Purrify
Guide · updated 29 September 2026

How to automatically delete screenshots on a Mac

macOS saves every screenshot to your Desktop and never cleans them up. Here are four ways to deal with that, from built-in settings to a scheduled cleanup.

1. Save screenshots somewhere else

This doesn't delete anything, but it gets screenshots off your Desktop. Press ⇧⌘5, click Options, and under Save to pick a folder such as Documents, or choose Other Location… for any other. macOS remembers the choice.

To do the same from Terminal, pick a folder, create it, and tell macOS to use it:

mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots
killall SystemUIServer

The screenshots still pile up. They're just out of sight.

2. Copy screenshots to the clipboard instead

If you only paste screenshots into chats or documents, you may not need the file at all. Add ⌃ to any screenshot shortcut, for example ⌃⇧⌘4, and macOS copies the image instead of saving it. You can also choose Clipboard under ⇧⌘5 → Options → Save to.

The catch: the image is gone as soon as you copy something else.

3. Delete old screenshots on a schedule

macOS has no setting for this, but you can schedule it yourself with launchd, the system's built-in scheduler. This example deletes screenshots on your Desktop that are older than an hour, and checks every 15 minutes. Save it as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.screenshot-cleanup.plist: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>local.screenshot-cleanup</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/bin/sh</string>
    <string>-c</string>
    <string>find "$HOME/Desktop" -maxdepth 1 -name 'Screenshot *' -mmin +60 -delete</string>
  </array>
  <key>StartInterval</key>
  <integer>900</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Then load it:

launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.screenshot-cleanup.plist

To stop it later:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/local.screenshot-cleanup

Before you use this, check these:

  • -delete is permanent. The files skip the Trash and there's no undo.
  • File names depend on your macOS version and language. macOS 13 and later uses "Screenshot …"; older versions used "Screen Shot …", and other languages use their own word. Change the -name pattern to match yours.
  • Screen recordings use a different name ("Screen Recording …") and need their own pattern.
  • macOS protects the Desktop folder, so a background job may be refused access and silently do nothing. Giving /bin/sh Full Disk Access fixes that but opens your whole disk to every shell script, which we don't recommend.

4. Use Purrify

Purrify is our app, and it does this job with safety nets. Screenshots and screen recordings leave your Desktop after 15 minutes by default, but they go to a quarantine folder first, where you can restore them for 7 days. Before anything leaves, you can see it in your Mac's notch with a countdown and a Keep button.

See Purrify Try the notch demo

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