Change the default location for screenshots in Mac OS X

By default, screenshots (cmd⌘ + shift⇧ + 3) are saved on your desktop. It is possible to change this default location of screenshots, use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path]

If you want to save the screenshots into the ‘Pictures’ located in your home folder, change [path] to ~/Pictures

To make the command take effect, you need to restart the System UI server:

killall SystemUIServer

Revert to the default setting (Desktop):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop

Screencast:

1 thought on “Change the default location for screenshots in Mac OS X

  1. Great tip!, would be nice if we could edit the default user profile to do the same thing for all users and not just the currently logged in user.

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