change-the-default-folder-when-saving-screenshots-on-macos.md

Change the default folder when saving screenshots on MacOS

🕰️ logged on 2024.07.02
🔖 tagged: apple, macos, screenshots, plist

By default MacOS saves all screenshots to your desktop. This may be fine for some, but for me it is far from ideal. I'd rather have th e screenshots saved to a dedicated screenshots folder. The commands below achieve that.

$ defaults write com.apple.screencapture location <new_folder_location>
$ killall SystemUIServer

The first command defaults write ... sets the new default location

The second command killall kills the lingering processes, making sure that the new location takes effect the next time you take a screenshot.

Bonus

I keep forgetting that the screenshot utility has some nifty keyboard shortcuts, so I've jotted the ones I'm interested in here:

1. When you take a screenshot with cmd + shift + 4 you can press `space`` to toggle between region and full window for your current screenshot
2. Use cmd + shift + 3 to take a screenshot of the whole flippin' screen

Sources

• MacOS screenshot utility keyboard shortcuts
• How to change the default screenshot save location