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How to Turn Off the Full-Screen Screenshot on iPhone

Name: Pizazoo
Author: Pizazoo

iOS 26 and iOS 27 open every screenshot full screen. Turn off Full-Screen Previews in Settings > General > Screen Capture to get the corner thumbnail back.

October 6, 20266 min read

Muhammed BasilFounder & maker of Pizazoo

To turn off the full-screen screenshot on iPhone, go to Settings > General > Screen Capture and turn off Full-Screen Previews. New screenshots then appear as a small thumbnail in the lower-left corner and save to Photos automatically, the way they did before iOS 26. The setting has the same name and location in iOS 26 and iOS 27 (Apple).

Why do my iPhone screenshots open full screen?

Because iOS 26 changed the default. After a screenshot, iOS 26 shows it full screen with quick tools to mark it up, crop it, send it or save it; in iOS 18 and earlier, a thumbnail appeared in the lower-left corner instead (Apple). iOS 27 keeps full screen as the default.

The full-screen preview stays until you act on it. Apple's iOS 27 guide says to swipe up, or tap Done and choose an option, to save it to your photo library, and adds that screenshots shown as thumbnails save automatically (Apple). On Apple Intelligence models (iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 or later), the preview also carries Visual Intelligence tools for searching, asking questions and adding events to Calendar (Apple).

How do I turn off full-screen screenshot previews?

The steps are identical in iOS 26 and iOS 27 (Apple, iOS 27; Apple, iOS 26):

Open the Settings app.
Tap General, then tap Screen Capture.
Turn off Full-Screen Previews.

To go back to the full-screen editor, turn Full-Screen Previews on again. On iPad, the same switch is in the same place in iPadOS 26 and iPadOS 27 (Apple); the other ways to take an iPad screenshot are in how to screenshot on iPad.

What changes when Full-Screen Previews is off?

	Full-Screen Previews on (default)	Full-Screen Previews off
What you see	The screenshot fills the screen, with Close, Markup, Share and Done at the top	A thumbnail in the lower-left corner for a few moments
Saving	Only when you swipe up or tap Done and choose an option	Automatic, to Photos
Discarding	Tap Close	Delete it later in Photos
Editing and Visual Intelligence	Right away	Tap the thumbnail to open the same editor
Several screenshots in a row	Slower, since each preview takes over the screen	Swipe the thumbnail left and keep going

Turning the setting off does not remove any tools. With it off, tap the thumbnail before it disappears to open the full-screen editor, including Visual Intelligence (9to5Mac). Swipe the thumbnail left to dismiss it (Apple). iDownloadBlog points out that the full-screen preview gets in the way of taking several screenshots in quick succession, which is the main reason to switch (iDownloadBlog).

What are the other screenshot settings in iOS 26 and iOS 27?

The Screen Capture page has four settings in Apple's iOS 27 guide (Apple):

Full-Screen Previews: the full-screen editor versus the corner thumbnail.
Automatic Visual Look Up: identifies objects and places in screenshots, on supported models and in some languages.
CarPlay Screenshots: includes the CarPlay screen when you take a screenshot while connected to your car (9to5Mac).
SDR or HDR: SDR saves screenshots as PNG files and screen recordings as HEVC. HDR captures more brightness and color, saves screenshots as HEIF (the iOS 26 guide says HEIC) and records in HEVC (HDR10). On a standard display, HDR screenshots appear in SDR.

Apple does not say which format is the default, so check which one is selected. 9to5Mac describes the SDR option as SDR (Most Compatible): pick it if a site or app you send screenshots to expects PNG. If an answer online names a different screenshot switch, compare it with this list; it is the full set Apple documents for iPhone. On iPad, Apple's iPadOS 27 page lists only Full-Screen Previews and Automatic Visual Look Up.

Why are my iOS 26 screenshots not saving?

Usually because of the preview, not a fault. A full-screen screenshot is not saved until you swipe up or tap Done, and the button on the left of the preview is Close, which discards it. MacObserver reported people tapping that left button out of habit and losing the shot (MacObserver).

Fastest fix: turn off Full-Screen Previews so every screenshot saves on its own.
Saved to Files? If you chose Save to Files from the Done menu, the screenshot is in the Files app, not Photos.
Where to look: in Photos, tap Collections, scroll to Media Types, then tap Screenshots (Apple).

If the buttons do nothing at all, work through iPhone screenshot not working. For a missing screenshot, see where are screenshots on iPhone.

How do I turn off screenshots on iPhone if I keep taking them by accident?

Apple documents no setting that disables the side button and volume up combination itself. Accidental screenshots usually come from a feature you can switch off:

Back Tap: go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, choose Double Tap or Triple Tap, then tap None (Apple). If you want to keep it, moving the screenshot to Triple Tap makes it harder to trigger by accident.
AssistiveTouch: go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch. Check what Single-Tap, Double-Tap and Long Press do, and change any that take a screenshot, or turn AssistiveTouch off (Apple).
Action button: it has no built-in screenshot action, but it can run a screenshot shortcut. Go to Settings > Action Button and swipe to a different action (Apple).

Need to block screenshots completely, for example on a school or company iPhone? That is a device management restriction ("Screenshots and screen recordings") that an organization sets through its management service, not a switch in Settings (Apple).

If you set up these shortcuts on purpose and want them back, how to take a screenshot on iPhone without buttons covers each one.

How do I turn off the screenshot preview on Mac?

On a Mac the preview is the floating thumbnail in the bottom-right corner. Press Shift-Command-5, click Options, and turn off Show Floating Thumbnail. Full steps, including the Terminal command, are in how to turn off the screenshot preview on Mac.

What if you take too many screenshots to keep track of?

With thumbnails on, every capture lands in Photos without a second look, so they pile up. Disclosure: we make Pizazoo. Pizazoo for iPhone and iPad is free for iOS and iPadOS 17 or later: it sorts the screenshots in your photo library into categories on your device and makes the text inside them searchable, so the quick captures stay findable.