How to disable the lowercase keyboard on iPhone and iPad

By Serenity Caldwell
last updated

By default, the iPhone and iPad keyboard switches between uppercase and lowercase letters when you tap the shift key. This is meant to help you differentiate when you are typing in caps or not, but some people prefer only seeing uppercase letters. If that sounds like you, you can easily disable the keyboard from switching cases.

How to disable lowercase keys on your iPhone and iPad

  1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Accessibility.

  1. Tap Keyboard.
  2. Tap the On/Off switch beside Show Lowercase Keys.

Tap Keyboard, tap the switch next to Lowercase Keys

How to disable character previews on iPhone

When you touch a key on the iPhone keyboard, you will notice that a magnified version pops up above it. This is known as a character preview, and on iPhone you can disable them. Unfortunately, on iPad you don't have this option.

  1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Keyboard.
  4. Tap the On/Off switchbeside Character Preview.

Tap General, tap Keyboard, tap the switch next to Character Preview
Serenity Caldwell
Serenity Caldwell

Serenity was formerly the Managing Editor at iMore, and now works for Apple. She's been talking, writing about, and tinkering with Apple products since she was old enough to double-click. In her spare time, she sketches, sings, and in her secret superhero life, plays roller derby. Follow her on Twitter @settern.

13 Comments
  • Why on earth would anyone want to turn off the lower case keycaps??? Probably the same idiots that want Apple to make a 3.5 inch screen phone again.
  • LOL! I agree. I like that feature.
  • I like the lowercase keyboard but want another 4" device Sent from the iMore App
  • iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 7 mini in 2016
  • Actually, I turned it off. I just like having capital letters, probably because my eyesight is pretty bad, so they're easier to read. As for knowing when caps lock is on, I've never had any trouble looking at the Shift key for that. What I'd like to see is the ability to change the color of the keyboard, like Swiftkey lets you do. A black keyboard with white letters would be nice.
  • Thanks for the tips! Character previews were on by default for me. Which is good.
  • Same for me, I'm wondering if it is because it was not a fresh install of ios9. Maybe the previous settings serenaded on my 6.
  • Yes character preview are the default setting for me too Sent from the iMore App
  • Hmm .. really can't imagine doing that (maybe only for the reason ALCingularUser gives). For me this probably is one of the highlights of the iOS9 update. My fandroid friends always rubbed me in the face with that feature.
  • This and the note app update was literally the only reason I downloaded iOS 9. Mainly the keyboard, though. Coming from android where swiftkey was my keyboard, the previous keyboard was horrible to me because of the lack of this feature. Now I miss swiftkey a lot less.
  • I didn't even notice this was a new feature as I was jailbroken on iOS 8 and had this tweak installed and used to it. Awesome sauce lol Sent from the iMore App
  • Character preview needs to come back to the iPad. I could type a lot more accurately getting some feedback on what button I'm pressing.
  • I like this feature and I used to write in lower case. Anyways thank you for the share. [Vivio AdBlocker](http://vivioapp.com/)