{"id":67660,"date":"2023-06-22T18:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T10:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=67660"},"modified":"2023-06-25T15:17:05","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T07:17:05","slug":"change-mac-screenshot-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Save Screenshots to a Custom Location on a Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want to change where your Mac saves screenshots? Normally, every screenshot you take is automatically (by default) saved to your desktop. If you take a lot of screenshots and forget to delete them, your desktop can quickly become messy with all these files.<\/p>\n<p>A good solution is to save them in a specific folder anywhere on your computer. This guide will show you how to do that.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 1<\/h3>\n<p>Open the Terminal application.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 2<\/h3>\n<p>Type the command below <strong>without the quotes<\/strong> but don\u2019t press the \u2018Enter\u2019 key yet. Remember, there <strong>should be a space after the word \u201clocation\u201d<\/strong> in the command.<\/p>\n<pre>\"defaults write com.apple.screencapture location \"<\/pre>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/step-2.jpg\" alt=\"step 2\" width=\"1638\" height=\"333\"><\/figure>\n<h3>Step 3<\/h3>\n<p>Find the folder where you want your screenshots to be stored. If it doesn\u2019t exist, create it. Then, drag and drop this folder into the Terminal window, right after the word <strong>\u201clocation \u201c<\/strong> in the command.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/step-3.jpg\" alt=\"step 3\" width=\"1464\" height=\"824\"><\/figure>\n<p>By doing this, the Terminal will display the full path of the folder. Now, you can press \u2018Enter\u2019.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/step-3-translated-path.jpg\" alt=\"step 3\" width=\"1319\" height=\"509\"><\/figure>\n<h3>Step 4<\/h3>\n<p>Lastly, type the next command provided and press \u2018Enter\u2019. This will activate the changes you\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n<pre>killall SystemUIServer<\/pre>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/step-4.jpg\" alt=\"step 4\" width=\"1639\" height=\"300\"><\/figure>\n<h3>Give it a try<\/h3>\n<p>Now, take a screenshot on your Mac. If all goes well, as expected, the screenshot will automatically be saved in the folder you specified.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some articles we\u2019ve previously written about taking screenshots on a Mac that you might find useful.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/making-fast-screen-captures-in-windows-and-mac\/\">Mac screenshots keyboard shortcuts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/change-macos-screenshot-file-format\/\">How to change Mac screenshot default file format<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/transfer-photos-ios-mac\/\">Fastest way to send screenshots to iOS from Mac<\/a> (vice versa)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/free-mac-screen-recording-tools\/\">10 free tools for Mac screen recording<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Step-by-step instructions on how to change the default location where screenshots are saved on a Mac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3397],"tags":[3933,4615],"topic":[],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Save Screenshots to a Custom Location on a Mac - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Step-by-step instructions on how to change the default location where screenshots are saved on a Mac.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Save Screenshots to a Custom Location on a Mac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Step-by-step instructions on how to change the default location where screenshots are saved on a Mac.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hongkiatcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-22T10:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-25T07:17:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/change-mac-screenshot-location\/step-2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hongkiat Lim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hongkiat Lim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/change-mac-screenshot-location\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/change-mac-screenshot-location\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hongkiat Lim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e3613a3bf757e4f67770f0b7a339edd0\"},\"headline\":\"How to Save Screenshots to a Custom Location on a Mac\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-22T10:01:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-25T07:17:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/change-mac-screenshot-location\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":257,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/change-mac-screenshot-location\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/assets.hongkiat.com\\\/uploads\\\/change-mac-screenshot-location\\\/step-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"macOS\",\"Screen Capture Tips &amp; 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