How to change screenshot settings on iPhone (iOS 26)

What changed in iOS 26

In iOS 26, a screenshot opens as a large, full screen preview with editing and Visual Intelligence tools, instead of the small thumbnail in the corner. Many people found this slowed them down when taking several screenshots in a row. Apple added a switch to go back to the old style.

Screenshot settings on iPhone X and older iPhones

The Screen Capture menu is part of iOS 26, which needs an iPhone 11 or newer. If you have an iPhone X, iPhone 8 or another model stuck on an older iOS version, you will not find it in Settings › General. That is normal, not a missing setting. What you can still change:

• Back Tap, in Settings › Accessibility › Touch › Back Tap, to take a screenshot by tapping the back of the iPhone.
• An AssistiveTouch button, to capture with one tap when a button is worn out.
• Where to find the shots: Photos › Albums › Screenshots.

Older iPhones always show the small corner thumbnail and always save PNG files, so there is nothing to switch back or convert.

HDR or SDR: which screenshot format should you use?

This setting confuses people because the names sound like camera settings. Here is what each one means in practice:

• SDR (Most Compatible) saves PNG files. They open on any Windows PC, Android phone, website or work system without conversion. Colors look normal on every screen.
• HDR saves HEIF files with more brightness and color, so screenshots of HDR photos and videos look closer to the original on an iPhone or Mac. On other devices they may need converting, and uploads to some websites fail.

For most people, SDR is the better choice. You rarely need HDR in a screenshot, and PNG files avoid the “file type not supported” errors that HEIF can cause. If you already have HEIF images to convert, our guide to changing HEIC to JPG on iPhone covers it.

More ways to take a screenshot

Back Tap is not the only option. If your buttons are worn out, hard to press together, or you just want a quicker way, try one of these:

Where your screenshots go

• All screenshots save to Photos › Collections › Screenshots, and appear in your Library.
• Swipe the preview away to save it without editing.
• With iCloud Photos turned on, screenshots also sync to your iPad and Mac, and deleting one on any device removes it from all of them.
• Tap the preview, then the trash icon, to delete one straight away without filling up Photos.

Edit, share and tidy up screenshots

Tapping the preview opens Markup, where you can crop, draw, add text or a signature, and hide private details by drawing a filled shape or a thick marker line over them. Tap Done to save the edited copy, or tap Share to send it without keeping it. If you take a lot of screenshots, Photos can fill up quickly, so it helps to review the Screenshots album now and then.

• In Photos, open Collections › Screenshots, tap Select and delete old ones in one go.
• Deleted screenshots stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so empty it to free the space at once.
• Use Copy and Delete on the preview to paste a screenshot into a chat without saving it.

Use Visual Intelligence on a screenshot

The bigger iOS 26 preview is there for a reason. On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, the full screen preview adds tools to act on what you captured: ask a question about it, search the web for something in the picture, or add an event from a flyer straight to your calendar. Keep Full Screen Previews on if you use these. If you only screenshot to save or send, the corner thumbnail is faster.

On iPhones without Apple Intelligence, the full screen preview still offers Markup and sharing, but the extra search tools do not appear. Turning the preview off loses nothing important there.

On iOS 27: the same menu, one extra switch

iOS 27 keeps every option in Settings › General › Screen Capture, so the steps in this guide still apply. On supported models there is also an Automatic Visual Look Up switch, which identifies objects, plants, landmarks and places in your screenshots on its own. Turn it off if you would rather not have your screenshots analyzed, or if the extra labels get in the way.

If you only screenshot videos to grab a still, iOS 27 has a better way: a save-frame feature in Photos that keeps the full quality of the video frame. Our guide to taking a photo from a video explains every method.

Screenshot a long chat or document

The Full Page option only works in apps that support it, so a long text conversation, a WhatsApp chat or a social media thread cannot be captured in one go. You have a few options:

• Take several screenshots as you scroll, overlapping each one a little so nothing is missed. They save in order in the Screenshots album.
• For text messages you need to keep, printing or saving them as a PDF is cleaner. See how to print text messages from iPhone.
• For web pages, always use Safari's Full Page option. The PDF keeps links and text you can search later.
• If you need to show someone how to do something, a screen recording is often clearer than ten screenshots.

Turn off the screenshot sound

There is no separate switch for the camera-shutter sound a screenshot makes. It follows Silent mode: flip the Ring/Silent switch, or on iPhones with an Action button use it or Control Center to turn on Silent mode, and screenshots are taken quietly. Lowering the ringer volume also makes the sound softer.

Screenshots not working at all?

If pressing the buttons does nothing, or you get a black image, check these in order:

Screenshot button combinations

• Face ID iPhones: press the side button and Volume Up together.
• iPhones with a Home button: press the side or top button and the Home button together.