screenshot app in MAC OS 11.6 does not capture with first click

I experienced this issue too.

cmd-shift-4 or 5 with Preview selected:

1. Preview would open, but the screen cap would not appear.
2. The Clipboard option would work.
3. This had worked perfectly on 11.5.x

I suspected that macOS 11.6 had elevated the security privileges needed for Screen Recording so I tried this and it worked.

Fix:

• Open System Preferences > Security & Privacy
• Navigate to Privacy > Screen Recording
• Click the padlock in the lower left corner and log in with your account credentials.
• Click the + beneath the item selection pane and choose the app Screenshot.app (/Applications/Utilities/Screenshot.app)

Unless I am misunderstanding, that is how Command-Shift-5 is supposed to work. It marks a selection, which you can adjust before you click Capture or Record (depending on which option is active).

Something like the image below. Or do you get something completely different?

Nancy Fisher1 wrote:

Hmm...I updated to 11.6.1 and when I try to take a screen shot using shift-command-5 I get a bright blank window overlaying my screen

See if this occurs in Safe Mode, then try again booted normally.

Just want to share the solution that worked in my case:

Fixed the Security/Privacy settings in my System Preferences to include Screenshot

Also added QuickTimePlayer and tested that (New Screen Recording) was working (not) so added the app to the new privacy settings

Found that saving to my desktop worked but to a remote disk folder does not

Using Folder info on the remote folder changed the permissions to allow read and write to that folder

Created a folder action script to move files to the remote folder location and added to a subfolder called Transfer within my Movies folder

Now when I save to the Transfer folder the file appears and is moved to the remote disk location

Everything seems to work

I've just tried all three screen capture options on my iMac m1 2021 running MacOS 11.6 all all is working as expected.

The only option which requires an intervention is command-shift-5, the other two options automatically saves.

Have you tried restarting in safe mode?

No such apps installed. I noticed couple of days ago, that I could not make any screenshots (SSs) anymore. Did a restart, and worked again. But then, after some time and usage of apps like safari, mail, messages, ........ SSs again did not work.

Then I did various try and error things, and found out, that sometime when SSs do not work, and I quit safari, they came back working.

Yesterday only messages was running, and no SSs possible. I quit messages, and (not at once) after a little while first the shift command 4 shortcut started working again, not at every click, but more and more, shift command 5 did not show up, then shift command 4 started working with each click, and then also shift command 5 came back working.

After starting messages again, ........... no SSs possible again. And after quiting same as written above. That´s been really strange, like a process working in the background, allowing more and more by time.

I am not a Mac professional, but I am working with Macs since the early 90s, so I am not a total noob on such things.

Something so strange I have not seen before, with such crazy behaviour.

I am also running into this issue. My steps to reproduce:

1. Ensure the Screenshot app is configured to open screenshots in Preview (Screenshot app > Options > Save to > Preview)
2. Ensure the Preview app is closed.
3. Use CMD + Shift + 4 to capture a portion of the screen.
4. Note how Preview app opens, but the screenshot does not appear. If you have iCloud configured to save Preview app data to iCloud, a file dialog box will open instead.

There was NO change to this.

For some reason, it is not working on your mac, but the way the Screenshot application, or the usual shortcuts, work has not changed.

So it is necessary to figure out what is happening on your side.

I recommend that you start a new thread, give specific details about your mac and OS version, and include an Etrecheck report, so one can look for possible software issues.

Likewise here - does not work when doing a screenshot when Preview is closed. Seems more reliable once preview is already open. changing the privacy settings did not help

So I take it that in Options, you have selected Save To->Preview, right?

(By the way, that is my choice as well).

Do you have selected "Show Floating Thumbnail"? What abour settings for Timer?

Incidentally, pressing Command-Shift-5 is the same as launching the Screenshot application. Much faster for me.

I do not want to upgrade to Monterey as last time Photos was messed up for months in regard to loading RAW format photos from my Sony camera which was listed as compatible. My work around is to take a photo of what I want and air drop it until this bug is fixed.

There is screenshot (a still image) and there is screen recording (a video of your screen).

It is still as simple as it always was. Command-Shift-3 takes a shot if the whole screen, Command-Shift-4 lets you drag a selection to take a shot of just that part.

If all you need is that, the shots appear on your Desktop and that’s it.

What's "sometimes working, then not"?

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?