MacPipAnswer
How do I turn off the screenshot sound on a Mac?
To turn off the screenshot sound on a Mac, open System Settings → Sound and switch off Play user interface sound effects. macOS then takes screenshots without the camera sound.
For one silent shot without changing settings, mute your Mac first, or take the screenshot with the screencapture -x command in Terminal.
Turn the sound off for good
- This switch covers macOS’s interface sounds, the screenshot camera sound and emptying the Trash among them. Alert beeps have their own Alert volume slider on the same page.
- Open the Apple menu → System Settings → Sound.
- Under Sound Effects, switch off Play user interface sound effects.
- Press ⇧⌘4 and drag over something to check that the shot is now silent.
One silent screenshot, settings unchanged
- Mute the Mac: press the mute key, or drag the volume to zero in Control Center → Sound, take the shot, then turn the sound back up.
- Terminal, whole screen:
screencapture -x ~/Desktop/shot.pngsaves the screen with no sound. The -x means no sound. - Terminal, pick an area:
screencapture -x -i ~/Desktop/shot.pnglets you drag an area or press Space for a window, silently.
Where the sound comes from
The camera sound is one of macOS’s interface sound effects. It plays for ⇧⌘3, ⇧⌘4, ⇧⌘5 and the Screenshot app, so the one switch above silences all of them. Your screenshots still save to the same place. To change where they go, see how to change where screenshots are saved.
Screenshots in Clacky
Clacky’s own screenshots (macOS 14 or later) don’t use the macOS camera sound. They play a soft Clacky sound from Interface sounds, or your click sound when Interface sounds are off. Switch off both and Clacky’s shots are silent.
Clacky takes an area with ⌥⇧⌘4, a window with ⌥⇧⌘5 and a polished shot straight to the clipboard with ⌥⇧⌘6. Press ⌘C in the editor to copy a shot with nothing saved to a folder. More on that in screenshots without saving a file.
Questions
Why does my Mac make a camera sound when I take a screenshot?
Can I change the screenshot sound to a different one?
Does this also silence screenshots on my iPhone?
Facts checked on 5 November 2026.
Related
- Change where screenshots are saved on a MacPress Shift-Command-5, click Options and pick a place under Save to: Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview or Other Location.
- Take a screenshot without saving a fileAdd Control to the shortcut: Control-Shift-Command-4 copies the shot to the clipboard and saves nothing. Then paste it with Command-V.
- Is the built-in Mac screenshot tool enough?For everyday shots, yes. It has no blur or redact bar, numbered steps, backgrounds or scrolling capture. Here is what it does and when you need more.
- Screenshot editorGrab an area, a window or the whole screen. Mark it up with arrows, steps, text and blur, then copy or save.
- Copy onlyMark up a shot, press ⌘C and it’s copied, with nothing left in your folder. Click Save when you want to keep it.
- Can my Mac make a sound when I click?macOS has no setting for a mouse or trackpad click sound. How to add one with an app, what the Input Monitoring permission allows, and the steps.
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