Change Screenshot Save Location on Your Mac

Is your desktop littered with screenshots. Mine certainly used to be. A handy way to organize your screenshots on your Mac is to change where those screenshots get saved.

To do this were a going to get a little techy, but the following is a fun introduction to both Google Drive and Terminal.

  1. Assuming you have Google Drive for Desktop installed, that means you have a Google folder within your Documents folder. This Google Drive folder syncs to your Google Drive for your Gmail/Google account. We are going to add a folder in the Google folder called Screenshot.
  2. Next, do a spotlight search, that little magnifying glass on the top right of your screen in the menu bar. You can also do a spotlight search by clicking
    command-spacebar
    Type in Terminal and select enter to open Terminal.
    1. This is your Terminal where you can type in commands.
  3. We are going to type in (or copy in) the text below and then hit enter
    defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Google\ Drive/Screenshot
  4. Next we are going to type in (or copy in) the text below and then hit enter. This resets the user interface so our changes are applied.
    killall SystemUIServer
  5. Next try
    command-shift-4
    to capture a highlighted area, or
    command-shift-4-spacebar
    to capture a specific window, or
    command-shift-3
    to capture your entire screen.
  6. Your screenshots should now be saved in your Screenshot folder and if you put that folder in your Google Drive folder, those screenshots will be synced to your Google Drive so you can access them from anywhere.

Tags: mac desktop management tipoftheday drive google drive screenshot data pictures images save terminal screencapture screen shot screen capture
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