How to take screenshots of your iPhone or iPod Touch screen

by Ross McKillop on July 14, 2008

iPhone iPod

Here’s another reader requested tutorial – how to take screenshots using your iPhone or iPod Touch (with the 2.0 firmware, non-jailbroken) and how to access them.

Update: this is also the same process for taking screenshots of your iPad.

  1. With the 2.0 firmware, Apple has actually made it quite easy to take screenshots with your iPhone or iPod Touch. Just hold down the bottom button, and click the top one. Note: be sure to see the tip in step #5

    2. how to take a screenshot using the iphone or ipod touch
    click to enlarge

  2. You’ll see the screen “flash” quickly – that means it has taken the screenshot.
  3. Click the Photos icon on your iPhone or iPod Touch and your Photo Albums will be listed.

    4. photo album section of the iphone or ipod touch
    click to enlarge

  4. Select the Saved Photos album. All of your iPhone/iPod Touch screenshots are stored here.

    5. saved photos photo album section of the iphone or ipod touch
    click to enlarge

  5. TIP: as soon as you ‘hold down’ the bottom button, you’ll return to your springboard (the ‘home’ screen). If you want to take a screenshot of an open program (or anything other than the springboard) you have to click quickly. Try clicking both buttons at the same time. I’ve found that to be the easiest way to get screenshots without returning to the springboard – like the ones in my brief review of Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D.
  • http://thomasmurphy.tumblr.com/ Thomas Murphy

    Nice :)

  • Keddyfish

    How do I add the photo to my computer?

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  • kc7zja

    Wow.. just discovered your site. Can’t believe it’s that simple. I like it !

  • http://none jon

    how to we transfer the pictures we take on the ipod to our computers?

  • andrew

    bluetooth

  • http://www.myspace.com/plumish jon

    how can you transfer pictures from an IPOD TOUCH to a MAC with bluetooth??? that makes absolutely no sense at all… and quite frankly my friend, you have issues you are obliged to attend to immediately if not sooner… so please, someone, anyone, answer my question with a significant and valid response.

    Thank You

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    jon,

    Andrew probably meant iPhone.

    Ross

  • sam

    plug your ipod into your computer and iphotos should pop up saying it is ready to import photos and click import in the bottom right hand corner

  • http://www.ZOombiiee.skyrock.com ZOombiiee

    Pour la réponse de Keddyfish Normalement , si tu branche ton Ipod sur ton ordi il va tout de suite les importer .

    Merci du tuto .

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  • JimmyD

    One thing I don’t get, is why people read a English website and then post comments in their native language…. if you can read English, and you’re on a English website…. why not post your response in English? Then the creator of the page, and everyone viewing it, can see what you had to say. We’ll never know now what “ZOombiiee” or “Won Konw” said, or, at least, I wont.

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    JimmyD -

    Actually, the translation plugin I’m using (see top of the sidebar, right above the “RSS” icon) auto-translates all the pages on this site into multiple languages, and then Google indexes them. So the person coming to this site, probably came via a search in their own language, and the article they read was in their own language (or at least a machine translated version, which isn’t always perfect by any means). So they leave comments in their own language, assuming the blog is actually IN that language.

    Hope this helps clear things up (and I do use babelfish to translate some of the comments and then use it to try and respond).

    Ross

  • http://earth2mary.wordpress.com Mary

    This is really cool–I just tried it with my iPod touch!
    Thanks so much for sharing
    xMary

  • Jeanna

    I tired it a million times and it dosent work!!
    Does it need to be a second gen. ipod to work!?

  • Frizz

    Merci, mais comment on fait pour désactiver le fait que l’iPod prend des captures d’écran? Je n’y arrive pas.

  • Alex

    Dude
    I love you
    This is amazing

  • steve-o

    ok i like the screen shot thing but i have a touch and it keeps going into the screenshot mode and it wont come back out any tips?

  • Elise

    Hi, I am actually on my itouch but it is the newest version. I was wondering if there is a different way beacuse it doesn’t work on this iPod. Thanks.

  • Antonio Cuevas

    Gracias por la información. Bastante útil.

    Saludos desde la Ciudad de México.

  • Syd

    Instead of trying to hit both buttons at the same time just hold the home button down while you click the sleep/wake button. It will take the screen shot and once you let go of the buttons you aren’t taken back to the main screen which you are trying to avoid.

  • JD

    Fail.. Le vendeur à dit à mon père que ça pouvait prendre des photos.. C’est juste des stupides captures d’écran, PATHÉTIQUE!

  • madi

    Thank you heaps!!!!! its so simple…yet i would have never thought of it!!

  • http://cuteiswhatweaimfor18.tumblr.com miiizpiiink18

    wow. thanks!

  • nicolas

    como borro las capturas de pantalla que hice??

  • Rachel

    thanks dude super helpful.

  • Kelly

    Hi- just recently my iPod touch 2 generation just stopped letting me take pics… Why? I still have memory, any help? I have a couple things I want to take screenshots of, but.. Idk how it fix it! Btw I’ve had my iPod since February last year.

    Ps along with eveyone writing in their native language on an english website… Well, what I never got was a spanish and English glossary in the back of textbooks- the whole book is in English, yet this one little section of VOCaB, is in spansish? WTH.

  • http://learnwithbetsy.com Betsy

    Thanks for sharing this; a quick web search proved quicker than trying to figure it out on my own time.

  • Chuck

    Hey, thanks for this tip! It really helps for when I want to keep a screenshot of google maps even when I’m offline.

  • http://yahoo banu

    THANKUUU so muchhhh i badly wanted to save d call logs to proov my boy frend that i was actually tryin his call sinc too long…n i prooved it right thnks a lotttt for d tip it helped me a lotttt

  • Lynette

    I was wondering how I kept doing that. I would look at my photo album and see pics of screen shots. And when I really needed to do it, I didn’t know how! hehe :D

    Good to know – thanks!

  • kalo

    mine stopped working… is it because i took too many pictures? is there any way to fix it and take more screenshots? please help!!

  • http://www.simplehelp.net Ross McKillop

    Are you sure your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad isn’t just full (as in no more space to hold screenshots etc)?

  • kalo

    yes!!! i checked, and i still had 5 gigs left for space! i even tried deleting a couple photos from the ‘saved photos’, and it STILL didn’t work!!!!!

  • adoresyou

    oh! wow! im stunned! xD

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  • Ruben

    Muy bueno tips . my friend

  • Kelton

    if you press the lock button first then the home it works and wont take you back 2 home

  • Rathao

    be careful not to hold down both buttons for like 5 – 10 seconds because you will reset your ipod and loose all the data

  • Shae

    If u want to take a picture but don’t want the time or battery icons in it how do u get rid of that so u can just have the image?

  • A

    My screenshots suddenly stopped working. I have enough space. Any help?

  • Nicole

    That explains it. I did it by accident somehow. I just found a screenshot in my photos and had no memory of ever doing that, so yeah, it is pretty easy to do. Now I can do it on purpose!

  • brittany b

    this totally worked!

  • Lhea Austria

    Ross, thanks a lot! This advise actually helped me in reporting an abuser ( you know those game apps where you get to invite neighbors to help you with your game). He has been harassing me and other players as well. I reported him and I was instructed to send screenshots of his posts. Although they gave an instruction, yours is simplier and with the screenshots you have, it made it even easier to understand (not to mention adding some tips :p ).
    So you see, you have helped me and soon to be victims of this “pervert” online gamer.
    THANK YOU!

  • Rachel

    This app is really helpful, whoever made it up they thought of a really good helping hand app

  • CAROLINA

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  • Lhea Austria

    Hi Carolina :) That happened to me the first time too. The trick here is to make sure that you press top button as seen on intruction #1 (the power button) very quick. Once you see a flash, that’s it! Then go to ” Saved Photos” to view your screenshot.

  • Lhea Austria

    **instruction :p

  • Noel Burke

    Thanks! absolutely fantastic little trick – taking a sscrrenshot of your iPhone.

  • http://www.flook.webs.com Derp

    To save the screenshot to your PC/Mac, Connect your device with the USB cord and plug it into the port. Wait for a bit and a screen will come up Called something like “Apple Ipod” or “Apple Iphone” In that screen there’s three options. Choose “Import photo’s from device” This will make a copy of your photo’s on your Ipod, And save them to your photo’s on the PC/Mac

  • Michael

    Tip is easy and I’m glad I came here

  • mike0

    I did this by accident, then searched to see how this was possible. Thanks for the detail information

  • Taylor

    i totally knew that!!!! (no i didn’t) :)