Finding specific things

Finding the scan you just made

Updated 2026-10-30 · 4 min read

A Mac has no single scans folder. The destination was chosen by the app that scanned, so check that app's Scan To setting, then search by date if you can't tell which it was.

It depends on what you scanned with

A scan goes where the scanning tool was told to put it, and each tool chooses differently. Work down this list until it matches what you used:

You scanned with	Where the scan went
Image Capture, or Open Scanner in Printers & Scanners	The folder named in the Scan To menu, or opened in the app you picked there
Preview (File > Import from Scanner)	Wherever the Scan To menu said, or an open Preview window you still have to save
An iPhone or iPad via Continuity Camera, from the Desktop or a Finder folder	A file in that folder
The same, inside Notes, Mail or Messages	Inside that note or message, not in a folder
A button on the scanner or the maker's app	That app's own setting. Check its documentation

If you can't tell which one you used, skip to the search steps below; they work for any scan that was saved as a file.

Image Capture and Printers & Scanners

Open Image Capture and select the scanner in the sidebar. Apple's guide says the Scan To pop-up menu chooses where scanned items go: pick a folder and they're stored there, pick an app and they open in it. Read the folder name in that menu; that's where your last scan went, unless someone changed it since. The same window opens from System Settings > Printers & Scanners: choose the scanner, then click Open Scanner.

Click Show Details for more options, including a Name field and a Format pop-up. Apple's guide says the Name field names the scanned file, so a word from it is the easiest thing to search for later. To change the destination for next time, pick another folder in Scan To, or Other… to browse. Apple's pages don't state a default folder, so trust the menu over any folder you've read about.

Preview

In Preview, File > Import from Scanner lists your scanner. Apple's Preview guide says that in the scan window the Scan To menu chooses where the items are saved, and that if you don't see it, the scan opens in Preview and you choose a location to save it afterwards. A scan sitting in an open Preview window that you never saved is not on disk yet. Choose File > Save while the window is still open.

iPhone and iPad scans

With Continuity Camera you Control-click the Desktop or a folder in Finder, choose the iPhone or iPad option, then Scan Documents. Apple says the scan appears in the location where you clicked, as a file, which is the first place to look. Scanning from inside an app puts it in that app instead. A scan made in Notes is an attachment in the note, and you'll find it there, not in Finder. Apple also notes that scans taken this way are not saved on the iPhone or iPad.

Search for it by date

If you scanned recently, a time-based search is faster than any folder guess:

1. Open a Finder window and click Recents in the sidebar. Recents is a Spotlight search for documents that have been opened, so a scan you opened in Preview shows there, while one that went straight into a folder may not.
2. For a scan you never opened, use Terminal. This lists PDFs and images created in your home folder today, using Spotlight's index:

mdfind -onlyin ~ 'kMDItemFSCreationDate >= $time.today && (kMDItemContentTypeTree == "com.adobe.pdf" || kMDItemContentTypeTree == "public.image")'

Change $time.today to $time.today(-7) for the last seven days. The single quotes stop the shell from touching $time. It prints full paths, one per line. Spotlight must have the folder indexed for this to work, and results from Documents, Desktop and Downloads may need Terminal to have Full Disk Access or file-access permission. Scans are usually PDFs or JPEG, PNG or TIFF images; a different format would need its own type added.

If Spotlight misses it, see find PDFs on a Mac and find files created today. To look in the place you think you chose, ls -lt ~/Pictures | head lists the newest files first.

Today's files in Everywhere

A new scan is a file changed today, so in Everywhere dm:today .pdf lists every PDF changed today, newest at the top when you sort by Newest. Swap .pdf for .jpg or .tiff if your scanner saves images, or add a word from the Name field, as in dm:<7d receipt, to reach back a week. Its date search is date modified only, so a scan you edited later lists under the day you edited it. Scans saved to Desktop, Documents or Downloads appear once Everywhere has Full Disk Access; for the words on the page, contains: only helps with a PDF scanned using the text-recognition (OCR) option, since a plain scan is just a picture.

Common questions

Where do scanned documents go on a Mac?

Into the folder chosen in the scanning app's Scan To menu. Image Capture and Preview both have one; Continuity Camera scans land where you Control-clicked; Notes scans stay in the note.

Where are scanned documents saved on my Mac?

Open Image Capture, select the scanner and read the Scan To menu for the folder. If you scanned in Preview and never saved, the scan exists only in its open window, so choose File > Save.

How do I change the scan destination on a Mac?

In Image Capture or Preview's scan window, pick another folder in the Scan To pop-up, or choose Other to browse. Apple notes that Preview may not show the menu, in which case you pick a location when you save.

How do I find a scan I just made?

Search by creation date with mdfind in Terminal, or check Finder's Recents if you've opened the scan. A scan from a scanner maker's app may be in that app's own folder, so check its settings.