When taking screenshots with macOS you will find these screenshot images are saved to your desktop by default. This in itself it is not an issue but if you are frequently taking screenshots, you will find your desktop screen quickly filling up with lots of image files.

Luckily macOS provides the ability to change the default location to a specific location of your choice easily. When changing the location you have two choices in how to set this up, either via the Screenshot application (only applicable for macOS Mojave or later) or via Terminal which provides the ability to control your Mac through command prompts.

In this guide, we will show you how to change the default location for saving screenshots with macOS using the Screenshot application built into macOS and via the command prompt using Terminal.

Change Location using Screenshot Application

First, you will need to launch the Screenshot application. You can do this by launching Spotlight using the Command and Space keyboard shortcut then typing in Screenshot and pressing the Enter key.

In the Screenshot application, click the Options button in the Screenshot menu bar at the bottom of your screen.

The Options menu will list the different location options available where you can save the screenshot file to.

• Desktop – This is the default setting which will save the screenshot file to your desktop with the filename Screen Shot [date] at [time].
• Documents – This option will save the screenshot file to your Documents folder with the filename Screen Shot [date] at [time].
• Clipboard – This option will copy the screenshot to the clipboard so you can paste the screenshot into another application to edit or view the image.
• Mail – This option will copy the screenshot and open the Mail application so you can compose a new email with the screenshot attached.
• Messages – This option will copy the screenshot and open the Message application so you can forward onto one of your contacts.
• Preview – This option will copy the screenshot and open Preview application. When opened in Preview, the image will be temporarily called Untitled as the screenshot is only being previewed at this point and has not been saved.
• Other Location – This option will allow you to choose any location and save the screenshot to the other location. You can choose to save the screenshot file to an existing folder or create a new one using the options in Finder.

That’s it. You have now changed the default location for saving screenshots with macOS using the Screenshot application. The next time you take a screenshot, macOS will not save it to your new folder location instead of the desktop.

Change Location using Terminal

Firstly, you will need create a new folder using Finder in the location where you want to store your screenshots. For example, if you want to store your screenshots in a folder called Screenshots in your Documents folder simply create the new folder in that location.

Now you will need to launch the Terminal application which is built into MacOS. You can do this by launching Spotlight using the Command and Space keyboard shortcut then typing in Terminal and pressing the Enter key.

Once Terminal has launched simply enter the following command and then press the Space key.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location 

Now drag the folder you previously created into the Terminal application. Terminal will automatically translate the folder’s path and it will be inserted after defaults write com.apple.screencapture location command. See below for an example.

demo@VPSBasics-iMac: ~ # defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/VPSBasics/Documents/Screenshots

Then press the Enter key. macOS will now update default location for saving the screenshot files to your new chosen folder location. Now you will need to use the following command to refresh the macOS system UI for the changes to take effect.

killall SystemUIServer

That’s it. You have now changed the default location for saving screenshots with macOS via the command prompt using Terminal. The next time you take a screenshot, macOS will not save it to your new folder location instead of the desktop.