Why Does Google Drive Back Up Screenshots?
If you install the official Google Drive for Desktop application on a Mac, the software often asks for permission to back up your files. If you quickly click through the setup prompts, you might accidentally enable a feature that intercepts every screenshot you take (using Command + Shift + 3 or 4) and instantly uploads it to your Google Drive.
While useful for some, this feature clutters your cloud storage with temporary, low-value images and often changes the default save location on your Mac. If you prefer your screenshots to stay purely on your local desktop, you need to turn this off in the Drive app settings.
How to Stop Google Drive from Intercepting Screenshots
You can disable the screenshot backup feature directly from the Google Drive menu bar icon.
- Click the Google Drive icon located in your Mac’s top menu bar (it looks like the triangular Drive logo).
- In the popup window, click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner.
- Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
- A new window will open. Click the Settings gear icon again, this time in the top-right corner of the new Preferences window.
- Scroll down the list of advanced settings until you find the section labelled System Settings (or simply look for the screenshots option).
- Find the checkbox labelled Save screenshots to Google Drive.
- Uncheck this box.
- Click the Save button at the bottom of the window, or simply close the preferences pane.
Going forward, whenever you take a screenshot on your Mac, the image file will save directly to your local Desktop (or wherever you originally configured macOS to save them) and will no longer be secretly uploaded to the cloud.