ShotSumo
FAQ
The questions that actually come up. If yours isn't here, the feedback form reaches the person who writes the code.
Screenshots come out blank, or capture does nothing — why?
ShotSumo needs the Screen Recording permission, which macOS grants in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording.
The part that catches everyone: the permission only takes effect after ShotSumo is relaunched. Granting it while the app is running changes nothing until you quit and reopen it. If capture still returns a blank image after a relaunch, remove ShotSumo from that list, add it back, and relaunch again.
The hotkey doesn't do anything — why?
Region capture is ⌘⇧9 by default. Window capture and full-screen capture ship unbound — deliberately, so a fresh install can't steal a shortcut you already use — and have to be assigned before they do anything. All three are rebindable in Preferences.
If ⌘⇧9 itself does nothing, another app has almost certainly claimed it first; rebind ShotSumo's to something else rather than hunting for the other app.
Where do saved files go?
The first time you press ⌘S, ShotSumo asks you to choose
a folder in the standard macOS dialog. There is no built-in default — the app doesn't
pick a folder on your behalf. Every save after that goes straight into that folder, with
no dialog, named ShotSumo_yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss, ending in
.png, .avif or .heic depending on the format
chosen in Preferences.
You can change the folder at any time in Preferences, and turn on revealing the file in Finder the moment it's written. If the folder later becomes unreachable — an external disk that isn't mounted, a directory that was moved or deleted — ShotSumo asks you to choose again rather than writing somewhere you didn't ask for.
⌘C copies instead: a flattened PNG on the clipboard at full native resolution.
How do I back out of a capture or close the editor without saving?
Esc cancels the selection overlay, and also closes the editor. A right-click, or a click without a drag, cancels the selection too. Nothing is captured or saved when you cancel.
How do I highlight part of a screenshot, or number the steps in it?
The spotlight tool does the highlighting: draw a box and everywhere outside it dims, while the region you drew and anything you draw on top of it stays at full brightness. Draw more than one and they don't darken each other where they overlap.
Step badges number a sequence: click to drop a filled, numbered circle, and the next click is the next number. Undo removes the last badge and takes its number back with it, and each badge picks up whichever colour and size the toolbar is currently set to.
Why does a Dock icon appear sometimes?
ShotSumo lives in the menu bar and has no Dock icon while it's just sitting there. When an editor or Preferences window is open, a Dock icon appears, and it disappears again when the last window closes.
That's macOS, not a bug: an app with no Dock icon is also an app with no menu bar of its own, and the File and Edit menus have to exist somewhere. The icon comes and goes with the windows.
Does ShotSumo send anything anywhere?
No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, and no account. The only network traffic ShotSumo is responsible for is Apple's own purchase system (StoreKit) checking your ShotSumo Pro subscription — starting a trial, buying, restoring, or renewing. That traffic never includes your screenshots, your edits, or anything else you do in the app. Full detail is in the Privacy Policy.
How much does ShotSumo cost?
Capture and markup are free, permanently — no account and no time limit. ShotSumo Pro is one optional subscription, $9.99 a year after a two-week free trial, and it adds four editor tools: Pixelate, Spotlight, numbered Step badges, and export to AVIF or HEIC. Nothing else is gated, and there is no watermark.
What is free and what needs ShotSumo Pro?
Free, with no time limit: capturing a region, a window or the whole screen, the rectangle, ellipse, arrow and text tools, undo, and copying or saving as PNG. ShotSumo Pro adds four things: Pixelate for redacting, Spotlight for dimming everything outside a box, numbered Step badges, and export to AVIF or HEIC.
I installed ShotSumo before 2.0 — do I have to pay?
No — and in fact nobody has to pay to capture or annotate a screenshot; that's free for everyone, permanently. What a pre-2.0 install keeps for good is the four ShotSumo Pro tools (Pixelate, Spotlight, Step badges, and AVIF/HEIC export). ShotSumo works this out from the App Store's own record of the version you originally downloaded. If the app shows the paywall anyway, use Restore Purchases.
How do I cancel, restore, or get a refund?
Cancel any time in your Apple ID subscription settings — the app's own Manage Subscription button opens that page directly. Use Restore Purchases in the app to re-check your access on this or another Mac. Refunds are handled by Apple, not the developer.
Still stuck? Use the feedback form — it goes straight to the developer, no ticket number involved.