When you take a screenshot on your iPhone in iOS 11, a thumbnail preview appears in the corner for a few seconds. Tapping on it will give you immediate editing and sharing tools, but not everyone digs the convenience.
What can be convenient for you can be obtrusive for others, especially if those others have no desire to edit or share their screenshots right away. If you're in the latter group, then you'll be disappointed to know that Apple has failed to include a way to toggle this new screenshot system on and off.
Hopefully, Apple will include an on/off toggle in a future iOS 11 update, and we will update this guide whenever that happens. But until then, the only way you can "disable" this feature is to either:
- Ignore the preview thumbnail/s, which will disappear in a few seconds.
- Swipe left on the preview thumbnail/s to make it (or them) disappear faster.
Personally, I like the idea of these screenshot previews and having quick access to edit and/or share them if I want to, but I rarely find myself using them. I still prefer to take the screenshots and then go into the Photos app and AirDrop them to my computer or email them or whatever. I hardly edit them on my iPhone, unless I'm sending a screenshot to a friend or family member that needs some quick help.
I don't think it would be too hard for Apple to include an on/off toggle in the Settings app for this. If enough people have issues with it, it can happen. If you're not digging the screenshot previews, you can submit feedback to Apple about it.
Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new Apple Intelligence capabilities, sudoku puzzles, Camera Control enhancements, volume control limits, layered Voice Memo recordings, and other useful features. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 18.2 update.
10 Comments
THANK YOU!!! The thumbnails have been driving me crazy, and I would not necessarily have thought to try swiping to rid myself of them. Still a pain, but better than passively waiting for them to go away on their own (I am not patient).
Agree with you strongly. Did you submit a complaint to Apple?
Agreed! I had the intuition to swipe them off, but even that gets on my nerves. Totally unnecessary "improvement" 99.9% of the time as far as I'm concerned, and often an obnoxious hinderance, as most of the time it's textual content that I'm screenshooting; the extra move of swiping off annoys me, and waiting for the shot to disappear blocks my reading.
Apple's "innovators" sometimes feel like they're half-thinking their "biiiiig big new idea the world was waiting for". smh
AARRRRGGGHHHH!!! These thumbnails are driving me nuts. Thanks for the info. Complaint sent to Apple.
Umm...I don't know what I just did, but I can't get the thumbnail to come back. I came here to try to figure out what I did to make it go away in the first place.
Just had the same and came looking for answers as well. Thankfully my sister read that you can do a hard reboot (for iPhone X = click sequentially: volume up, volume down, then click and hold down power button continuously until you see black screen then Apple icon) and the thumbnail feature worked like before with no issues again. Hope that helps!
Thank you Shawna Anderson. I use the edit feature almost every screen snap because if I want to share it, I don't want my personal information on top or bottom to be included, I want it cropped out. I still don't know what made the little screen go away and not return, but restarting my phone did help! (Then of course there was a 20 minute quest to sign in here to respond to you to say thanks for your input!)
I guess the next question for people would be how to get it to go away, since people don't know how it can be turned off! Obviously it can be turned off since ours turned off and we couldn't get it back! Love my iPhone, but I wish it just had simple directions! Thanks again!!
heyyy...thanks for wasting my time on this one, got all excited thinking there was a way to disable the screenshot preview, title is very misleading....might want to look up the definition of disable lol
Hi A B, There is a way to disable it, or turn it off rather. It keeps happening to me without trying though so I'm sorry I can't help you... right now! If I ever figure out what it is that I do that accidentally turns it off I'll let you know. Just one thing, NEVER hit the "home" button 3x fast because it turns on a black square called AssistiveTouch, which is big and takes up 4x the space of the screen snap picture! Worse, it has ALL the features on it that are already easily accessible. If I were having difficulty touching the screen why would I want MORE things to press... oh my!!! At least now I know how it gets accidentally turned on (clicking the home button too fast) but turning it off is in "Accessibility" in settings if you ever need that off too. It is highly annoying!
If I'm understanding everything, all the pics I have in my camera roll that have multiple thumbnails are there permanently? Sadly, I didn't even take notice until I sent a pic to a friend who asked me about all those post, in the hospital, surgery pics below and the most disfiguring facial swelling I've been having. I'm mortified. Tubes in the nose and all. At least I was smiling. But definitely wasn't my intention to share that way. Glad some folks like it. For those of us who aren't mark up (don't even know what that does) happy and wanting to share pics often, this is a feature that should be optional and require some additional settings. Many people have pictures they don't want to share with the world yet a lot of lucky recipients may get a bit more than they were expecting. Doesn't Apple do drug testing as part of their background screening before hiring? Whomever the engineering genius was ,,,.
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