For almost a decade, iPhones have tended to take screenshots the same exact way. The classic clicking the home button and the lock button at the same time would do the trick but the newer iPhones, like the iPhone XR don’t have a home button at all. Instead, there is now a bezel-less screen with a notch on top Since the hardware has changed, you can no longer take your screenshots the same way.
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How to take a screenshot on the iPhone XR
On your iPhone XR, locate the lock button
On the opposite side, you will have the volume buttons
- Press the lock button and the Volume Up button together, at the same exact time, and let go immediately after, exactly as if you were taking a regular picture
If you have done this correctly, you will see the actual screenshot pop up for about a second or two and move to the bottom left corner and stay there as a tiny picture for a few seconds before disappearing.
If you end up accidentally missing the thumbnail popping up, go into your gallery and open the “recent” folder. Your screenshot should be the most recent photograph there.
What to do if the screenshot feature is not working
If you have tried this method and it doesn’t seem to work, there are still other ways to take screenshots on the iPhone XR, but first, you need to figure out why the screenshot feature isn’t working.
If everything else on your phone is working fine. Try doing a hard reset on your phone to reset everything. The hard reset will restart everything from the software level.
- To do this, hold the screenshot buttons and don’t let them go until the screen turns black and you see the Apple logo pop up again.
Your phone would then restart. Give it a few minutes for the phone to turn on properly. Then, try pressing the volume up and home button and release method again and see if the screenshot is taken now. If it still isn’t working, check both of the buttons individually and see if they’re functional. It’s possible that either of the buttons isn’t working and that’s what’s causing the issue.
If you find that one or both of the buttons required to take a screenshot aren’t working. You can still take a screenshot but it requires you to set up and add an assistive touch button to your home screen.
How to enable assistive touch on your iPhone XR
To enable assistive touch on your iPhone XR, locate the “settings” icon on your Home Screen and tap on it to open the settings.
Once it opens, you will be in the general settings. Scroll down until you find the option that says “Accessibility” and tap on it.
In the Accessibility settings, you will find a number of settings that help make the iPhone functionality easier, the option you need to locate here would be in the “Physical and Motion” section of the settings called “Touch”, tap this option.
Once the menu opens, the first option you see will say “Assistive Touch”, tap on it and it will open the Assistive touch settings menu.
Here, you will see a toggle to turn the Assistive touch off and on, tap it to make it green which indicated that it is “ON”.
Now, you can set up what you want your Assistive Touch button to do. Since we want an alternative way to take a screenshot, we will have to set that up.
On the custom actions section of the menu, decide how you want the screenshot to be taken between the options of the single-tap, double-tap, long press, or 3D Touch.
Pick the option you prefer and tap on it and scroll until you find “screenshot” and select it to set it to this gesture.
Go back into the Home Screen to test it out
Tap the assistive touch menu and perform the gesture that you have set to take a screenshot
You will have successfully taken a screenshot on the iPhone XR.
