Anyone who’s used the Xbox Series X|S controller over an extended period will know the perils of its Share button, but it need not annoy you any longer.
The Share button on the Xbox Wireless Controller has a habit of getting in the way at the most inopportune times. As one Redditor (opens in new tab) recently pointed out, its placement between the controller’s View and Menu button makes it all too easy to accidentally tap while you’re playing a game.
Get a little too enthusiastic with the thumbstick in Forza 5, and you may unintentionally screenshot the very moment your vehicle careens off the track. Become distracted in Halo Infinite, and you could inadvertently capture the instant an enemy player runs you down in a Warthog.
The Reddit post has generated a lot of discussion about the Share button’s unfortunate placement, but there’s an easy fix. Earlier this year, Microsoft rolled out an update for the Xbox Series X|S that lets you reassign the Share button to a range of custom actions – or, none at all.
If you find you’re filling up your Xbox’s media library with hundreds of accidental screenshots, try remapping the Share button to something more suitable.
this_share_button_has_caused_like_100_accidental from r/xbox
How to remap the Xbox Series X Share button
Remapping the Share button is dead easy. To start, head over to the Xbox Accessories app under your console’s “My games & apps” section. If you’re using the controller on PC, you can also download and open the app from the Microsoft app store (opens in new tab).
After loading the app, select the controller you want to configure. Pick a profile (control scheme), and select the pencil icon on the right-hand side to edit. From there, it’s a case of assigning the Share button to whichever action you want.
There are plenty of options to pick from. You can remap it to record a video clip of the past 30 seconds of gameplay, mute your TV, turn on Night Mode, send a message, and even launch a specific app or game. If you find yourself frequently tapping the button by accident, you might be best off setting it to No Action, rendering it a superfluous but safe plastic bump on the face of your controller.
There’s room for more customization, too. You can assign a double-tap of the button to a separate action, and change the functionality of holding the Share button. So, while you might remap a single press of the button to do nothing at all, you could assign a double-tap to take a screenshot, and a hold to record a video. You don’t have to give up your screenshotting days entirely.
Some Xbox fans have used the remapping function in surprisingly pretty creative ways, including one Redditor who found it a neat tool to rapidly switch between games. Even without those tricks, it’s a handy way of avoiding accidental screenshots. Give it a go.