iPhone screenshot without the status bar: what works, and what it costs

iOS has no setting that keeps the status bar out of a screenshot. Four workarounds exist, and each one charges something: preparation, a size Apple refuses, a Mac, or an edited file.

Published: 23 September 2026 · Last reviewed: 1 November 2026

A real iPhone always captures the bar

Side button plus volume up (side button plus Home on models with a Home button) captures the whole screen, status bar included, and no setting changes that. An app can hide the bar itself, as a full-screen video does, but that is the developer's call, not yours. What remains is four compromises.

1. Keep the bar and tidy it

The only route that leaves an untouched capture of your own iPhone at an accepted size. Before you shoot:

• Battery: charge to 100%, then unplug. A cable means a charging bolt.
• Notifications: Do Not Disturb or another Focus silences most banners (allowed contacts, apps and time-sensitive alerts still get through), though a Focus can add its own icon by the clock.
• Wi-Fi: shoot where it reads full.
• Time: Settings, General, Date & Time, turn off Set Automatically, pick the minute. Turn it back on afterward: sign-in codes depend on the clock.

The target values are listed in what the status bar should say in an App Store screenshot.

2. On a Mac or in the screenshot editor: crop it, and leave Apple's size list

Two seconds of work, and it costs the dimensions. On an iPhone 14 Pro the bar is 54 pt, 162 px at 3× (see the measured status bar dimensions). Take it off 1179 × 2556 and you get 1179 × 2394, a size on no list, and App Store Connect refuses anything but an exact match. Stretching back to 2556 px tall distorts the image by about 7%. Crop only where nobody checks size: a README, a slide, a bug report.

3. Simulator override: set the clock to 9:41

This route keeps the bar and fixes what it says. With a device booted in the Xcode Simulator:

xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --time 9:41 --batteryState charged --batteryLevel 100 --cellularBars 4

We ran this command on a booted iPhone 17 Simulator under Xcode 27.2 on November 1, 2026: it was accepted, xcrun simctl status_bar booted list showed the time 09:41, a full battery and four cellular bars, and clear removed the overrides. --cellularBars runs 0 to 4, --wifiBars (optional) only 0 to 3, --operatorName '' empties the carrier name, and --batteryState takes charging, charged or discharging. clear in place of override removes everything. xcrun simctl io booted screenshot shot.png then saves the device's native size (1206 × 2622 on an iPhone 17 when we ran it). The cost: a Mac with Xcode, and you capture the Simulator, not your phone.

4. Paint over it afterward

Fill the top 162 px with the app's background color: the bar is gone and the file stays 1179 × 2556. Invisible on a flat background, a visible seam on a gradient or a photo. The real cost is that the file stops being a capture of the device. It is an edited image.

Why the wallet stopped drawing its own bar

My Larp Wallet is a crypto wallet simulator: you type tokens and amounts, open the screen on your own phone and take the screenshot yourself. It used to draw its own status bar, which put two bars in one image, each with its own time and battery, contradicting each other.

The paid wallet now draws none. Opened from the home screen (steps on the page that explains why there is no download), it runs full screen, and the capture shows your phone's bar: real time, battery and signal, plus the carrier name where the phone displays one. For a video, the cleanest status bar is the one the wallet screen already carries: your phone's own, since the wallet draws none. Route 1 is the closest fit for a screenshot; cropping or painting over still work on the file. This site's illustrations still draw a bar. Every amount is typed in, so the image stays a mockup, and a tidy bar proves nothing.

Questions

Can you take an iPhone screenshot without the status bar?

Not as a standard screenshot on a real device. iOS has no setting that hides the bar from a capture, so it has to be cleaned before you shoot, cropped or painted over afterward, or fixed in the Xcode Simulator, which keeps the bar but sets what it shows.

Why does my cropped screenshot fail upload?

No. Taking the 162 px status bar off a 1179 × 2556 iPhone 14 Pro capture leaves 1179 × 2394, which is not one of Apple's accepted sizes, so the upload stops at the dimension check.

How do I reset the Simulator status bar after an override?

Run xcrun simctl status_bar booted clear. It removes every override at once, and xcrun simctl status_bar booted list shows what is still set before you clear it.

How do I set the clock to 9:41?

In the Xcode Simulator, run the override with --time 9:41 and the bar shows 9:41 for as long as it is set. On a real iPhone, go to Settings, General, Date & Time, turn off Set Automatically and pick the minute, then shoot before the clock moves on, and turn Set Automatically back on afterward.

Written by My Larp Wallet, a crypto wallet app simulator: a mockup that opens on your phone, never a real wallet. For your own app’s screenshots, shoot your build; where a wallet mockup fits, and where it does not.