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You are here: Home / Solution / How To Remove the Mac OS X Screenshot Delay
Mac OS X Screenshot Interface Options.

How To Remove the Mac OS X Screenshot Delay

Last updated on April 17, 2019 by Sal Ferrarello

In Mac OS X version 10.14 Mojave, when taking a screenshot a thumbnail is displayed for a few seconds before the file is created. See Apple’s How to take a screenshot on your Mac Markup, share, and save for more details.

Unfortunately I don’t want this delay. I take a lot of screenshots (using Command + Shift + 4) and typically want to upload the image without making any changes, making this delay frustrating. This is how I removed the delay.

First: Open the Screenshot Interface

Press Command + Shift + 5 to open the screenshot interface.

Mac OS X Screenshot Interface.

Second: Open the Options Menu

Click the Options drop down.

Mac OS X Screenshot Interface Options.

Third: Remove the Floating Thumbnail

Uncheck the Show Floating Thumbnail option.

Mac OS X Screenshot Interface Remove Floating Thumbnail option unchecked.

Success

Now screenshots files will be created immediately and no thumbnail will be displayed.

Sal Ferrarello
Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)
Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.

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Filed Under: Computing, Solution Tagged With: mac, screenshot

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Comments

  1. Tony says

    June 16, 2019 at 11:33 am

    perfect — thanks!

    Reply
  2. Robb Cyr says

    July 19, 2019 at 3:36 pm

    This didn’t work by itself for me on two Macbooks however when I ran First Aid in Disk Utility after changing floating screenshot setting the thumbnails started appearing immediately.

    Reply
    • Sal Ferrarello says

      July 29, 2019 at 7:06 am

      That is interesting behavior I haven’t seen yet. Since the First Aid function in Disk Utility looks for errors on your drive, I’m surprised it would have an impact on these settings. I wonder if running it had the same effect as rebooting the computer (I’ve not had to reboot a machine to get this behavior but I can imagine it). Regardless of the root cause, thanks for sharing your experience.

      Reply
      • kamalneet says

        February 14, 2022 at 3:21 am

        yes unbelievably mine too got solved by running first aid in disk utility on catalina OS.

        Reply
        • kamalneet says

          February 14, 2022 at 7:07 am

          update : it comes back after reboot and one has to use first aid again

          Reply
  3. Whammy! says

    March 28, 2020 at 4:31 am

    Thanks for taking the time to post this, and to take photos of your screen, answering the age old question, “How do you take screenshots of a screenshot interface?”

    Reply
    • karel says

      March 31, 2020 at 3:27 pm

      pressing cmd+shift+3 while inside the screenshot interface captures the interface as well

      Reply
  4. Mario Zaizar says

    June 2, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    You’re a true hero. I’ve been annoyed by the delay since they introduce it.

    Reply
  5. Janine Long says

    September 2, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  6. kizi says

    September 21, 2020 at 10:29 am

    Thanks! Every update they make my mac slower and sillier. (Guys, im not going to buy new one this way, nope)

    Reply
  7. sfmitch says

    November 26, 2020 at 9:00 am

    I removed the delay from settings but still have an odd behavior.

    After I take a screen shot, my expectation is that the screen shot would immediately show up on my desktop.

    I take a screen shot and the new screen shot icon shows up after 10 seconds.

    However, if I click on an empty spot on the desktop (or click on Finder icon) then the new screen shot icon immediately shows up.

    any ideas?

    Reply
  8. Tip says

    June 30, 2021 at 4:54 pm

    Tried this but there is still a delay

    Reply
    • Tip says

      June 30, 2021 at 4:57 pm

      I turn floating back on and after a few minutes turned it off again… now it works!!

      Reply
  9. Mick Guinn says

    October 31, 2021 at 4:17 pm

    Dear gods, bless you.

    This was a really dumb default option Apple added as if we couldn’t locate a screenshot?

    Thank you for this tip. I just couldn’t figure out why it kept hanging there even after I’d set the timer to “0” “Floating Thumbnail.” Geez. What a dumb thing to have to change TWO default settings just to get things back to the way they were. 5-6 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot until you realize it’s a halt in your productivity cycle that does absolutely nothing.

    Much Obliged!

    Reply
  10. Neil says

    November 17, 2021 at 3:39 am

    Much appreciated!

    Reply
  11. Michelle says

    November 29, 2021 at 12:52 pm

    Thanks so much for a quick, clear explanation!

    Reply
  12. Ken says

    December 8, 2021 at 6:00 pm

    OMG THANK YOU!!!

    Reply
  13. Lado says

    May 25, 2022 at 8:17 am

    Thanks for this tip, but ideally I would like to have the option “show floating thumbnail” AND save it immediately. The background ist, I mostly send the screenshot after taking them by dragging that thumbnail on the chat window, BUT when I do so, the screenshot gets sent but never saved. Very often I do need that screenshots again 🙁

    Reply
  14. Herc says

    October 22, 2022 at 11:19 am

    You are the One, thanks for sharing

    Reply

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