This hidden setting will fix iOS 26’s stupid screenshots

Whether you chose to download iOS 26 back in September or woke up to a dreaded “update installed” message sometime in the last few months, Apple users everywhere are feeling out the new operating system. While there’s controversy around Liquid Glass and a few other features, the feedback has been largely positive — even if there isn’t anything foundation-shaking to report.

However, there’s one highly inconvenient feature that Apple added to something users do almost every day: taking screenshots. In older iOS versions, pressing the power and volume buttons simultaneously produced a screenshot that appeared in the lower left-hand corner. You could tap that preview to crop, mark up, or discard the screenshot, among other options. iOS takes that intuitive process and makes the new default complicated to the point of eye-twitching.

Now, taking a screenshot in iOS 26 means the capture immediately fills your screen with options to edit, markup, share, discard, or just save. That means that if you want to save a screenshot, the process includes three steps: take the shot, tap the checkmark in the upper-right, and save it to your camera roll.

Surely Apple added these steps to make it easier on folks who are constantly editing and sending away their screen grabs. However, for the everyday user, it’s a nuisance. Luckily, there’s a setting to get rid of the new process entirely and go back to the comfortable hands-off screenshot bliss of prior operating systems. Here’s how to enable it.

Turn off Full-Screen Previews

Under Screen Capture

When you update your device to iOS 26, a new default setting will be to enable Full-Screen Preview. This is what displays your screenshots in full-screen view instead of showing that temporary thumbnail in the lower-left corner. When you disable this feature, screenshots will go back to appearing as that little thumbnail:

1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down to General.
3. Select Screen Capture.
4. Toggle off Full-Screen Previews.

With this toggle off, your screenshots will be back in business and as unintrusive as they were before iOS 26. Happy capturing!