How to Take a Long Screenshot on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Modern smartphones, especially those from Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO, have large and bright displays that allow you to consume content with maximum comfort. However, it often happens that the information you are interested in, whether it is a correspondence in a messenger, an article on a news site or a long check from an online store, simply does not fit into one frame of the screen. A standard screenshot captures only the visible area, cutting an important piece of data at the bottom or top, which forces users to look for workarounds.

Fortunately, the MIUI and its modern version of HyperOS have a powerful feature called Scrolling Scrolling Screenshot built in, which automatically collects multiple frames into a single, high-quality long image, eliminating the need to glue images manually. In this article, we will detail how to activate this mode, what the nuances of its operation are in different applications, and what to do if standard methods for some reason do not work.

You will learn about hidden save format settings that can significantly affect the quality of the final picture, as well as why in some cases the system offers to save the result not as an image, but as a result of the image. PDF-Understanding these subtleties will allow you to effectively manage the visual information on your device without installing third-party software.

⚠️ Note: The long screenshot feature may not work in applications where recording content is prohibited for security reasons (e.g. banking apps or incognito mode).

Basic ways to create screenshots on MIUI and HyperOS

Before you move on to panoramic images, you need to master the basic principles of working with screenshots on Xiaomi devices. The standard algorithm of actions is simple and familiar to most Android users, but in the shell of MIUI it has its own unique features related to the behavior of the preview menu. Usually, to capture the current image on the display requires simultaneous clamping of the buttons Volume down and Power.

After you take a normal shot, a thumbnail will appear at the top of the screen (or in the corner, depending on the theme settings), and that's when, for a few seconds, the system waits for your further commands. If you don't do anything, the image will simply be saved to the gallery, but if you touch that thumbnail or a special button, the extended editing menu will open.

An alternative and more convenient way for many users is to use three fingers. Swipe three fingers from top to bottom across the screen and the device will instantly take a picture. This method is especially convenient when using the phone with one hand is difficult. Make sure that this feature is activated in the settings so that it works smoothly.

• 📱 Classic combination: press the volume down and device switch on simultaneously.
• 🖐️ Three finger gesture: swipe three fingers from top to bottom on the active screen.
• 🎙️ Voice command: say “Take a screenshot” (requires activated Google Assistant or Xiao) AI).
• 🔘 Control Panel: Open the notification curtain and find the screenshot icon».

It's important to note that the speed of your response to your actions when you have a thumbnail is critical. The MIUI interface keeps the menu open for a very short time, after which it disappears, and you have to take the picture again to access the scrolling function. The muscle memory training will help you do these actions almost automatically.

Instructions: How to take a screenshot with a scroll

The process of creating a long screenshot, or as it is often called a “scrollshot,” requires a certain sequence of actions immediately after you have created the basic frame. When you have taken a regular screenshot in any convenient way, notice the tool menu that appears, and you will see several icons, one of which will be an icon that resembles a scroll or a rectangle with arrows down.

Click on this button, and the system automatically scrolls down, taking new pictures and stitching them together, and you'll see a smaller copy of the image that's being formed appear on the screen, and a Stop or Ready button appear on the bottom, which can take a few seconds, depending on the length of the page you want to capture.

The scroll process is entirely in your hands. If you only need to capture a certain part of a long article, you can stop the process at any time by pressing the appropriate button. The system will instantly complete the rendering and save the file as it was at the time of the stop, which is very convenient for selective copying of information.

There is also a mode where you scroll automatically to the end of the page, which is useful for saving entire web pages or very long dialogues, but the longer the final image, the more weight it will be and the more load it will have on the processor at the time of processing.

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If you take a screenshot of a very long page, try not to touch the screen during the scrolling process, so as not to knock off focus or cause the app to accidentally close.

Format and quality of preservation

One of the most interesting things about creating long screenshots on Xiaomi is that you can choose the format of saving. Unlike many other manufacturers, MIUI allows you to save the result not only as a raster image, but also as a document, which is available immediately after you have completed the scrolling process and pressed the save button.

In the menu that appears, you can choose the option Save as PDF. This format is ideal for documents, articles with a lot of text and tables, as it retains structure and allows you to easily scale text without losing readability. PDF images may be less quality, but text content remains clear at any zoom.

If your goal is to save correspondence, graphics or images, you should choose the format of PNG or JPG. PNG is preferred for screenshots with text and graphics, as it uses lossless compression. JPG will take up less space, but can add compression artifacts, especially at contrasting text boundaries.

The quality of the final file also depends on your screen resolution. On current models with 1080p and higher displays, and with 120Hz support, screenshots are very detailed. However, when saved in PDF format, the system can optimize resolution to reduce file size, which is worth considering if you need maximum detail.

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The choice of PDF format makes a long screenshot into a full document that is easier to send by mail or save in archive, while PNG is better suited for quick publication on social networks.

Working with browsers and third-party applications

Not all apps are equally well-supported for long screenshots, and the technology works most consistently in the standard Mi Browser browser and the popular Google Chrome, which are the best scrolling tools, and the seams between frames are almost invisible, while the text remains readable.

On social networks like Telegram, WhatsApp or Viber, the feature also works, but there may be nuances. For example, when scrolling a chat, the system may get stuck in places where new messages are loaded (lazy loading), or take a picture when the avatar of the interlocutor has not yet loaded, in such cases, it is recommended to first fully scroll the dialogue up and down so that the cache is filled, and then take a screenshot.

News apps and endless tape sites deserve special attention, where automatic scrolling may not stop on its own, as content is generated constantly, you will have to manually control the process and press the stop button in time so as not to fly to the bottom of the tape, where there is no useful information.

• 🌐 Browsers: perfect compatibility, the ability to save immediately in PDF.
• 💬 Messengers: good compatibility, but artifacts are possible when downloading media.
• 🛒 Marketplaces: There may be problems with “sticky” interface elements (Buy buttons»).
• 📱 System settings: work correctly, long lists are captured entirely.

If you use third-party browsers like Firefox or Opera, the long screenshot feature will work through the MIUI system menu, rather than through the browser's built-in tools.This guarantees a uniform standard of quality, but deprives you of some specific features that may be in a particular browser's engine.

Solving the Problem: Why Scrolling Doesn't Work

Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the scroll button does not appear or the process is interrupted halfway, most often due not to a breakdown of the phone, but to the features of the displayed content or system settings. First of all, check whether the application is secure. Banking clients, applications with DRM-Content (Netflix, Kinopoisk) blocks the creation of screenshots at the level of the Android security system.

Another common reason is a lack of RAM: The process of stitching a long image requires resources, and if you have a lot of heavy applications open in the background, the system can force you to complete the screenshot creation process to free up memory for the active application, in which case try to close the redundant programs before creating a panorama.

⚠️ Note: If the scroll button is grey or missing, it is possible that a static image or video is displayed on the screen that is technically impossible to scroll down.

There may also be problems with the themes, and some third-party themes downloaded from Themes may conflict with the system interface elements, hiding the screenshot control buttons. If you notice that the problem has occurred after you change the theme, try switching to standard design.

In rare cases, cleaning the cache of the system application Screenshot helps. To do this, go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find the screenshot list (or take a screenshot right now so it appears in recent history) and select Clear the cache. This will reset temporary files that may have been corrupted.

Alternative methods and third-party solutions

If Xiaomi's built-in tools don't suit you or malfunctioning apps, you can always use third-party software. There are many panoramic-picture-creating apps in the Google Play store that use their own gluing algorithms.

One popular solution is to use scanner apps like Adobe Scan or Microsoft Lens. Although they're camera-focused, many of them have the ability to import images. You can take a few regular screenshots in a row and then upload them to an automatic glue application into one PDF or JPG file.

Another method is to use the Long Screenshot feature in Chrome on a PC, if you sync tabs. When you open the right page on your computer, you can take a screenshot of the entire page through the developer tools and then send the file to your phone. This can seem tricky, but for very heavy sites, it often gives you the best result.

For professional work with long images, for example, to create instructions or presentations, it may be useful to connect the phone to the computer and use programs to record the screen followed by frame-by-frame, although this already applies to methods for advanced users.