How to find (lost) screenshots on Mac

Have you ever frantically searched for a screenshot of a YouTube short containing a useful link that you saved three weeks ago and suddenly need right now? Or maybe you just hit the shortcut keys, heard the shutter sound, but the file is nowhere to be found.

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s a glitch you captured five minutes ago or a receipt you saved five months ago, that file often feels like it has vanished into the digital void. The good news is that your screenshot isn’t hiding too far away. Here is how to track down your missing image files and take control of where they land in the future.

Skip the digital detective work

If you’d rather not scour through system folders manually, there is an easier way. MacCleaner Pro by Nektony can scan your drive and locate every screenshot – even the ones you renamed or lost in deep subfolders – in seconds.

Download, install, open, select Clean Up and there you’ll find Screenshot files.

MacCleaner Pro

Download

Where do screenshots go by default?

By default, macOS is designed to save every screenshot directly to your Desktop.

If you haven’t changed any settings, you should see files named something like

Screenshot 2025-11-05 at 09.41.12.png 

However, if your Desktop is looking suspiciously empty, one of two things usually happened:

1. The “Clipboard Trap”

This is the mistake I made numerous times as I was trying to memorize the Shift + Command hotkeys (if you don’t know about them yet, check out the official Take a screenshot on Mac guide by Apple). If you hold the Control key while taking a screenshot (e.g., Control + Shift + Command + 3), your Mac doesn’t create a file. Instead, it copies the image to your universal clipboard.

If you want to save the image you have in your clipboard, Open Preview → File → New from Clipboard (or press Command + N). If your screenshot pops up, just save it from there. If not, this most probably means you’ve copied something else into the clipboard since making a screenshot, and I’m afraid that image is gone for good.

2. The iCloud “Helper”

If you have “Desktop & Documents Folders” syncing turned on in iCloud, your files might not be physically on your local desktop in the way you expect. They might be queued for upload or moved to the cloud to save space.

To check, Open Finder and look at the iCloud Drive section in the sidebar. Check the Desktop folder there for the screenshot you’re looking for.

How to find lost screenshots on Mac

First, a quick reminder: if you had it in clipboard, it is most probably gone; if you could have deleted it, check the Trash. If none of these describe your situation (which, as Reddit shows, is perfectly common), let’s proceed to the detective work.

Here are the three methods to find your screenshots on Mac. Pick the one you like most.

Method 1: The Spotlight Search

If you know the file name still contains “Screenshot,” Spotlight is your best friend.

1. Press Command + Space to open Spotlight.
2. Type

   kind:image screenshot

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   and look at the list.
3. This filters the search to show only images that contain the word “screenshot” (change it for the translation of this word if your macOS language is diffferent).

kMDItemIsScreenCapture:1

Method 2: Smart Folders in Finder

If you renamed the file or moved it ages ago, searching by name won’t help. We need to search by file type.

1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Press Command + F to start a search.
3. Make sure This Mac is selected in the search bar.
4. Click the Kind filter and select Image.
5. Add a second criteria: click the + button, select Name, choose contains, and type

   Screenshot

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   (or your local equivalent of this word).
6. Select Save in the top right corner to keep this as a “Smart Folder” so you never have to set this up again.

Method 3: The MacCleaner Pro Way

You can go hunting for these files manually using the methods above. But if you are like me and prefer to spend that time not digging through filter menus, there is a much faster way.

MacCleaner Pro scans your entire drive and groups files by type. It doesn’t care if you renamed the file or hid it three layers deep in a subfolder. It will find it.

1. Download and launch MacCleaner Pro.
2. Go to the Clean Up section.
3. Select Screenshot files.
4. You will see a complete list of every screenshot on your drive, organized by size and date. You can preview them, move them, or delete the ones you don’t need.

How to change where screenshots are saved

By default, macOS treats your Desktop like a physical desk. It dumps everything there until you run out of space. If you prefer a cleaner workspace, you can tell your Mac to send screenshots directly to a specific folder.

Change screenshot location via the Options menu

This is the quickest method and works for most users.

1. Press Shift + Command + 5 to open the Screenshot utility.
2. Click on Options in the floating control bar.
3. Under the Save to section, choose a preset location (like Documents or Clipboard) or click Other Location… to pick a specific folder.

The Terminal Way

If you are comfortable with the command line (or just want to feel like a hacker for a minute), you can use Terminal to create a dedicated folder and set it as the permanent home for your screenshots.

1. Open Terminal (find it in Applications → Utilities).
2. Copy and paste the following command to create a new “Screenshots” folder in your Pictures directory:
   mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots

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3. Next, tell macOS to use this new folder as the default location:
   defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots

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4. Finally, restart the system interface to apply the changes:
   killall SystemUIServer

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Now, your Desktop stays clean, and all your captures go exactly where they belong.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

killall SystemUIServer

Final note

I usually take screenshots only to copy them into my project’s folder or document. Naturally, after some time, they start piling up in different nooks and crannies of my hard drive, which is obviously not the best way to manage them.

Organizing those images into a Smart Folder is a great way to have them at hand whenever you need them. Yet if your goal is to have a Mac clean of outdated screenshots and other junk and leftovers, tools like MacCleaner Pro do a much better job without any extra hassle.