Can't find screenshots

Mars Bar · 09-11-2014 3:48pm #1

Before upgrading to Yosemite, my screenshots used to save straight to the desktop.
I can't find them now?! I've tried changing it in the terminal but that hasn't worked either.

Any help?

ekimiam · 09-11-2014 9:51pm

type the date into spotlight

ZENER · 10-11-2014 12:14am

The default location in Yosemite is the Desktop, at least with a clean fresh install it is.

You also try the Applications/Utilities/Grab application to grab windows or screens and you can select where the images go.

Ken

Mars Bar · 10-11-2014 12:29pm

Typing the date was smart but didn't work.

Grab worked nicely but it's still a pain that I can't just use cmd shift 4 anymore.

chrislad · 10-11-2014 2:52pm

I just tried that there (Cmd-Shift-4) and it worked for me. Saved to the desktop once I made my selection. I'm using Yosemite also.

Mars Bar · 10-11-2014 5:24pm

I can hear it make the capture sound and that's it. I can't find the screenshot anywhere!

Doodah7 · 11-11-2014 3:46pm

Have you Dropbox enabled on your Mac?? If so, I think it becomes the default location in a Screenshots folder in Dropbox.

Mars Bar · 12-11-2014 12:51pm

tallpaul wrote: »

Have you Dropbox enabled on your Mac?? If so, I think it becomes the default location in a Screenshots folder in Dropbox.

I have dropbox. Had a look and they are not there either.

Banta · 12-11-2014 2:53pm

Perhaps try and change the location of where the screenshots are saved, and if you can see them in the new location, change it back to Desktop:

Open Terminal then paste in:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Documents

and hit 'Enter'.

This changes location to Documents folder.

Then paste:

killall SystemUIServer

and hit 'Enter'.

Restarts the service.

If you can see the screenshots now appearing in the Documents folder, then re-run the commands changing 'Documents' to 'Desktop'?
Found this guide here: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/06/15/how-to-change-where-screenshots-are-saved-on-mac/

Hope it helps! I can't imagine not being able to quick screenshot and get the pic from the desktop quickly!

Mars Bar · 12-11-2014 5:50pm

I tried that and it didn't work either. I set up a Screenshots folder in my documents and did those changes in Terminal. Nothing!

Thanks for your help though.

Banta · 12-11-2014 6:25pm

If you use:

Shift-Control-Command-3

which copies the image to your clipboard only, can you paste it into Mail or a word doc or anything like that? Be good to establish if it's taking the screenshot. I know it's making the noise for it, so if you can paste the image into Mail or something, then at least we know it's taking the screenshot, the problem is just with the 'saving' of the image.

Mars Bar · 12-11-2014 7:58pm

It showed up in Mail when I pasted it!

Banta · 13-11-2014 12:45pm

OK, at least we know it's taking the screenshot now. That's a good start!

Can you run the same sequence of commands again and instead of using ~/Desktop use /users/YOUR_USE_NAME/Desktop.
If you right click on something on the desktop and "Get Info" you can see the exact path if you like.

Just in case Yosemite is having some weird things with ~. It shouldn't, but you never know.

Banta · 13-11-2014 12:50pm

Also, if you go to System Preferences > Keyboard and choose "Screen Shots" from the left menu, is everything checked?

Mars Bar · 13-11-2014 1:36pm

I tried the new command and still nothing

All the boxes are ticked in system preferences too

ZENER · 13-11-2014 3:53pm

Have you tried searching in Spotlight for *.tiff ? AFAIK the default format for screen grabs is .tiff ?

Also, after you have grabbed a screen do you get the option on the desktop to 'Paste' if you right click it ?

Ken

Banta · 13-11-2014 4:18pm

This is mad altogether.

If you CMD+SHIFT+3 (full screen screenshot) does it put the image on your desktop? Likewise, if you CMD+SHIFT+4 then hit SPACEBAR to select the active window, you'll see a camera icon then - just click on the active window with the camera icon. Does this put a screenshot of the active window on your desktop?

Trying to establish if it's just the CMD+SHIFT+4 and drag a box command, or if it's all 'save to desktop' operations.

Can you also run the following in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

Hit Enter, then do the killall SystemUIServer command once again.

Just trying to see if it's a problem with png's on the desktop or something. Yeah, a bit weird, I know. But this whole thing seems a bit weird, and I can't for the life of me think what it could be at this stage.

Mars Bar · 14-11-2014 12:17am

Whoah, something weird just happened! Tried taking another screenshot and dropbox asked me if I wanted to save them there. I accepted so they'll be turning up somewhere at least.

All those other screenshots must have gone through a dark hole to another dimension or something.

Banta · 14-11-2014 12:28am

Right. Strange. Apparently Dropbox does do something with screenshots if it's installed. In saying that though, running those commands you ran earlier should've over written those settings.

Needless to say, brain frazzled! :P

Mars Bar · 14-11-2014 12:54am

Thanks for your help though. I appreciate it!

Banta · 14-11-2014 12:25pm

Noticed this on the Apple forums that seemed to fix the issue for another user:

In the Dropbox app (click the cog for settings) then click Preferences, then Import, and turn off "Save screenshots to Dropbox". Perhaps that'll help!

Mars Bar · 14-11-2014 12:49pm

Banta wrote: »

Noticed this on the Apple forums that seemed to fix the issue for another user:

In the Dropbox app (click the cog for settings) then click Preferences, then Import, and turn off "Save screenshots to Dropbox". Perhaps that'll help!

Yeah I did that after setting it to save to Dropbox and now they show up on desktop!

Banta · 14-11-2014 1:29pm

This is marvelous news. I'll have a celebratory coffee now.

Can't find screenshots

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