report, your bug report needs a title that gives a clear idea of the issue, its location, or its category. A clear title makes it easier for your team to find the bug later and update its status.

Bad: "I clicked the proceed button on the home page, but it's not responding. Can you fix this problem?"

The problem with the above example is that it is vague, and it does not specify the location of the problem. There can be multiple "proceed" buttons on the home page.

Good: Navigation Bar (Home Page): Proceed button not responding

This is crisp, clear, and specifies the location of the problem.

If the title cannot capture everything, write a summary. The summary should be written so the reader can know exactly what is going on and which part or feature of the software is affected.

Bad: "Yesterday, I was trying to sign in from the home page, but nothing happened after clicking on the button."

Good: "Yesterday [DATE], I tried to sign in from the home page by clicking on the sign-in button on [LOCATION], but nothing happened."

No matter how precisely you write the report, adding visual proof like a screenshot or a screen recording alongside the summary will help your team understand the report faster. A short screen recording is often clearer than a paragraph of description.

There is always a chance the bug is specific to your local environment, so include environment details in your report. Cover:

• Device hardware and model
• Operating system and version
• The account you were logged in with
• The app version and build number
• Browser version (for web apps)
• Network conditions if relevant (VPN, slow connection, offline mode)

Write the steps you took that triggered the bug, so developers can follow the same path and reproduce it themselves. Be specific about what you clicked, what you typed, and in what order.

Step 1: Open the home page

Step 2: Click the drop-down menu in the navigation bar

Step 3: Enter your email address and click the proceed button

State what you were expecting when you followed the steps. Be as clear as possible. It is always more useful to developers to know what should have happened than to know only what should not have happened.

Describe what actually happened. Example of expected vs actual results:

Expected result: I should have been taken to the player page when I clicked the proceed button.

Actual result: When I clicked the proceed button, an "error" message appeared.

If you have multiple bug issues, tell your development team which one to prioritise by rating them based on severity.

High priority: Fix the proceed button

Medium priority: Fix the player page

Low priority: Fix the broken URL

One essential but easy-to-forget item: the source URL. The URL helps developers navigate to the issue faster, which speeds up the whole investigation.

Click here to download the template.

Now that you know the essential elements of a good bug report, use the template above and start writing. Spend time on this. The bug report is the main communication point between you and your dev team, and a few extra minutes spent writing it clearly saves hours of back-and-forth later.

Bonus Guide: Integrate Vmaker with Gmail, GitHub, GitLab, and Jira

Writing a bug report is easy when the issue is minor and the words come naturally. But complex bugs are different. The screenshot does not capture the click sequence. The text description does not convey the timing of the error. Words alone are often not enough.

That is where Vmaker comes in.

Complex bugs take more content to describe, and longer reports get harder to keep clear. By the time the writer is on paragraph four, the issue has lost focus, the team is asking follow-up questions, and the whole back-and-forth loop has started.

If you look at the full cycle from writing the report to the dev team finding and fixing the bug, a lot of time is wasted in translation. The fix is to replace the description with a recording.

Vmaker is a free screen recording tool. Record a quick video of the bug as it happens and send it to your team. Instead of writing long descriptions, talk over the recording with your voice. The team sees exactly what you saw, in exactly the order you saw it. The recording captures the click sequence, the timing, and the error state automatically.

Vmaker also has an annotation feature, so you can point out details on your screen during the recording. Circle the broken button, highlight the error message, draw an arrow to the inconsistency. The annotations bake into the video, so the team can see exactly what you wanted them to focus on.

The workspace feature lets you keep track of all your bug reports while collaborating with your team. Recordings are searchable, taggable, and shareable via link.

Once you have the recording, you can polish it inside the AI video editor: trim out the noise, zoom in on the bug location, and add intros if needed. For globally distributed dev teams, auto-generated subtitles in 35+ languages let non-native English speakers on your team follow the recording without missing details.

With Vmaker, reporting a bug is a three-step process: open the app, record the bug, share the link.

If you enjoyed this guide, here are a few more reads:

• How to record Google Meet
• How to screen record on iPhone
• Best screen recorder for Mac
• How to record a Zoom meeting with audio
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