- Rotating your iPhone screen to a landscape view can come in handy when watching videos.
- Usually, rotating the screen just involves turning the device sideways, unless its orientation is locked.
- You can lock or unlock the screen orientation in your iPhone’s Control Center.
While most of the time, it makes sense to keep your iPhone’s screen in portrait orientation, there are occasions in which landscape orientation is necessary.
Whether you’re catching up on Netflix, viewing hi-res images, or playing a game, it’s not always ideal to use portrait orientation.
Thankfully, rotating your iPhone screen is a quick process that should only take a few seconds. Here’s how to rotate your iPhone screen and what to do if it doesn’t rotate.
How to rotate the screen on your iPhone
Follow these steps to rotate your phone screen from a vertical, portrait mode to a horizontal, landscape mode:
- Unlock your iPhone using your passcode, Touch ID®, or Face ID®.
- Open an app that supports the landscape view, such as YouTube or Netflix. Instead of holding your phone in the normal portrait orientation, rotate it on its side so you’re holding it horizontally.
- If the rotation lock is off, the content on your screen should rotate into landscape mode.
If your iPhone screen does not rotate, it might be because you have an orientation lock.
How to unlock your iPhone screen to rotate your view
Make sure that you have screen rotation enabled. If you turn on Portrait Orientation Lock, this will lock the screen rotation and your screen will not rotate. The screen will stay in portrait mode, always, until you disable this.
To disable Portrait Orientation Lock on an iPhone with Face ID, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center. You should see a number of buttons here. Tap the one that looks like a lock surrounded by an arrow to turn the Portrait Orientation Lock off. Your screen should now rotate freely.
If you have an iPhone with a Home button, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center. Tap the button with the lock inside the arrow circle to turn Portrait Orientation Lock off.
What if my iPhone screen still won’t rotate?
Still having trouble getting your iPhone screen out of the vertical view? Many apps like Netflix® and YouTube allow you to rotate your phone’s screen. But some apps, like TikTok®, may not. If you’re still having screen rotation issues, here are a few possible fixes:
1-Restart your iPhone. You can power off your device by going to Settings > General> Shut Down. And then turn it on. It is highly likely that after restarting, rotation will start working again.
2-Check for iOS software updates and update your iPhone, if there is an update.
3-Try another app to see if screen rotation works. You may try Safari, Calculator, Mail, Calendar, etc. Is your screen rotating properly? If it is, that means that your iPhone’s screen rotation is working. This means that the app you were using does not support only one orientation, the landscape mode or the portrait mode, and does not support rotation. Or it may also mean that the app you were having orientation problem with is having a temporary issue. Try force closing the app and then reopen it. This will probably resolve the problem. Here is how you can do that:
- iPhone X and later models: go to Home Screen and swipe up and this will reveal the recently used app. Simply swipe up on the app’s icon. And reopen the app.
- iPhone 8 or earlier models: double press the Home button and then swipe up on the app’s preview icon. And then reopen the app.
4-Force restart your iPhone. This is also called hard reset. But do not worry, your content or settings will not be deleted. Different iPhone models require different steps. Here is how:
- iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X and later: Press and quickly release the volume up button and press and quickly release the volume down button and then press and hold the side (on/off) button until you see the Apple logo and then release the button.
- iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the volume down and side (on/off) buttons together until you see the Apple logo.
- Other iPhone models (iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s etc): Press and hold the side (on/off) and the home buttons together until the Apple logo appears.
If you are still having this issue, it is possible that you are having a hardware failure. You may want to contact Apple support for help.