How to Inspect Element on iPhone or iPad

By Rachel Needell Updated 01/09/2024

Often, when attempting to save a small image, it will degrade in clarity and sharpness. Using inspect element to save an image will preserve its original size and clarity even if it looks very small on the website. This is a really cool feature, so don’t be scared to check out something a bit more advanced!

How to Use Inspect Element on iPhone

In order to use the developer tools and enable this option on your iPhone, you will need to have a Mac computer and a cable that will connect your phone to your computer. For more cool tips and tricks about how to use your Apple devices, be sure to sign up for our Tip of the Day. Let’s get started!

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On your iPhone, open Settings.
Tap Safari.

Tap Advanced.
Toggle Web Inspector on. It will be green when enabled.

Next, move over to your Mac and open Safari.
In the upper left corner, click Safari on the menu.

Click Preferences.
Click Advanced on the navigation bar.

Check Show Develop Menu in Menu Bar.
You should now be able to see the Develop option appear on the top menu.

Once you’ve gotten to this step, you will need to connect your phone to your Mac with a cable.
Once your iPhone is connected, click the Develop tab in the top menu.

Select your phone from the drop down menu. (My phone's name is Moon).
To avoid having to use a cable again, you can enable Connect Via Network. Now, you can disconnect your iPhone from the Mac and still be able to inspect webpages without connecting a cable in between them.

Next, open the Safari app on your iPhone and go to the webpage you want to inspect.
With your iPhone unlocked and the selected webpage open, go back to your Mac and open Safari.

Click on Develop from the menu bar and select your iPhone.
When you hover over your iPhone's name, you should see a list of web pages that are open on your iPhone. Click on the webpage you want to inspect from this list.

A new window will load up on the Mac showing all the info that can be inspected from the selected webpage.
You will be able to see which part of the page a line of code points to because it will become highlighted in blue as your mouse hovers over it.

How to Save an Image with Safari on iPhone Using Inspect Element

To save an image using Inspect Element

Click Sources in the top navigation menu.
Select Images from the side navigation.

Right-click the image you want to save.
Click Save File.

And that’s how you do it! Be sure to save the images under a name you'll remember. Developer tools and inspect element are quite advanced tools, but this information could prove very useful in the future. It’s also super cool to see the way that these devices connect and work with each other and how we may be able to take advantage of Apple’s integrated devices.

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Author Details

Rachel Needell

Rachel Needell is a Feature Writer at iPhone Life, and a poet and author. With 10-plus years of experience working with Apple devices, she specializes in all-things iPad and is a Notes App expert, having worked on both the 2023 iPad Guide and the Notes App Guide. You can usually find her writing in the Daily Tip newsletter as one of our senior Tip writers. Rachel received her Master’s degree in English Literature in 2021 and her most recent work appears in the Winter ’21 edition of New Note Poetry. When she’s not obsessing about Apple products, you can find her voraciously reading fantasy books with her cat in Asheville, North Carolina.

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