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Where do Change Where Screenshots are Saved on Mac? This is an important question because if you know the answer, you can save a lot of time when you are working with multiple screenshots. I’ll show you two ways to change where screenshots are saved in macOS so you can get your work done quickly and without being stopped.
On a Mac, it’s easy to take a screenshot. Just hold down Command + Shift + 3 or Command + Shift + 4 to take a picture of the whole screen or a highlighted area. The only thing that’s annoying is that screenshots are saved to the desktop by default, which can get messy if you take a lot of them.
The good news is that it’s easy to change where screenshots are saved. Follow the steps below to change where screenshots are saved by default on your Mac. All modern versions of macOS, like macOS Monterey and macOS Ventura, can use these steps.
Change Where Screenshots Are Saved on Mac Through the Screenshot Utility
- Press the Command + Shift + 5 keyboard shortcuts to bring up the built-in macOS Screenshot utility.
- Click on the Options dropdown button.
- Select one of the listed locations under Save to set it as the new default save location for screenshots. If you want to use a location that isn’t listed, tap on Other Location, use the Finder to navigate to the location of the folder you want to set as the default, select it, and hit Choose. You can also tap on the New Folder in the Finder to create a new folder and set it as the default folder for saving your screenshots.
- Hit Esc to close.
Change Where Screenshots Are Saved on Mac Using Terminal
- Launch Terminal.
- Enter the following line and press the Return key:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /location/you/copied
- Close all the apps and restart your Mac.
- At any point, if you’d like to revert back to the default setting and save screenshots to your Desktop again, run this command in the Terminal and hit Return:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop
FAQs
To capture the entire screen, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop with the filename starting with “Picture” followed by a number, example Picture 1, Picture 2, and so on. To copy the entire screen, press Command-Control-Shift-3.
Press Shift-Command-6. You can customize these keyboard shortcuts in Keyboard settings. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Keyboard in the sidebar, click Keyboard Shortcuts on the right, then click Screenshots.
When you press PRINT SCREEN, your computer takes a picture of the whole screen and saves it to the Clipboard. The image can then be pasted (CTRL+V) into a document, an email, or another file. Where is the button that says PRINT SCREEN? You might see PrtSc, PrtScn, or PrntScrn on your keyboard.