How to change screenshot saving location on Mac

in #mac7 years ago (edited)

To change the location of where your screenshots save at:

1. Open Terminal

2. Copy and paste this, DO NOT RUN IT YET.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location

If you have no other windows open, you can click and drag a folder from you desktop or another Finder window to automatically fill in the path to that folder.

Here's what I put in

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/PeterBrown/Desktop/Screenshot\ Stuff

That set the screenshot folder to a folder called "Screenshot Stuff" on my desktop. If you read that and saw the "\ " That is just a space, but when referencing a path in the terminal, you must tell it that it is a space, not a new piece of the command, or else the code will get confused.

After you have done this, it will not work until either

  1. You restart your computer
    or
  2. Much easier: Type this command

killall SystemUIServer

This will end a process currently running on your computer
You may notice the icons in the top right disappear after you do this.
Everything will come back after about 5 seconds, because your mac will automatically make it run.
After everything is back, the screenshot folder will be set to the location you put in.

STEP 3: Take a screenshot. Take a screenshot of anything (CMD + Shift + 4) and see if it goes into that folder.

Please upvote if this was helpful.