Change gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory in Ubuntu Gnome 14.04

Question

Configuring with dconf or gconf as suggested in this post worded on Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 (I tried and succeeded). But does NOT work on Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.

How to change auto-save-directory of gnome-screenshot on Ubuntu Gnome 14.04?

Solution 1

Edit

after reading this article and this question it seems like in Ubuntu-Gnome 14.04 (gnome 3.10) the screenshots with Keyboard shortcuts eg:Print are handle by the shell (gnome-settings-daemon media-keys) saving the files to ~/Pictures and not by the gnome-screenshot application.

I have installed Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 to test it.

1) I set the auto-save-directory to /tmp:

• gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory '/tmp'

2) I disable the keyboard shortcut Print and I created a new one to run the gnome-screenshot command with the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+H . Then I pressed the new shortcut and the screenshot appears in the /tmp directory.

So, set the auto-save-directory value works for gnome-screenshot, but to solve this issue you can try to disable the default keyboard shortcuts for Screenshots and create new ones but running the gnome-screenshot command.

gnome-screenshots command examples:

Whole screen: gnome-screenshot
Grab a window: screen gnome-screenshot -w
Grab an area: screen gnome-screenshot -a
Send the grab to the clipboard: gnome-screenshot -c
Interactive: gnome-screenshot -i

---

You can set the directory with the dconf command.

Command line

In this example I'm going to set my Downloads directory.

dconf write /org/gnome/gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory \'/home/youruser/Downloads\'

Please put the full path to the folder... My case /home/virtual/Downloads

GUI with dconf-editor

Solution 2

Just install dconf-editor:

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Open dconf-editor and edit the auto-save-directory field (see screenshot below):

• org > gnome > gnome-screenshot

Comments

[frozen-flame]

Thanks, but does not work for me.

[Roman Raguet]

@frozen-flame... if you run "gsettings get org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory". what is the result?

[frozen-flame]

After gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory /new/path, gsettings get org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory gives me /new/path. But when I take screenshot with Print Scr button, the picture still saves to the old path(~/Pictures).

[Takkat]

@frozen-flame: also try a shot using shift-PrtScr to select an area (this is what I tested above for working)

[Roman Raguet]

@frozen-flame: Also you can check in the gnome-control-center > keyboard > shortcuts.. and see if you have a key to "Save a screenshot to Pictures" ... and disable it.

[kanu]

Same issue here. I tried settings both auto-save-director and last-save-directory. Independent which screenshot method I use it does not land in the select folder.

[frozen-flame]

@RomanRaguet Not found.

[Roman Raguet]

@frozen-flame: you can check my edit to see if helps.

[frozen-flame]

@RomanRaguet Great answer! A little bit inconvenient, but the problem solved. I just wonder if we can change the command binding of keyboard->screenshots from gnome-settings-daemon media-keys to gnome-screenshot?

[frozen-flame]

@RomanRaguet Do you know where are the keyboard settings stored? A config file somewhere?

[Roman Raguet]

@frozen-flame: the keyboard setting are in the schema org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys . but i think you need to set a custom shortcut to trigger gnome-screenshot.

[Roman Raguet]

@frozen-flame: but you can disable the default print shortcut. and then create a new custom one to launch gnome-screeshot and assign the print key.

[Josh]

Is there a way to change how it names the file?

[leoperbo]

"screen gnome-screenshot -w", "screen gnome-screenshot -a", didn't work for me, it worked with "gnome-screenshot -w", "gnome-screenshot -a".

[RichieHH]

Yeah, that doesnt work with the printscreen screenshot.

[OSdave]

it does work for me (ubuntu 16.04)