How to share a screenshot as a link on a Mac
macOS shares a file in iCloud Drive as a link: Share → Collaborate on macOS Tahoe 26, Share → Share a Link on macOS 27 Golden Gate. Apple's guide gives that link no password and no end date. In Shotbolt, Copy Link Pro (Shotbolt Pro) uploads one capture and copies its link, which can have both.
What macOS does on its own
A file in iCloud Drive can be shared as a link. On macOS Tahoe 26:
- Move the screenshot into iCloud Drive. Apple notes that an item must be in iCloud Drive to be shared this way.
- In a Finder window, click iCloud Drive in the sidebar, select the file, then click the Share button.
- Choose Collaborate from the pop-up menu.
- Click Only participants can make changes. below it. Under Who can access, choose Anyone with the link, and under Participants choose Can view only.
- Share the invitation with AirDrop, Mail or Messages, or create and copy a link.
On macOS 27 Golden Gate the menu item is Share a Link, the choices are Anyone with the link and Can view or download, and Copy Link copies the link.
To end it, Control-click the file in iCloud Drive, choose Manage Shared File and click Stop Sharing. Moving the file out of iCloud Drive or deleting it also ends access.
Where it stops: Apple's guide describes no password and no end date for the link. With Anyone with the link, Apple notes that the people you invite can pass it on, and anyone who made their own copy keeps it after you stop sharing.
Share a link in Shotbolt
Copy Link Pro (Shotbolt Pro) works on screenshots, GIFs and recordings. Only the capture you share is uploaded, and it is stored in the EU. Every download from this site starts with 7 days of Pro.
- Take the screenshot.
- On its Quick Access card, click Copy Link Pro (Shotbolt Pro). For an older capture, open History, right-click it and choose Copy Link.
- The first time, Shotbolt asks Share with a link? To cover email addresses, phone and card numbers and keys before anything is uploaded, tick Redact sensitive data first. Click Create Link.
- Link copied appears, with when the link expires. Paste it in a message or an email. Undo in that message deletes the link everywhere.
Copy Link on the same capture again copies the same link while it still works, without a second upload. With a Pro key, Shotbolt signs in with the key. During the trial, sign in with your email in Settings → Shotbolt Link first: that free trial of share links needs no payment.
Add a password or change the end date
- Open History, right-click the capture and choose Link Settings…. The item is there while the link works.
- Type a password under Password. To take one off, tick Remove the password.
- Under Expires, choose a new length, counted from today: 1, 7 or 30 days, as far as your plan allows. With Shotbolt Link there is also Until deleted.
- Under Title, type what the link's page shows, or leave it empty.
- Click Save. The change applies to the link at once.
The password itself never leaves your Mac: Shotbolt sends only a key made from it, and the link's page makes the same key from what the visitor types. A link with a password shows a neutral preview and title in chat apps, never the capture.
Settings → Shotbolt Link → New links sets the defaults: Links expire after, Redact sensitive data first, Preview in chat apps (a picture of the capture, or a plain card when off) and When you delete a capture.
Delete a link everywhere
In History, right-click the capture and choose Delete Link…, then Delete Link. Nobody can open it anymore, and the capture stays in History. Settings → Shotbolt Link → Your links lists every link with its end date, to copy, open or delete.
Deleting a capture does not delete its link by itself: a link keeps working until it expires. Shotbolt asks Also delete its link? unless you chose otherwise under When you delete a capture.
Pro's share links and Shotbolt Link
- With Pro Pro (Shotbolt Pro). Links last up to 7 days, with 2 GB in total. When all of it is in use, your oldest links make room for new ones. A file can be up to 100 MB and a recording up to 5 minutes.
- Shotbolt Link. An optional subscription, with or without Pro. Links last 30 days unless you choose Until deleted, and then stay until you delete them. It holds 100 GB, takes up to 20 GB of uploads a month, files up to 2 GB and recordings up to 30 minutes. Shotbolt Link plans compares them.
- The free trial of share links. After signing in with your email: 7 days, links that last up to 7 days, and 500 MB in total.
Limits
- Step guides. They cannot be shared as links yet. Export the guide, then share the file.
- Offline. Copy Link copies the image instead, and Shotbolt makes the link when your Mac is back online.
- Passwords need JavaScript. The visitor's browser makes the key, so a password link does not open with JavaScript turned off.
- Busy links. Each link has a monthly download allowance. Past it, the link pauses for review.
- What people keep. Like any file you send, anyone who can open the link can save what they see, and deleting the link does not reach their copy.
Questions
Does the person I send it to need Shotbolt?
No. The link opens a web page in their browser. With a password, they type it on that page.
Can a search engine find my link?
Link pages ask search engines not to index them. Anyone who has the link can open it, unless it has a password.