How to Take a Screenshot to Send to Support

Screenshots are one of the fastest ways to show us exactly what's going on when you run into an issue. macOS has several built-in options for capturing your screen -- no additional software required.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Screenshots

Capture Your Entire Screen

Press Cmd+Shift+3. Your Mac will instantly capture a screenshot of your full screen. If you have multiple displays, a separate screenshot will be taken for each one.

Capture a Selected Area

Press Cmd+Shift+4. Your cursor will change to a crosshair. Click and drag to select the area you want to capture, then release the mouse button. This is great for highlighting a specific error message or a particular part of the app.

Tip: After pressing Cmd+Shift+4, you can press the Spacebar to switch to window-capture mode. Then click on any window to capture just that window with a nice drop shadow.

Open the Screenshot Toolbar

Press Cmd+Shift+5 to open the full Screenshot Toolbar (available on macOS Mojave and later). This gives you all your options in one place:

• Capture entire screen
• Capture a selected window
• Capture a selected portion
• Record the entire screen
• Record a selected portion

You can also click Options to change where screenshots are saved, set a timer delay, and more.

Where Are Screenshots Saved?

By default, macOS saves screenshots to your Desktop. They are named with the format Screenshot [date] at [time].png.

If you've previously changed your screenshot save location using the Screenshot Toolbar's Options menu, check that location instead.

Sending Screenshots to Us

To share a screenshot with our support team:

1. Locate the screenshot file on your Desktop (or wherever your screenshots are saved).
2. Contact us and attach the screenshot file.
3. Include a brief description of the issue and what the screenshot is showing -- this helps us understand the problem right away.

Tip: If you need to send multiple screenshots, feel free to attach them all to the same email. Labeling or numbering them (e.g., "step 1", "step 2") can make it even easier for us to follow along.

Annotating Screenshots

If you'd like to mark up your screenshot with arrows, circles, or text to highlight specific areas, you can use macOS's built-in Preview app:

1. Open the screenshot in Preview (double-click the file, or right-click and choose Open With > Preview).
2. Click the Markup Toolbar button (the pen-tip icon) to reveal annotation tools.
3. Use shapes, arrows, and text to highlight the relevant parts of the screenshot.
4. Save the file when you're done (Cmd+S).