Cannot save Screenshots to External Drive

Question

Cannot save Screenshots to External Drive

This behaviour happens on both my macbook pro and mac mini m4 pro (both running Sequoia 15.6.1)

If I specify an external drive or any folder within it to be the destination for my screenshots, I always get the message : "Your screenshot can’t be saved. Cannot write file to intended destination."

It is not a permissions issue, I own it all, I've even reformatted the disk several times - APFS

I have even tried setting the location via terminal command. still no luck.

Not even symlinking works. Something has changed because this used to work.

Posted on Oct 1, 2025 4:39 AM

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Answer 1

MartinR

Level 7

24,101 points

Oct 1, 2025 6:23 AM in response to mac_n_cheese69

You may need to give the screenshots app Full Disk Access.

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Answer 2

Oct 1, 2025 7:14 AM in response to mac_n_cheese69

this suggestion is based on my experience with saving recordings, but it may apply to screenshots as well as the two are somewhat related.

I have, in the past, encountered issues with longer recordings stopping / not saving unexpectedly whenever I have selected anything other than "desktop" as my "save to" location. this has been especially true when "save to" is set to an external drive. so I now use "desktop" as my "save to" every time and afterwards I move them to my desired location manually. I haven't had an issue since.

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Answer 3

RGunther

Level 1

18 points

Nov 5, 2025 9:26 AM in response to MartinR

I have the same issue in Tahoe. Already granted full disk access, but it doesn't seem to help.

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