Screenshots not working

[Benjamindaines]

When I try to take a screenshot (Command + Shift + 3/4) I get the camera sound, but a file is never created on my desktop. I have searched my drive and can't see that these images are going anywhere. Any ideas?

 

[CRAZYBUBBA]

Here are some responses that i got to the same problem, none of them eliminate the problem, however.

 

[odinsride]

There are a couple discussions on Apple Forums about this. I'm having the same problem - some kind of memory leak with Screencapture. If you check your console.app you might see the messages about it.

I've filed a bug report with Apple already, you might want to do the same.

 

[Benjamindaines]

It seems to only affect my account. I just created a new one and it works just fine, now we just need to figure out how to fix it on the "broken" account...

 

[Benjamindaines]

I fixed it!

Open Terminal

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true; killall Finder

Then navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/ and open .GlobalPreferences.plist
Once it is open just remove the AppleDisplayScaleFactor string and save.

Then in Terminal turn invisible files off again:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true; killall Finder

In a way it's good this happened, because when I turned invisible files on I found 2 movies that were hidden on my desktop each ~2GB so I got some hard drive space back.


Now for some explanation... it seems that if you mess with Resolution Independence you mess up your screenshots.

 

[odinsride]

Wow!

thanks for this solution, I will definitely try it when I get home and report back on the results!

I have high hopes, because I messed with the Display Scaling a while back, didn't think it would have anything to do with this problem though.

 

[odinsride]

It worked! But I couldn't get your command line to show hidden files so I had to use TinkerTool to show hidden/system files. But at least my screenshots work again!

Thanks

 

[seenastyle]

Same problem but on Snow Leopard 2 years later

Guys,
I'm having the same problem but it appeared only after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, in Snow Leopard, there is no AppleDisplayScaleFactor string in .GlobalPreferences.plist anymore, or at least for me. Any ideas where that string is located now, or what else I can tweak?

Thanks,

 

[onorobo]

Hey, sorry I know this is resurrecting a dead thread, at the moment I do not quite care! I- I tried your solution, but got to the second step and found that there is no file titled .GlobalPreferences.plist on my computer.

So I decided to give up and tried your third step to hide all these invisible files now showing all over my computer and it is not working! I am freaking out a little. What's going on??

 

[pompousjohn]

Hey, sorry I know this is resurrecting a dead thread, at the moment I do not quite care! I- I tried your solution, but got to the second step and found that there is no file titled .GlobalPreferences.plist on my computer.

So I decided to give up and tried your third step to hide all these invisible files now showing all over my computer and it is not working! I am freaking out a little. What's going on??

I ran into the exact same issue. I noticed the commands to show and hide hidden files were identical, so taking a wild guess I tried:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false; killall Finder

and it worked.

 

[hulamonkey]

I actually CAN take a screenshot but when I double click it, the picture comes up static-y. It's messed up looking. When I attached it to an e-mail to show someone, they said that it was blank and nothing was even there.

I attached it onto this message. I hope it actually pulls through. What the hell is going on and how can I fix it? I really need this screen shot function.

Thanks in advance!

I ran into the exact same issue. I noticed the commands to show and hide hidden files were identical, so taking a wild guess I tried:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false; killall Finder

and it worked.

 

[hdzavalanche]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it's now the top hit on Google.

To fix this problem, just type into Terminal: killall SystemUIServer

This will fix it without having to log out and back in again.

Edit: Nevermind; it must have been another coincidence. It's not working, as ever.

 

[rmchale]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it's now the top hit on Google.

To fix this problem, just type into Terminal: killall SystemUIServer

This will fix it without having to log out and back in again.

Edit: Nevermind; it must have been another coincidence. It's not working, as ever.

I have the same problem in Lion.. Any progress?

 

[rmchale]

I know this is a zombie thread, but it's now the top hit on Google.

To fix this problem, just type into Terminal: killall SystemUIServer

This will fix it without having to log out and back in again.

Edit: Nevermind; it must have been another coincidence. It's not working, as ever.

I rebooted earlier that did not fix it.. This seems to have fixed it(in Lion). I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[nkaryb]

What program?

When he said to OPEN GlobalPreferences.plist and showed a screenshot, WHAT program did he use to open the file? I tried double-clicking the plist file and it just opened TextEdit with a black screen.

Thanks,
Nathan

 

[Reach9]

Guys i'm getting this problem as well.

Also my Trash is completely empty when i haven't cleared out my trash in a month!

Is there any fix?

Nvm, found the fix for future reference:

Just shut down your Mac and turn it on again. Fixed it for me!

 

[talonblade]

Workaround

The suggestions in this thread didn't fix the problem for me, but until a fix comes out I use this method. In Applications/Utilities there is a program called Grab. It does the same thing, just takes a little longer. It's in my Dock until the keyboard shortcut gets fixed. Good thing I don't take a ton of screenshots.

 

[Wild54Pe]

to fix it on the "broken" account...

 

[urbanman2004]

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