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Screenshot not working

R

rshire

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
15
0
I have been using the basic screenshot function (command, shift, 4) on my iMac for a long time now, and suddenly just this week it started returning only a black screen. Somehow it isn't taking a picture of what I selected and is merely saving a picture of a black screen on my desktop!! This is killing me because I use screenshots so frequently -- does anyone know what's wrong? Thanks :)
 
kastenbrust

kastenbrust

macrumors 68030
Dec 26, 2008
2,890
0
North Korea
Screenshot is: Command + Shift + 3, It will save a shot of your screen on your desktop.

Control + Shift + 4 = Screenshot of Specific Region, so if you dont choose a region you will just get black or random looking photos.
 
R

rshire

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
15
0
Yeah I tried that as well, and it's still showing the same empty, black shot as with the more area specific screenshot!
 
kastenbrust

kastenbrust

macrumors 68030
Dec 26, 2008
2,890
0
North Korea
Go to the terminal and type:
(you can copy and paste it)

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

now log out and log back in again
let me know if that worked! :)
 
R

rshire

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
15
0
AWESOME!! That worked right away. I have no idea why it was doing that. . . . Thank you so much for your help!
 
B

bravenewniche

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2009
2
0
Not sure how to work Terminal

Been having the same black screen - hope this will work, but I'm such a newbie with Terminal that I don't know what you mean about logging in and out.

When I open Terminal, I seem to be logged in already, or do you mean logging off my system completely as a user and then logging back in (my Mac has simply worked for the last year so I never log off and on - unlike my Windows machine :) )
 
scienide09

scienide09

macrumors 65816
May 5, 2007
1,385
0
Canada
Try opening Terminal, then entering the command exactly as written. Then, close terminal, and log out of your user account for the computer. Finally, log in to your user account and try taking screenshots again.
 
angelwatt

angelwatt

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
7,852
9
USA
bravenewniche said:
Been having the same black screen - hope this will work, but I'm such a newbie with Terminal that I don't know what you mean about logging in and out.

When I open Terminal, I seem to be logged in already, or do you mean logging off my system completely as a user and then logging back in (my Mac has simply worked for the last year so I never log off and on - unlike my Windows machine :) )
Click to expand...

It means logging in/out of your computer account. This step is needed because of the changes it makes to the OS. There's likely a Terminal command to restart something without needing to logout, but logging out is the easiest method. You can try the following Terminal command if you want to avoid logging out.
Code: 
killall -HUP SystemUIServer
 
B

bravenewniche

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2009
2
0
Thanks everyone! I did the user log off method, and sure enough, when I logged in again, no more black screens.

I'm assuming that it was trying to apply a "shadow" and all I was getting was the shadow part... but why all of a sudden was it applying the shadow, or has it been applying a shadow all along and then the process of applying it gets fouled up some how...

Curious in Vancouver
 
M

makbook

macrumors newbie
Jul 17, 2009
1
0
Black, now Blue!?

Hi, I have a macbook aluminum unibody (late 2008), (with a nVidia graphics chip) and i am running OS X 10.5.7

I had the same black screenshot problem, and when i tried the terminal command, i logged out and logged back in, and then i took both a cross-hair (command-shift-4) and a full screenshot, and now, instead of black, my screenshots turn out all blue!:( HELP! PLEASE! I NEED SCREENSHOTS! Thanks!

P.S. There was a gray frame around the middle of the full screen shot. Does this matter? :confused:
 
MacDawg

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,503
"Between the Hedges"
makbook said:
Hi, I have a macbook aluminum unibody (late 2008), (with a nVidia graphics chip) and i am running OS X 10.5.7

I had the same black screenshot problem, and when i tried the terminal command, i logged out and logged back in, and then i took both a cross-hair (command-shift-4) and a full screenshot, and now, instead of black, my screenshots turn out all blue!:( HELP! PLEASE! I NEED SCREENSHOTS! Thanks!

P.S. There was a gray frame around the middle of the full screen shot. Does this matter? :confused:
Click to expand...

You can try
resetting the PRAM

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
P

PrplPplEater

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2007
15
0
Bay Area
I am having the same issue. I tried both the terminal solution and resetting the PRAM but they still come out all black. Anyone have a solution here?
 
P

PrplPplEater

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2007
15
0
Bay Area
Solution

I finally have a solution for this, if anyone else is having issues. Somehow my display settings had gone screwy.. all I had to do was change my screen resolution and then change it back. I don't know why this happened, so unfortunately I can't give you a way to prevent it.
 
H

HardyMacia

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2007
12
0
My issue was I was Screen Sharing to another computer. Once I quit out of the remote computer it screen capture worked again.
 
M

MarkH356

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2011
14
0
I tend to use the GRAB utility. It lets you do a screen shot, window shot or choose just a bit of the screen. Handy part is the timed screen shot.
 
P

pu2wxp

macrumors newbie
Nov 4, 2014
1
0
Blackscreen in video capture with my iMac

Hi,

I have an iMac 27 with Yosemite. I am trying to capture video screen from desktop with Camtasia or Screenflow, but always the video file is just a black screen! The audio is ok, but video is in total black screen.

Please help!
 
T

Taco Taco

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2014
6
0
I just updated to Yosemite and am having the same "black screenshot" problem. I play a game on fullscreen and screenshots (shift+command+3) worked fine before on it. Now whenever I try to take one I get a 26KB .png that's complete blackness. I tried everything mentioned in this thread and nothing worked. How do I solve this issue?
 
Last edited:
Alimar

Alimar

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2014
510
12
New York State
Shift/Command/3 works for a full screen shot just fine, but Shift/Command/4 doesn't always grab the selected area... sometimes it captures area to the left or right, and I have to crop it and save as a JPEG.
 
T

Taco Taco

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2014
6
0
I don't call this screenshot in fullscreen of a game I'm playing "just fine":
UAE2yUa.png


I'm pressing shift+command+3...
 
S

sjreynolds143

macrumors newbie
Dec 4, 2014
13
1
Full screen vs not full screen

I also had this (as a Newbie). I'm messing around swapping an external projector in and out, which might not help, but my experience so far is that a screenshot of a full-screen display is black, while non-full-screen display gives a correct screen shot.

Stuart
 
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