Make It Last: How to Take a Screenshot on Your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch (2024)

If you need to preserve what's on your screen, a screenshot is your simplest and best option. The process is easy for iPhone and iPad users, but it differs depending on your phone model. Meanwhile, Apple Watch owners have only one option, but it might not be obvious at first.

For Mac users, we have a separate guide on how to take screenshots in macOS. Here's how to take a screengrab on all your other Apple devices.

How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone

Screen capture on iPhone with and without a Home button (Credit: Apple)

How you take screenshots on your iPhone depends on whether you have a Home button or not. For the iPhone models without one, hold down the Side button to the right of the screen and the Volume Up button at the same time to take a screenshot.

For all older models that still have a physical button on the front of the phone (iPhone 8 and older and the iPhone SE models), you press the Home button and hold down the Side button.

You will see a "flash" on the screen, and (if your sound is on) you will hear a camera shutter. The screenshot will then appear in your camera roll and in the Screenshots album.

How to Take a Screenshot on iPad

Screen capture on iPad with and without a Home button (Credit: Apple)

How you take screenshots on your iPad is similar to the process on iPhone. For newer iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad mini models that have no Home button, you press the top button and the Volume Up or Volume Down button at the same time. If you have an older iPad that still has a Home button, you press the top button and the Home button at the same time.

How to Take a Screenshot With an Apple Pencil

(Credit: PCMag / Apple)

If you use an Apple Pencil withan iPad, you can take a screen grab with the drawing tool by swiping up from the bottom corner of the screen. To customize which corner, open Settings > Apple Pencil and set Left Corner Swipe or Right Corner Swipe to Screenshot. You can also set both corners to take a screen grab.

Take a Screenshot of an Entire Page

Your device will also let you take screenshots of a full web page instead of just what is currently shown on the screen. Tap the thumbnail that appears at the bottom of the screen once you capture an image. This will open the device's markup tool and allow you to edit the screengrab.

To save the full screen, tap the Full Page tab at the top of the image. If this does not appear, the image does not work with this feature. Tap Done and Save PDF to Files. The image will then be accessible from Apple's Files app.

Some apps may make it difficult to take screenshots through the normal means. This is where your device'sbuilt-in Screen Recording toolcomes in. While its primary purpose is to record video of your screen, you can pause the video and take a screenshot this way.

Just make sure to first add the Screen Recording shortcut to Control Center under Settings > Control Center. You then open Control Center on your device and tap the circular recording button to begin a countdown and capture the screen. With the video saved to your Photo library, you can then view the capture and take screenshots of the video. (The process is similar on the Vision Pro.)

Take a Screenshot With Back Tap

You can also take a screenshot with what appears to be magic. Back Tap, an accessibility feature introduced in iOS 14, allows you to tap the back of your iPhone to perform a certain action. If you have an iPhone 8 or higher, you can set this feature to take screenshots for you.

Open Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap and choose Double Tap or Triple Tap. Set the action to Screenshot, and then you can double- or triple-tap to take a screen capture.

How to Take a Screenshot on an Apple Watch

(Credit: Apple)

To take a screenshot of your Apple Watch screen, the feature must first be enabled. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, and navigate toMy Watch > General > Enable Screenshotsand toggle it on, or open Settings > General on your watch and tap Enable Screenshots.

Take a screenshot on an Apple Watch by pulling up the screen you want to capture. Hold the Side button and click the Digital Crown simultaneously. Like on iPhone, the screen will "flash" white and the camera shutter will go off. The screenshot will then appear on your iPhone's camera roll, not the watch itself.