How to Take Screenshots & How to Recover Deleted Screenshots on Mac

Updated to Home > HowTos > File Recovery Tips on Mac by Robert on Oct 18, 2024 | Approved by Christian Cawley

Taking screenshots on a Mac computer is easy and you can also save them without any issues. However, it is possible to accidentally delete them and when this happens; there is the tendency to panic, especially if they are important files. You don’t have to fret though. You can easily recover deleted screenshots Mac, without much stress. In this post, we will look at how to take screenshots on a Mac and also how to recover the files if you mistakenly delete them.

Quick Navigation
Part 1. How to Take Screenshots on Mac
Part 2. Three Ways to Recover Deleted Screenshots on Mac

Part 1. How to Take Screenshots on Mac

There are different ways to take screenshots on Mac. You can capture the whole screen, a small portion of the screen, and a window. In this part, we will look at how to screenshot using a Mac.

To capture the entire screen, follow the simple steps below:

Press and hold the ‘Shift’ ‘Command’ and ‘3’ keys simultaneously. This will take a screenshot of your screen. The screenshot will be saved to your desktop.

If you want to edit the screenshot, look out for the thumbnail at the corner of your Mac screen and click to edit. You can also edit it after it has been saved on your desktop.

If you want to take a screenshot of a portion of your screen, follow the steps below:

Press and hold ‘Shift’ ‘Command’ and ‘4’ simultaneously.

Select the specific area of the screen you want to capture by dragging the crosshair across the area. Press and hold the ‘Space Bar’ as you drag the crosshair to move the selection. Press the ‘Esc’ key to cancel the screenshot. You should release your trackpad button or mouse when taking the screenshot.

To edit the screenshot, check the thumbnail at the corner of your screen or edit the screenshot directly from your desktop where it has been saved.

Another option of how to take a screenshot on a Mac is to follow the steps below:

Click to open the menu or window that you want to take a screenshot of.

Press and hold ‘Shift’ ‘Command’ ‘4’ and ‘Space Bar’. This will change the pointer to a camera icon.

Click the menu or window to capture it. You can cancel the screenshot by pressing the ‘Esc’ key. You can also exclude the shadow of the window from the screenshot by pressing and holding the ‘Option’ key while clicking it.

To edit, check the thumbnail at the corner of your screen or wait until the screenshot gets saved to your desktop before you edit.

Part 2. Three Ways to Recover Deleted Screenshots on Mac

Almost everyone has at one time or the other accidentally deleted an important file before. If you have deleted some screenshots on your Mac PC, you don’t have to worry. When data is deleted, it doesn’t go away and there are many ways you can recover them. In this part, we will share three methods of how to recover deleted screenshots on Mac.

Method #1: Recover Screenshots on Mac from the ‘Recently Deleted’ Album

When you mistakenly deleted pictures or photos on a Mac PC, you can easily recover them through the ‘Recently Deleted’ Album option. To do this, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Click to open the ‘Photos’ folder.

Step 2: From the left column, select ‘Albums’ and double-click on ‘Recently Deleted’.

Step 3: You will see the thumbnails of videos and photos that you have deleted with the details of how long before they get permanently deleted. Select the specific screenshot you want to recover.

Step 4: Click the ‘Recover’ button at the top right. Return to the original Photo Album folder to see that the screenshots have been recovered.

Method #2: Find Deleted Screenshots on Mac from Recycle Bin

You can also get deleted screenshots back on Mac when they have been moved from the desktop or hard drive to the recycle bin. You can easily undo the delete and restore the deleted screenshots directly from the recycle bin folder. To do this, follow the simple steps below:

Step 1: Click to open the ‘Trash’ icon on your Mac’s desktop. From here, you will all your deleted files and screenshots.

Step 2: Locate the images you want to restore and drag them from the trash to the desktop. You can also right-click on the images and select ‘Put Back’ to recover deleted screenshots on Mac from the trash.

Method #3: Recover Permanently Deleted Screenshots on Mac

If you have deleted screenshots in Mac and you cannot restore them from Recently Deleted Albums or the Recycle Bin, the best thing is to use a professional screenshot recovery Mac tool. We recommend the iBeesoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover screenshots Mac. It is 100% safe and can recover all permanently deleted screenshots and files within minutes. It takes only three steps to recover deleted screenshots on Mac and the best part is that you don’t need any skills or technical experience to use it.

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How to Recover Screenshots on Mac with iBeesoft

Step 1: Download and install iBeesoft screenshot recovery Mac software on your PC.

Step 2: Launch the program and select the file types to recover. All files will be selected by default. Therefore, deselect the files that you don’t want. Confirm that you have selected the right files to recover and click ‘Start’ to retrieve deleted screenshot on Mac.

Step 3: Select the specific location to scan for the deleted screenshots and click ‘Scan’ to scan for the deleted files from the selected locations.

Step 4: Preview the files and recover them on your Mac PC. It may take a few minutes to scan for the deleted files, especially if they are large files. When the scanning process is complete, click ‘Recover’ to recover permanently deleted screenshots on Mac.

This article has enumerated the three different methods on how to recover screenshots on Mac. If the files have been permanently deleted, the only way to get back them is to use the best recovery software for Mac. iBeesoft is the most recommended option that seamlessly recovers your deleted files within minutes and without any stress.