A new folder is being created every time I take a screenshot

Question

A new folder is being created every time I take a screenshot

I'm having a very strange problem. I changed the default location of where my Mac saves screenshots to. What I'm noticing is that every time I take a new screenshot, the new screenshot is saved in 2 separate folders: one of them is the new location that I specified, I named this one 'Screenshots'. The other location is another folder somewhere in my documents folder and it's called 'Images'. I tried deleting this 'Images' folder but every time I take a new screenshot it recreates the folder in the same location.

I've tried resetting the save location to the desktop.

Thanks for any help with this.

MacBook (Starting Late 2009)

Posted on Jan 15, 2019 7:29 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

64,604 points

Jan 15, 2019 10:06 AM in response to skateboardtshirt

Is it possible that some folder is actually an alias or symlink to this one?

Try this: create a new folder on your Desktop, let's call it "test"; elect to send screenshots to this folder.

Do they still appear on the folder you mentioned above?

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 15, 2019 7:54 AM in response to skateboardtshirt

Just a wild guess, but I'd say this "Images" folder may not be a folder at all, but a smart folder.

Does it look like a "normal" folder? Where exactly is it located?

On a different direction, you may try resetting everything related to screenshots.

Type the following on a Terminal window, then log out and log back in:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture

After that, screenshot location should be the Desktop, and format should be png (the defaults).

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 15, 2019 8:03 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hey Luis,

Thanks for your reply. It looks like a normal folder, it doesn't have the gear icon like most Smart Folders do. It's within my documents folder, a few folders deep in a folder that I have a work project in. I'll try your suggestion to delete everything related to screenshots and see if that works...

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 15, 2019 8:58 AM in response to skateboardtshirt

Hey Luis,

I just tried your solution (defaults delete etc..) but it still seems to be adding the screenshots to both folders, very strange.

This is the path of the folder where I don't want screenshots to be added to anymore:

/Users/jeff/Documents/Work/Company Graphics - Equipment/Images/

Any other ideas?

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 15, 2019 1:41 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hey Luis,

You were right that there was something 'linked' somehow between the 2 folders. I did like you said and made a test folder and started sending screenshots there and they weren't being sent to the 2 other folders. Then I deleted the other 2 folders and now everything's working fine. Also I realized it wasn't accepting all of my paths because I didn't know you had to add a \ before the space any time where you have spaces in file/folder names within your path.

Thanks for your help!

Reply

A new folder is being created every time I take a screenshot

Similar questions