Sort screenshots automatically on a Mac
By default macOS puts every screenshot on the Desktop. After a few weeks it is full. Two steps help.
1. Pick a fixed place
Press ⇧⌘5, click “Options” and choose another folder under “Save to”, for example Pictures/Screenshots. New screenshots go there from now on.
Or in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots
The folder has to exist first. If you only need a screenshot briefly, also hold control while taking it: it goes to the clipboard instead of a file.
2. Sort by month
One folder per month (Screenshots/2026-10) keeps the collection tidy. By hand that means selecting everything at the end of the month and moving it. The file names start with the date, so Finder already sorts them correctly.
Automatically with Letterslot
The screenshots template moves new screenshots from the Desktop into one folder per month, for example ~/Pictures/Screenshots/2026-10. Letterslot recognizes screenshots by their name and by the flag macOS sets when taking them. That works without Apple Intelligence too.
With Apple's text recognition the app also reads the text in the image, so you can, for example, file screenshots containing “order confirmation” in their own folder, or move old screenshots to the Trash after 30 days. Every action is in the journal, with Undo.
Letterslot is a file autopilot for the Mac: it reads new files, understands them with Apple's on-device language model and files them by your rules, with a journal and Undo. 14 days of everything free, then free with 2 rules or Pro for €24 once.
See Letterslot