Terminal Command Screw up

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Terminal Command Screw up

I followed instructions online to change my default screenshot to jpg capture by entering "defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg" in Terminal followed by "killall SystemUIServer". Now my computer is saving as an unreadable format "PMJPEG image" and I cannot figure out how to return it to png or get jpg to work. I would like to get the jpg capture working ideally.

Please be specific, I am not a programmer and not familiar with Terminal beyond cut and pasting instructions but I am pretty OSX literate.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Mark

15" MBP, MacPro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 13, 2013 11:46 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Dec 14, 2013 12:14 AM in response to mark_sweeney

Mark,

to return your default screenshot format to PNG, enter the following command in Terminal:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture type

I’d guess that you’d need to follow it with the killall SystemUIServer command.

Once you’ve confirmed that the screenshots are back to saving as PNGs, try the following command to see if you can get JPEG screenshots:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type 'jpg'

again followed by the killall SystemUIServer command. The single quotes around the last value on the defaults write line are necessary, at least in Mavericks.

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Answer 2

mark_sweeney Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 15, 2013 7:44 PM in response to Melophage

Thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately it didn't work. The file that saves reads: 2013-12-15Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 7.16.12 PMJPEG image.

I've never seen PMJPEG image and don't know what that mean or if it helps to narrow down a problem. I am unable to reset to png or jpeg. When I enter the first terminal command you wrote to reset it does produce this screenshot file: 2013-12-15Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 7.20.54 PMPortable Network Graphics image, so it is working to some extent.

Also, I see in the file preview in finder, the image that I took but it doesn't open into anything and defaults to want to open in text edit and preview is not an option in open with... When it does it's just a bunch of jiberish text.

Is this a prefernce file I can find and delete and do a restart? I think I've read about that with other issues in the past.

Thanks for your help and patience.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Dec 15, 2013 8:15 PM in response to mark_sweeney

Back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

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

Right-click or control-click the line and select

Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. Log out and log back in. Test.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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Answer 4

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Dec 15, 2013 8:21 PM in response to mark_sweeney

Mark,

it’s good to know that you can currently reset it to PNG at the moment.

Try these commands from Terminal:

screencapture -t jpg ~/Desktop/capture.jpg

file ~/Desktop/capture.jpg

And then try viewing the capture.jpg file on your desktop in your browser. What is the output from the file command? Is capture.jpg viewable in your browser?

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Answer 5

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Dec 15, 2013 8:26 PM in response to mark_sweeney

Mark,

could the PM in “2013-12-15Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 7.16.12 PMJPEG image” be a part of the time, viz “7.16.12 PM” = 7:16:12 PM = 19:16:12?

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Answer 6

mark_sweeney Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 15, 2013 9:16 PM in response to mark_sweeney

Problem solved.

I followed Linc Davis' instructions and it did reset it to the default png capture. Then I went back to terminal following Melophage's instructions to change to jpg which also worked.

Yes the PM is the time. Didn't dawn on me because there was no space between it and the JPEG due to a Hazel re-name.

When I originally tried this I did not have the 'jpg' with the single quote in the Terminal command. That may have been the initial problem and it wasn't able to reset the preference.

It's working great now. Thank you both for the prompt help. First time I've needed to post to the forum, I'm usally pretty good about finding the answers.

Mark

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