macOS Tahoe won't save screenshots

dialabrain wrote:

Not sure I understand your comment. The Floating Thumbnail was never meant to be permanently on the screen. And yes, if you drag it somewhere it will close. Just to add, if you don't touch it, it will close after a few seconds and the screen shot will be created according the setting in Options.

Correct, you described the intended behavior. The Floating Thumbnail should appear for a few seconds, then disappear if you don't take any action, at which point the screenshot is saved to the directory you define.

When the bug occurs, when I try to drag the Floating Thumbnail, even immediately after taking the screenshot, i.e. at the beginning of the ~5 second window, the Floating Thumbnail will disappear instead of dragging with the cursor.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't waiting too late to move the image, so I replicated the problem several times and the behavior was consistent: Once I try to drag the image, it immediately disappears instead of moving with the cursor. So I restarted my MacBook. Now it consistently works. When it works, it works every time and I can't replicate it. That's why I was saying it seems there is some background process that randomly stops working. Because when it works, it works every time; and when it fails, it fails every time.

Does that make sense?

I've had zero issues with these setting, before, after and currently macOS 26. as a test —Compare your results. Your option is wait for a point update / submit your feedback

Correct, normally it works fine. But on a couple of occasions, the thumbnail would consistently disappear while trying to drag it--until I restarted my Mac. This happened on two separate occasions which is why I suspect there is a bug in macOS Tahoe, but I haven't seen much information online about it. Is anyone else experiencing this?

I also had a related issue last week where the Passwords app wouldn't recognize I had added a note to an existing password and so update button was disabled. Same issue where it repeatedly appeared. Restarted and it worked perfectly again. Not sure it is related, but normally I've never had to restart my Mac.

merbears wrote:

I always just use Command -Shift - 4. I use it daily. As soon as Tahoe was installed it quit working. As soon as I did Command Shift 5 and unchecked "show floating thumbnail," command shift 4 started working.

It may not be an issue for everyone, but it is an issue caused by Tahoe.

Disabling the Show Floating Thumbnail gets the screenshot to be saved immediately. Turning it on delays it, but it should still be saved after the thumbnail disappears. I take it that you are saying it does not get saved in that case. If so, it appears to be a bug, but one that I cannot reproduce.

This was the solution Apple Chat gave me....This resolved my issue with screenshots not saving after Tahoe installation:

1. Open Terminal, In a new entry line in Terminal, type:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture type

2. Hit return to run the command.

3. A new blank entry line should appear with no other feedback.

4. Test

I had the same problem with my Mac not saving screenshots to the location I chose, after updating to MacOS Tahoe. I solved the problem by opening the screen-capture app (shift-command-5). Then choosing "options" and disabling "show floating thumbnail" under the options menu. Then choose where you want to save screenshots under "options" menu again. Finally, best to restart the computer before trying a screencapture. This solved my problem with not saving screenshots. Hopefully it will work for you.

Same problem for me after update to "Thaoe"!

Reason: Selected format "pdf" and "Floating Thumbnail" together don't work anymore with Thaoe (the other possible formats "jpg", "gif", "png", "tiff", "heif" do work with "Floating Thumbnail").

Solution: Switch off "Floating Thumbnail" and "Capture HDR" and set "Type" to "pdf", then it should work again (as in my case):

defaults write com.apple.screencapture "show-thumbnail" 0
defaults write com.apple.screencapture captureHDR 0
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf

First line didn't work as expected, so I had to deactivate option "Floating Thumbnail" interactively in the options menu of the "screenshot" application.

5Pickle5 wrote:

Removing the checkbox for “Show Floating Thumbnail” in the Options screen of the app fixed it for me.

if I may add my two cents regarding the floating thumbnail.

having it active in itself is not what causes issues saving screenshots. when active, the recording will temporarily show up on the bottom right of your screen before being saved and moving to the chosen “save to” location. I have seen issues when others (and myself) that when interacting with the "floating thumbnail" it can cause the recording to disappear, never to be found again.

if you do not interact with the floating thumbnail, there will not be any issues with it landing in your set "save to" location.

so what's the point of the floating thumbnail? IMHO, it gives you a chance to see what it looks like in the event that your "save to" has a lot of data stored. it allows you to find the file quicker in an overpopulated folder.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with 2 different Apple senior tech support staff on Friday and they were unable to fix this same problem I started having on my Studio and MacBook Air after installing Tahoe. The suggestion from 5Pickle% to disable “Show Floating Thumbnail” in the options screen fixed the problem immediately! Thank you so much!

Removing the checkbox for “Show Floating Thumbnail” in the Options screen of the app fixed it for me.

Follow the steps here.

Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac - Apple Support

If you already are, see if the problem is present when you boot in safe mode, which disables 3rd party extensions and performs some system cleanup.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Like many who have posted already, I have no problem with the screenshots being saved, but here is a possible workaround for those with the issue (or perhaps a better way that you may incorporate into your workflow!):

1) Press Command-Shift-5 and from the Options menu choose "Preview" as the destination

2) There is no step 2 :-)

Now when you take a screenshot, instead of the floating thumbnail, the screenshot is immediately open in Preview, where you can annotate, and save where you may want it, with the name of your choice.

I too take many screenshots (often to use here in these fora), and this is my preferred workflow.

This is to let anyone know that once I enabled System Integrity Protection, screenshots starting working for me.

Start up in recovery mode: How to start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Launch terminal and type: csrutil enable

Hit enter, type your password and restart the computer.

I don't know why this was disabled for me.

4KW77 wrote:

This was the solution Apple Chat gave me....This resolved my issue with screenshots not saving after Tahoe installation:

1. Open Terminal, In a new entry line in Terminal, type:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture type

2. Hit return to run the command.

3. A new blank entry line should appear with no other feedback.

4. Test

Good computing 4KW77 . Appreciate your post here.

My screenshots weren't being saved to the desktop, but turning off the "floating thumbnail" remedied that. However, I really like the floating thumbnail because I can quickly drag it into the doc or email where I want it. Now I have to add a few extra steps which is not fatal but is annoying. I hope Apple fixes this soon. Don't tell me it's a feature...it's a bug.

This all will probably work, but since you are going to all the trouble, it is probably simpler to just delete the com.apple.screencapture.plist file. A new one is automatically created with default settings.

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.screencapture.plist

Drag the file out of the Preferences folder, and put it in the Trash (or park it on the Desktop for now).

Log out and back in. No need to mess around with Terminal (which may be problematic for less techically inclined users).