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18

Is there a way to take a screenshot of an Android device and save it as an image file?

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Do you mean on the phone itself, like it is possible on the iPhone (pressing the home and the lock button together) or from a connected pc? – Tim Büthe Sep 30 '10 at 9:07
3  
on the phone. Yup, like pressing some button and then you can get a file – Louis Rhys Sep 30 '10 at 9:56
Follow this link to learn how to take screenshots on Android. – skyeden Apr 5 at 6:49

16 Answers

up vote 60 down vote accepted

If you're rooted: you can install an app called drocap2. This will let you shake your phone, wait on a timer, or click on a notification in your notification bar to take a screenshot and it'll save it to your phone.

If you're not rooted: you can not run a screenshot app on your phone, period. You'll have to install the Android SDK on your computer, connect you phone via USB, and run a program called DDMS. This program is mainly used for developer debugging, but it has a screenshot utility under one of its menus. For a tutorial, see this page.

If you have Android 4.0+: You can press the Power button + the Volume Down button at the same time to take a screenshot. It will be saved to your gallery.

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Using an application such as ShootMe, you can easily take a screenshot of an unrooted phone. – VarLogRant Jun 2 '11 at 1:58
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@VarLogRant - that depends on the phone, some will work without rooting and others will not. – Chris Stratton Jun 2 '11 at 16:57
up vote 24 down vote

Starting with Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich there is finally a possibility to create a screen-shot without 3rd party app or connected computer:

Press the following two keys at the same time: Volume-Down + Power

Note that it is crucial to press both keys nearly the same time. If your press and hold Volume-Down and afterwards press Power it will not work. (tested on Galaxy nexus 4.1.2)

However some screens are protected and therefore can not be captured, e.g. some system settings dialogs.

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Doesn't seem to work on the stock Samsung Nexus. Nothing is displayed in the Gallery application. – Gulbahar Jun 8 '12 at 15:01
I have the same issue: It says that it took a screenshot, there's a file in "My Computer\Galaxy Nexus\Internal Storage\Pictures\Screenshots", but it's 0 bytes, and when I double-click on it, it says "Invalid File". Is there a third-party no-brainer product that takes screenshots? Thank you. – Gulbahar Jun 18 '12 at 8:52
up vote 14 down vote

In most Samsung phones with Android 2.2+ you can take screenshots by holding the back key and tapping the home button.

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1  
I tried it. Didn't work on droid running 2.2. – Matt Sep 30 '10 at 9:44
haven't heard, doesn't work (running Froyo) – Michael Paulukonis Sep 30 '10 at 11:34
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Does work for me on my Galaxy S running 2.2. The key is to hold (not tap) the back button and then tap the Home button, I then hear the normal shutter sound and there's a new "ScreenCapture" folder in my Gallery with the screenshot in it. – GAThrawn Nov 16 '10 at 16:41
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That is a feature of the Galaxy S. – Al Everett Nov 16 '10 at 18:28
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It works but stupid. When I hold the bac button, the running application exit before I can take a snapshot – Dennis Cheung Nov 17 '10 at 2:15
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up vote 8 down vote

Install the Android SDK on your computer, connect the phone and run DDMS from the terminal and then select Device > Screen Capture (or Ctrl+S) and a screenshot will be made.

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up vote 7 down vote

On the HTC EVO3D, you may press lock button and home button at same time to capture a screenshot.

FYI the "lock button" is the same thing as the power button

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up vote 6 down vote

Once rooted, I've liked working with Screenshot (Cyrket link).

Set the timer, go to your application and wait; or set it to “Shake” mode, go to your application and shake it. Hard. And files show up in a screenshot folder. Happy day.

I mean it. SHAKE IT HARD. Unless there's some trick to shaking and I'm doing it in the wrong direction, this is NOT a sensitive shaker.

UPDATE: yeah, I'm using the timer option. Either the Incredible has a lousy shake sensor, the app is implementing it weirdly, or something else -- but shaking was just ridiculous. Would have been a nice interface, if that worked.

(Variable) Timer to take screenshots works just fine!

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up vote 5 down vote

ShootMe does work for me on the Galaxy Tab (2.2), even if I did not root it and the ShootMe page says, that it works only for rooted devices.

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up vote 5 down vote

The following method also requires root, but may be better and easier if you need the screenshots while writing articles, app reviews or documentation.

You do not need complex instructions or the Android SDK, and this works on all rooted devices.

  1. Install droid VNC server.

    enter image description here

  2. Print Screen.

  3. Profit!
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Note that this only works on a rooted phone, from the app's description: "As of Honeycomb 3.2 there is no non-rooted display grab API... You need a ROOTED device." – GAThrawn Jan 31 '12 at 10:54
up vote 5 down vote

A one line script should do this on a root 'ed handset, be aware that this is for Linux and hard-coded for 800x480 screen resolution and also, if your Android's Linux Kernel has framebuffer support compiled in:

#!/bin/sh
adb pull /dev/graphics/fb0 fb0 && ffmpeg -vframes 1 -vcodec rawvideo -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgb565le -s 480x800 -i fb0 -f image2 -vcodec png $1.png && mogrify -flip -flop $1.png && rm fb0

And save it as for example, screenshotter.sh, with executable permissions and invoke it like this screenshotter.sh my_picture_of_android_home_screen

End result, is a PNG file called my_picture_of_android_home_screen.png is saved.

Caveat Emptor:

This requires ffmpeg and imagemagick tools :)

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Hi, can you do an explanation of that script? Assume that I know what fb0 is. Also, do you really need to copy fb0 to a file, can't you directly feed ffmpeg with it? – Rui Marques Sep 29 '12 at 19:14
Yes you need to copy to file so that ffmpeg/imagemagick can use it. And no you cannot directly feed into ffmpeg.. :) – t0mm13b Oct 12 '12 at 15:11
up vote 4 down vote

Your phone has to be rooted. If it is just search "screenshot" in the market for many options. For an unrooted phone you can use dolphin browser hd with an addon to get screen captures of a website.

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up vote 3 down vote

On the optimus black you can also use the lock+home button

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up vote 3 down vote

On a Samsung Galaxy S II it's simultaneously pressing the power+home button it's tricky though 9 out of 10 times I can't get it. Obviously that's specific to that model of phone and not the Android OS.

As far as I know there isn't any native app built-in to the OS for all phones, it's too bad really.

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2  
It's apparently native to Ice Cream Sandwich. – Al Everett Oct 20 '11 at 12:33
@AlEverett It was available in Gingerbread for me. Funnily enough, ICS made it worse - in Gingerbread, I could hold home and hit power. In ICS, I have to press both at the same time and hold for a bit. ICS did change the screenshot animations/save location/clipboard, though. – Bob Apr 23 at 11:54
up vote 2 down vote

When I got the 2.3.4 Upgrade on my Sony Ericsson Arc (from 2.3.3) holding down the power button brings up the "airplane mode/power off/silent" menu, and new to 2.3.4 is the presence of a "take screenshot" button as well.

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up vote 2 down vote

On the Samsung Galaxy Pocket GT-S53001, you can do it without any third party software.

Follow these instructions:

  1. Go to the screen that you'd like to capture.
  2. Press and hold the Home button (center), then right after that, quickly press the Power button. If you wait too much it won't work and you'll just set the phone block.
  3. If that is done successfully, you should be able to hear the classic click and also see a white border appear in your screen.
  4. Go check your Gallery application.

1: It's possible that this works on all Android phones running Gingerbread, but I didn't try personally.

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1  
This works for the Samsung Galaxy S4, stock ROM – geffchang May 13 at 11:26
up vote 2 down vote

On the Galaxy Note 2 you can also use the S Pen:

  • Press and hold the button on the S Pen and press it against the screen for a few seconds

What happens next is, a screenshot will be taken. Then you will be able to adjust it before either accepting or discarding the screenshot.

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up vote 1 down vote

Some phones have the functionality built in, such as the previous mentioned Galaxy S. On the Droid Charge, hold the back button and press home. On most new LG Android phones, hold home and press power.

Unfortunately, the only universal method is using the Android SDK to take screenshots with a computer. Rooting and using a screenshot app works on many devices, but sometimes not, and it's not the easiest way to take a screenshot.

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