5 Ways to Take Screenshots on Android TV

Imagine sitting watching a TV show on an Android TV, and you liked a particular scene, you can simply take a screenshot using your smartphone, but that won’t lead to good results, how about taking or capturing a screenshot directly from the TV? This is exactly the topic of our article for today, where we will find out 5 easy and simple ways through which you can capture a screenshot directly from an Android TV, and by the way, there are many ways for this, while some work on one device and not on another.

In general, we will cover all the methods that work on most models, and now let’s dive into the how-to and start directly with the first method.

Usually, if you want to take a screenshot from your phone or tablet running Android, you would press the power button and the volume down button at the same time, the same method can be followed on an Android TV, where on the screen you want to capture, press and hold the volume down and power buttons on the remote control, and if you see a flash indicating the capture, this means the screenshot has been successfully taken.

Some models of “Android TV” come with a built-in feature for taking screenshots, to access that, press the home button on the remote control until you see a new pop-up menu, the pop-up menu will contain the Screenshot option, by clicking on it you will get two options: “Save image” and “Save and share”, selecting the first option will save it on your device and the second option will allow you to share the screenshot with other devices.

Usually, some Android TV devices come with their own remote control apps, and these apps offer the screenshot option, for example, if you have Mi TV, you can use the Mi Remote Controller app to take a screenshot, which will be saved directly on your phone.

Unfortunately, not all Android TV devices are lucky to have their own remote control apps, this is where external companion apps come in, and we have chosen for you the CetusPlay app, which is one of the popular apps that allow users to control an Android TV through their phone, interestingly, the app also supports taking screenshots, all you need to do is install the app on the TV and the phone, then open the app on the TV first and grant it the necessary permissions, then run the app on the phone and connect it to the TV, then you can use its tools as long as the TV and phone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

And it is worth mentioning, to take screen captures, enable USB debugging on your Android TV, by going to Settings and then About, here click on Build seven times using the remote control selection button.

A confirmation message will appear indicating that USB debugging mode has been activated, then go directly to settings again and look for developer options, then enable USB debugging.

Did you know that you can customize the hardware keys on your Android phone to launch an app, shortcut, or perform an action? This is possible with the help of the Button Mapper app, and luckily the same app is available on the Google Play store for Android TV devices, and now you might be wondering how the app works here, simply you can remap any of the remote control buttons to take a screenshot of the TV interface, so first download the Button Mapper app on the TV.

Then assign the screenshot function to a button of your choice, you can even assign the function to double-click or long-press.

Now that you have captured a screenshot on an Android TV, you may want to view it or transfer it to your computer or smartphone, here to view screenshots, download ES File Explorer or any other file explorer on the TV, then go to the home page, then to pictures and finally to the screenshot option, from there you can view the images as well as delete them.

To transfer screenshots to your computer or phone, you will need the help of a file manager app on the TV that supports cloud storage, and the ES File Explorer app is a good option, here’s what you need to do:

First step: Open ES File Explorer app and go to the Network option then Cloud Drive, and add your choice of cloud storage, we chose Google Drive here.

Second step: Now go to the home page, then pictures, and finally to the screenshots.

Third step: Select the items you want to view on your computer.

Fourth step: Click on the more icon at the bottom and select Copy to or Move to.

Fifth step: A popup window will open, click on the cloud storage option to view cloud storage options.

Sixth step: Choose the cloud storage you are using and select the folder where you want to copy or move the files.