Things You Should Know

The tool that we are going to be using is only available for Windows, as of this writing. You need to have a Windows-based PC to follow this guide. You need to install the ADB drivers on your PC. If you have not installed it yet, head over to the official Android SDK website and download and install it on your PC.

Taking Screenshots in Recovery Mode

First of all, get your device into the recovery mode. To do so, you can press a key combination provided by your manufacturer to get into recovery or you can use an app like Quick Boot that helps you easily reboot into recovery. Once in recovery, follow the steps below:

  1. Plug in your device to your PC using the cable that came with it. If a prompt appears on your PC saying it is installing the drivers, then let it do so first.

  2. Download the Recovery Screenshot Tool and extract all of its files over to your desktop. It will be a convenient place for you to easily find the files when you need them.

  3. Double-click on the file named “RUNrs.bat” that you just extracted over to your desktop. It will launch the tool for you to use.

  4. The first screen should ask you what configuration type you would like to go for. Since you are a first-time user, press “1” on your keyboard and it should let you go ahead.

  5. The next screen asks you to enter your device’s screen resolution. If you do not know it, you can read our article that talks about how you can read your phone’s specifications. Once you have entered both the width and height, hit Enter.

  6. What it will do now is pull all of the possible screenshots from your device over to your computer. It will have created a new folder on your desktop with the name “Pixel formats.” Just go inside the folder and check out all the screenshots it has captured. Make a note of the name of the screenshot that looks the best. Hit Enter in the tool and it will show the next screen.

  7. On the next screen, choose the first option that says “1 – You see your image…”.

  8. Now enter the name of the screenshot that you noted down in Step-6 above. Make sure not to type the image extension, i.e., if the name is “rgb565.png”, enter “rgb565” only. Then hit Enter.

  9. The tool has now been configured to take screenshots of your device in the recovery mode. On the next screen, choose the third option that says “3 – Get both framebuffers.(2 images)”.

  10. You are all done. The tool should now work fine to capture screens of your device in the Recovery mode. The screenshots are saved inside a folder named as the current date in the same directory as the tool.

Conclusion

Many options are available for taking screenshots in the normal mode, but when it comes to doing the same in the recovery, people start scratching their heads. The guide above aims to help such users ease their screenshot taking tasks. Let us know if it works for you!