How to Take a Kindle Fire Screenshot

Being able to take a Kindle Fire screenshot is a really cool little tip or trick, one that has a lot of uses!

With the Kindle Fire HD, taking screenshots is now super simple, and I'll show you how in this quick little tutorial! Be sure to read all my extra notes for important tricks and other information that you should be aware of when taking snapshots of your tablet.

Update for 2021

This article was originally written a few years ago and Amazon has made it easier to take a screenshot on newer Fire tablets than ever before!

No longer do you awkwardly need to try to hold down the power and volume buttons simultaneously. Now, all you need to do is turn on your device, then press and hold down the power button.

You'll be given 3 options:

• Power off
• Restart
• Screenshot

Tap screenshot and you'll hear the shutter click. After a moment a little window will pop up giving you the options to view your screenshot, share it, edit it or delete it.

Easy peasy!

Jump to 'Where to Find Your Screenshots', or read on to learn how to take screenshots on older devices.

Taking a Kindle Fire Screenshot on Older Devices

For the most part, you can take a screenshot from anywhere on your Kindle Fire, just browse to where you want to take a capture of your screen and then hold down these two buttons at the same time:

• Power + Volume Down

When in landscape view with the camera at the top, these two buttons are located on the right of your tablet.

When you press both the power and the volume down buttons at the same time (for about a second) you'll hear a shutter clicking sound (unless your volume is all the way down) and you'll see a quick image of the snapshot you just took before it disappears from the screen.

Look how clear and crisp this screenshot is from the hidden object game, Weird Park: Broken Tune, that I was playing on my tablet.

Landscape and Portrait Screenshots

You can take screenshots from your Kindle Fire in both landscape and portrait if the screen shows it that way.

To the right is a portrait image from my device showing the carousel, while below is the landscape view of the same screen.

Where to Find Your Screenshots

Okay, so you've taken a few snapshots on your Kindle Fire. Now what? Well, first, you need to know where the pictures are - you can actually see them right on your Kindle Fire!

All you need to do is go to your home screen and tap the 'Photos' folder. 

Here you will find all your photos and screenshots. This is my photos folder - and you can see the screenshot I took to use on this page (above).

From Your Computer

You can also connect your USB cable to your computer and browse to them from your PC.

Once you have connected the cable, open the 'Settings'  on your Fire and tap 'Connected Devices'.

Tap 'USB'.

Change the setting from 'No Data Transfer' to 'File Transfer'.

Now go to your computer, locate your Fire device and double click 'Internal Shared Storage'.

Locate the 'Pictures' folder and double click to open.

Now you'll see your 'Screenshots' folder. Double click to open.

And here you'll find all your screenshots, ready to open and use as you wish.

Just Say No to Vids

One more thing to be aware of, is that you won't be able to take screenshots of videos on your Kindle Fire. Amazon has blocked this feature and all you'll get is a black screen that looks just like this:

This issue is on both the original and new Kindle Fires. So it's tough toenails if you wanted to get a pic from your favorite movie.

Try it Yourself!

Now you're ready to try this yourself! I'd love to see your Kindle Fire screenshots so please share them with me on my Facebook page.

Feel free to browse through other great Kindle Fire Tips and Tricks or see the Kindle Fire HD Backgrounds if you haven't already!