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By default, screenshot files are saved with names like this:

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 1.07.34 PM.png

The date format is great, but the time format annoys me because it doesn't sort automatically. Is there any way to change the format to:

Screen Shot 2016-07-12 at 13.07.34.png

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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It's using the system's standard date/time display format which you can customise in the 'Formats' tab in System Preferences → Language&Text

Or, it might be quicker to just change the time display of the clock to 24-hours mode: System Preferences → Date & Time

(I have OS X 10.7.5, so it may be organised/worded slightly differently in newer OS X versions.)

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    System Preferences → Date & Time , click Open Language & Region..., check 24-Hour Time. Screenshot was saved in 24-hours format. Thanks.
    – kangbu
    Commented Aug 3, 2018 at 8:02
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I've found the most minimal solution (on macOS 10.14.3) to be:

System Preferences → Language & Region, then click Advanced..., choose the Times tab and for the Medium format click the hour dropdown and switch it from 1-12 to 00-23 and delete the AM/PM element:

Language & Region Advanced Times Screenshot

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    This is the best answer, because it still allows you to keep other displays of time using the 12-hour format.
    – supergra
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 20:07
  • I just want to add my +1 as well, this is the best answer. Simple, doesn't change your clock, just the formatting of the screenshot filename. Worked wonders, stopped confusing me when looking up screenshots. Works for 10.15.6 Catalina, Aug 12, 2020
    – bafromca
    Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 23:59
  • Great answer. When deleting the AM/PM element also delete the trailing space.
    – Dan King
    Commented Oct 8, 2021 at 23:56
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    This screen is now gone, you have to use the Terminal defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleICUTimeFormatStrings -dict-add "2" "HH:mm:ss" (Medium is the 2) from gist.github.com/chris-79/654bfcd252280230fa82
    – Chris Go
    Commented Jan 27 at 5:21
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Thanks for the tip on changing the time format.

I asked in the Apple forum how to change the text because it used to start with "Screenshot" - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251714867

The answer is:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "Screenshot"
killall SystemUIServer

So now the format looks like "Screenshot 2020-08-22 at 10.18.35.png" - almost back to where I want it.

I haven't worked out how to remove "at" between date and time though.... yet :) 

For more information and some background, see my blog post.

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You can also remove all the dots between the time values, by deleting the semicolon between the elements in the medium format section.

In Terminal, the following removes the name..

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name ""

In Terminal, this command changes to smaller filetype JPG..

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG

So with System Preference changes and terminal commands, you get..

2023-05-05 at 153610.JPG

If you want to further "fix" the format to be only a numerical timestamp, you can select multiple screenshots in Finder, right click, select "Rename" and use Text replace dropdown to replace all dashes with nothing..

Just enter a single dash in the "Find" field and nothing the "Replace with" field.

Then you have..

20230505 at 153610.JPG

Run the multiple file Rename function with " at " in the replace field, and you end up with..

20230505153610.JPG

Otherwise, write a Finder script or use a third party rename app.

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