Where are iOS simulator screenshots stored?

Question

I have saved some screenshots in the iPhone Simulator running iOS 5, but I can't find them.

I had this problem before, and it took me frickin' ages to find them in the file system. Is this so simple that I am just a dullard, or does no-one use this feature or what?

I know I can get the screenshots off my real phone, but I don't want retina screenshots - I want normal screenshots.

Solution 1

1. If you create screenshots from within the simulator using File -> Save Screen Shot (Command-S), those files end up on the Desktop as something like: iOS Simulator Screen shot Apr 22, 2012.png.

2. Under Xcode 6 & newer, device screenshots taken with the "Take Screenshot" button in the Xcode "Devices" menu will end up on the desktop. Look for a file named "Screen Shot 2014-MM-DD at HH.MM.SS.png"

3. For Xcode 5 & older, if you create screenshots from within Xcode (Organizer), you'll find these in ~/Library/Application Support/Developer/Shared/Xcode/Screenshots. To take screenshots from the Xcode (Organizer) you need to have hardware device attached. The organizer does not appear to take screenshots from the simulator.

And outside of Xcode:

1. If you create screenshots using the Finder (command-shift-3 or command-shift-4), these also end up on the Desktop as something like: "Screen Shot 2012-04-22 at _ AM.png"

2. If you use the Grab application (found in /Application/Utilities), you can save those files anywhere you decide. :-)

3. If you have saved a screenshot to the Photos library from within your app, for example with UIGetScreenImage and UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum, they end up at ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/***version***/Media/DCIM/100APPLE

Solution 2

They get saved to the Desktop, look for a PNG file with the naming convention "iOS Simulator Screen shot [DATE].png"

Solution 3

It looks like the most recent Xcode (I'm using v4.2.1) does have a bug saving screen shots from the iOS simulator. Even after press File > Save Screen Shot, I can't find any image files on the Desktop. Recently, I noticed this awesome software iOS-Simulator Cropper. It allows you to capture images from the simulator with different settings.

Solution 4

In the Organizer view just right-click a screenshot and select "Show in Finder...".

This will open the screenshots folder in the Finder for you.

Solution 5

Alternatively if you are experiencing the bug you can use Edit->Copy Screen to copy to the clipboard.

View more solutions

Comments

[Can Berk Güder]

They're saved on the desktop for me?

[Henrik Erlandsson]

Not telling you (or even letting you choose) where the screenshots are stored is a pretty bad design flaw... maybe they decided real Mac users only have one window open and never maximize it. Weird.

[Michael Dautermann]

and mere seconds before Claus typed in his answer first, that's the technique I used. So +1 to him. :-) :-)

[Flyingkiwi]

I'm afraid this is not the case for me.

[Flyingkiwi]

Yes, this is the first thing I tried. I don't see the simulator as a device in my Organizer in XCode, which is strange. I only see all the hardware devices I have connected in the past.

[Udo]

Sorry to hear that. Embarrassingly, I had the same problem as you and it took me a while to find it in this really obvious place... It's strange that XCode apparently uses wildly varying locations for these files.

[Mihai Timar]

As this is the accepted answer I think it would be appropriate to edit it to also include Udo's "the Desktop" answer. This was the correct location for me (iOS 5 Simulator)

[chakrit]

For me, there's nothing in that folder. It's all on the Desktop. Not sure why? :/

[Fatso]

For me, that folder doesn't exist. It's all on the desktop.

[James J]

This seems to be the behavior as of the latest version of Xcode 4.3.1.

[davidfrancis]

Desktop for me too - iOS 5 again

[Jon Tirsen]

I had this problem too. Using cmd-shift-C and then cmd-N in Preview does however work.

[Eve Freeman]

Wow, yeah. Let's just make up a filename and location and put it there without telling you or letting you configure it. And thanks for saving me some time.

[Alex Zavatone]

The Simulator ignores the terminal command that indicates where to save your screenshots when using Command Shift 3 or 4 and puts them on the desktop instead. There isn't a GUI exposed preference in the Simulator to change this as far as I know.

[Git.Coach]

Shift+Cmd+C copies a screenshot to the Clipboard. (On my Mac, for whatever reason, it is Ctrl+Cmd+C though)