Screen Recording permission and capturing on Windows and Linux

Screenshots are off by default, and the desktop app takes them only when your organization has turned them on for you and you have given your consent (screenshots and your consent). This page explains what the app needs on each system to capture the screen, and what to check when it cannot.

The app asks for nothing while screenshots are off for you. Once your organization turns them on for you, its menu shows a screenshots line (the menu): while screenshots are taken, the interval and whether they are blurred, for example “Screenshots: on · 10 min · blurred”; otherwise what is still missing, for example “Screenshots: waiting for your consent” or “Screenshots: permission needed”. When screenshots start, and again when the interval or the blur setting changes, a notification tells you, for example “Your organisation takes screenshots: every 10 minutes, blurred. Never during private time.”

macOS: the Screen Recording permission

macOS lets an app capture the screen only with the Screen Recording permission. The first time screenshots are on for you, Focus asks macOS for it once, and a notification says “Screenshots need the Screen Recording permission. Details: menu ▸ Open Screen Recording permission…”. That menu item opens the list below.

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording. On macOS 15 and later it is called Screen & System Audio Recording.
2. Turn on Workify360 Focus. If it is not in the list, click +, choose Applications → Workify360 Focus and turn it on.
3. macOS may offer to quit and reopen the app; accept, or choose “Restart Workify360 Focus” in the app’s menu. The permission is used only after a restart.

On macOS 15 and later, macOS asks you again from time to time, about once a month, whether Focus may keep capturing the screen. Choose to allow it; if you do not, Focus takes no screenshots and your organization sees on its gallery that the permission is missing on this computer.

The app takes single pictures of what is on screen. It never records video or sound.

If screenshots stop after an update of the app, open the same list, remove Workify360 Focus with −, add it again with + and restart Focus.

Windows

No permission is needed on Windows 10 and 11.

• Content protected against copying, for example some streaming videos, appears black in the screenshot.
• No screenshot is taken while the screen is locked or while a Windows security prompt (User Account Control) is shown; the app skips that moment.
• Screenshots also work in a Remote Desktop session.

Linux

• X11: works without any setup.
• Wayland: Focus asks the desktop’s screenshot service (xdg-desktop-portal) for the picture. On GNOME a permission prompt appears the first time; allow it. Some desktops keep the answer, others would ask every time: Focus then cannot take screenshots without asking you, so it stops trying and reports that screenshots are not supported in this session.
• On wlroots desktops such as Sway or Hyprland, install xdg-desktop-portal-wlr.
• On Wayland, screenshots do not work when Focus runs as an AppImage or a Flatpak; install the .deb or .rpm package.
• On Wayland, no app names are sent with a screenshot, neither the app in front nor the other apps visible on screen. A screenshot taken on Wayland therefore never gets a red frame or a Suspicious badge in the gallery.

When the screenshot service is missing or refuses, Focus stops trying until the desktop app is restarted (for example after you sign out of the computer), and the menu says “Screenshots: not supported in this session”.

Firewall and proxy

The app uploads each screenshot directly to Cloudflare R2 object storage, encrypted. Allow HTTPS (port 443) to *.r2.cloudflarestorage.com in addition to the Workify360 addresses. The app never holds a storage password: for each screenshot it gets a one-time upload address that expires after 15 minutes.

Screenshots that wait on the computer

When the computer is offline or the upload fails, screenshots wait on the computer and are sent later. They are already blurred (when blur is on), they are readable only by your user account on the computer, and the app keeps at most 200 MB of them for at most 72 hours; older ones are discarded unsent. When you withdraw your consent or screenshots are turned off, waiting screenshots are discarded.

Check this computer

Choose Help ▸ Troubleshoot this computer in the app’s menu: it reports a missing permission or a Wayland session without screenshot support (troubleshoot this computer).

Messages from the server

The app handles these answers itself; you see them only in the diagnostics. None of them needs action from you unless it keeps coming back.

Code	What it means
screenshot_device_required	Screenshots come only from the desktop app, not from the dashboard or another tool.
screenshot_in_future	The computer clock is more than 5 minutes ahead. Set the clock to the correct time.
screenshot_too_old	The screenshot waited more than 72 hours on the computer and was discarded.
screenshot_outside_tracking_hours	The screenshot falls outside the hours your organization tracks and was discarded.
screenshot_private_time	The screenshot falls into private time and was discarded.
screenshot_window_taken	This computer already sent a screenshot for that interval; the second one was discarded.
screenshot_already_uploaded	The screenshot had already arrived; nothing was sent twice.
screenshot_policy_changed	The settings changed (for example blur was turned on); the app loads them again and discards the screenshot.
screenshot_too_large	The picture was larger than allowed and was discarded.
screenshot_quota_exceeded	Too many screenshots were sent from your account today; the app tries again later.
screenshot_not_pending	The upload had already been completed or cancelled.
screenshot_upload_missing	The upload did not reach the storage; the app sends it again. Check the firewall.
screenshot_upload_invalid	The uploaded file could not be read and was discarded.