Capturing screenshots on macOS Sierra is very slow

Capturing screenshots on the Mac has gotten very slow recently.

It used to be nearly instantaneous but now it is taking more than 10 seconds for the image to appear on the desktop.

I seem to recall having this problem years ago. The workaround was to delete a large accumulation of log files that the os had built up. After I deleted these log files, the screen capture worked very fast again.

Problem is that I cannot remember where these log files are. Searched for quite some time and could not find the information.

Solution 1:

I had the same problem. In my case, I stopped the Google Backup & Sync program and then the screenshots were captured quickly again. Try quitting Google Backup & Sync.

Solution 2:

On High Sierra I faced the same problem, which had Google Backup & Sync as reason of failure (as Robert answered before). Instead of completely quitting Google Drive & Sync, I could also solve this problem via:

1. Go into System Preferences
2. Extensions
3. In the left sidebar, choose "Finder"
4. Disable Google Drive Extension

Solution 3:

On OS X Mojave, the problem is solved by disabling the "floating thumbnail feature" like this:

CMD + SHIFT + 5 -> Options -> [Uncheck] Show Floating Thumbnail

Enjoy!

Solution 4:

I had the same problem.

I did the following:

1. Go into System Preferences
2. Extensions
3. In the left sidebar, choose "Finder"
4. Disable Sophos (my virus software)

This may or may not be wise, but it helps to know why it slowed down--the virus software wanted to scan the file to see if it was safe.