My screenshots not saving anywhere on the laptop.

Question

My screenshots not saving anywhere on the laptop.

Neko 0

I use windows key+ prtscn button to take screenshots since forever but since past 6 months it only shows the animation of taking a screenshot and the pic is there in my clipboard I can send it to whatsapp and stuff. But its not natively saving inside my laptop which I don't want to do manually I wished that it automatically saved to the dedicated folder like it used to do before

2 answers

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Answer 1

Honestly I was never aware it bothered to waste disk space saving a copy of the screenshot. Nevertheless I'm running Win11 latest version and it is saving the screenshot to the Pictures directory of the current user when following the steps you gave. So it is saving to C:\Users\<profile>\Pictures\Screenshots.

Note that I have disabled the saving to OneDrive automatically and I don't sync up to OneDrive the pictures. Not sure if this changes anything or not in your case. I remember a mention somewhere that something was changed to save to OneDrive instead of locally but I don't think it was screenshots.

Answer 2

Henry Mai 1,965 Independent Advisor

Hi, I'm Henry! I will help you with this.

Step 1: Check OneDrive Settings

OneDrive might be overriding the default screenshot save behavior. Follow these steps to verify:

Right-click the OneDrive icon (cloud) in the system tray (bottom-right of the taskbar).
Go to Settings (may be under a gear icon ⚙️).
Find the "Sync and backup" tab (or "Backup" tab).
Look for the "Save screenshots I capture to OneDrive" option.
Try unchecking this option.
Test Win + PrtScn again.
If it now works, OneDrive was causing the issue.
You can choose whether to keep OneDrive managing screenshots or revert to local storage.

User's image

Step 2: Check Snipping Tool Auto-Save Settings

Verify that the Snipping Tool is not auto-saving screenshots somewhere unexpected:

Open the Snipping Tool.

Click the three-dot menu (top-right corner).

Select Settings.

Enable "Automatically save screenshots."

User's image

Step 3: Verify Default Screenshot Save Location

By default, Windows saves screenshots in:

C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Pictures\Screenshots

To check:
Open File Explorer.
Navigate to: `C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Pictures`.
Look for a folder named Screenshots.
If it doesn’t exist, create one manually to see if screenshots save correctly.

Let me know if any of these steps work for you.

Neko 0 Reputation points

2025-05-25T10:47:20.34+00:00

Thank you henry
Though i have my onedrive disabled it never opens up automatically so the saying to onedrive wasn't an option. But I hadn't checked my snipping tool settings. Apparently there was no save folder defined in there to auto save the screenshots in even though the auto save was on. Thank you for pointing that out. But I did try to assign a folder to it but the windows key + prtscn is still not saving the full screenshot to the folder
Henry Mai 1,965 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2025-05-26T01:56:48.41+00:00
I’m sorry this issue still isn’t resolved. Could you follow these steps to try and fix it?

1. Verify the EXACT Path of the Created Folder:

Make sure you created the Screenshots folder directly inside your user's Pictures folder.

The full path should be: C:\Users[YourUserName]\Pictures\Screenshots (Replace [YourUserName] with your actual Windows username. You can see this by opening File Explorer, typing %USERPROFILE%\Pictures in the address bar, and pressing Enter. Then create Screenshots inside that Pictures folder.)

2. Check/Correct the Registry Entry (This is CRITICAL):

Even if the folder exists, Windows relies on a registry key to know where to save these screenshots. If this key is pointing elsewhere or is corrupted, creating the folder won't be enough.

Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.

Type regedit and press Enter. Click "Yes" if a User Account Control prompt appears.

In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key in the left-hand pane: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

In the right-hand pane, look for a value named: {B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F}

What is the "Data" for this value? * It SHOULD BE: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Screenshots

If it's different, or if the value doesn't exist: * If it's different: Double-click {B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F}. In the "Value data" field, carefully type or paste %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Screenshots. Click OK. * If the {B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F} value doesn't exist:

Right-click in the empty space in the right-hand pane.

Select New > String Value.

Name the new value exactly: {B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F} (including the curly braces).

Double-click the new value you just created.

In the "Value data" field, type: %USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Screenshots

Click OK.

After making any changes, close the Registry Editor and RESTART YOUR

Test Win + PrtScn again.

3. Check Folder Permissions: It's possible the system doesn't have the necessary permissions to write to the Screenshots folder or its parent Pictures folder.

Navigate to C:\Users[YourUserName]\Pictures.

Right-click on the Screenshots folder you created.

Select Properties.

Go to the Security tab.

In the "Group or user names" list, select your username. Check if "Write" permission is allowed in the "Permissions for [YourUserName]" box below.

Also select SYSTEM in the list and ensure it also has "Write" permission (ideally "Full control").

If permissions are missing, click Edit..., select the user/group, check "Write" (or "Full control"), and click OK, then Apply.

You might also want to check the permissions on the parent Pictures folder in the same way.

Looking forward to your response.

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My screenshots not saving anywhere on the laptop.

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