Changing the auto save directory for screen shots and screen cast in Ubuntu 22.04

Question

I recently switched to Ubuntu 22.04 and I really like its default screenshot UI, but there seems to be no way to change the autosave directory. It saves the pictures to the $HOME/Pictures/Screenshots directory and I want it to save them to another directory. I know there are alternatives such as using gnome-screenshot but I want to use the default one.

Please suggest a method to resolve this issue. And please feel free to ask for other additional information.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It looks like this path is hardcoded, at best in a readable configuration file, at worst in binary code. There is no user exposed way to change that path.

As a workaround, you may replace the directory "Screenshots" in the "Pictures" directory by a link pointing to the location where you want to save the images. You could even hide that default directory by creating a text file .hidden in the Pictures folder, that contains the line Screenshots. For practical purposes, that would achieve what you want, but it remains a workaround.

To achieve that:

1. Delete the directory "Screenshots"
2. Create a symbolic link with the name "Screenshots" to the directory where you would want the files to be saved.

Now, files saved to ~/Pictures/Screenshots will, because of the link, actually be written in the directory that link "Screenshots" refers to.

Optionally, to hide "Screenshots"

1. In the text editor, enter a line "Screenshots".
2. Save that file in the directory "Pictures", giving it the name .hidden.

The file .hidden is in itself hidden, because the name starts with a dot. Any file names included in that file also will be hidden in the file manager.