iPhone 16 Pro screen not rotating? Fix

The screen on your iPhone 16 Pro can rotate so that you can see apps in portrait or landscape mode. Learn what to do if the feature doesn’t work.

When you tilt your iPhone 16 Pro on its side, the screen is supposed to follow and rotate to landscape mode. Your screen is supposed to rotate based on how you are holding the device, meaning when you move your device between portrait and landscape, the screen will reorient. Your iPhone uses an internal accelerometer to identify the angle at which it is being held by sensing movement and gravity.

However, sometimes, the iPhone 16 Pro screen doesn’t rotate the way it should.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your iPhone 16 Pro screen rotates properly.

What you should do if your iPhone 16 Pro screen won’t rotate

If your iPhone 16 Pro screen is not rotating according to how you hold the device, here are the troubleshooting steps to fix this issue.

1. 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. Here’s how to make sure it’s turned off:

Open the Control Center by swiping down from the top right of your screen.
Check the status of the Orientation Lock icon, which looks like a padlock with an arrow curving around it. If the icon is white and the padlock and arrow are red, it’s enabled, and that’s probably your problem.
Tap the Orientation Lock icon to turn it off. The icon should turn transparent and the padlock and arrow will turn white.
If it was already off, toggle the Orientation Lock on and then off again by tapping it twice.
Turn your iPhone sideways.

If the screen still doesn’t rotate, try a different app, like Safari or Messages, that is known to work in landscape mode.

2. Check the app that you’re using

Not all apps support rotation. If some apps on your iPhone 16 rotate as expected and others don’t rotate, the ones that don’t were built that way by their developers.

To check, swipe from the bottom of your screen to go to the Home screen.
If the screen still doesn’t rotate, Open an app, like Safari or Messages, that is known to work in landscape mode.
Turn your iPhone sideways.
if the phone rotate, then the app you were trying to use before isn’t designed to rotate.

3. Force quit the iOS app

Even after trying the above fixes, iPhone 16 Pro screen isn’t rotating? In this case, force quit the app and start afresh.

From the Home Screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause in the middle of the screen.
Swipe right or left to find the app that doesn’t rotate.
Swipe up on the app that does not rotate.
After a few seconds, open that app again and turn your iPhone sideways. The app screen should rotate too.

4. Restart your iPhone

Sometimes technology can be finicky and a simple restart gives your phone a chance to get things right. There’s no rhyme or reason to why this works, but it often does.

Launch the settings app on your iPhone.
Go into General.
Tap Shut Down.
Wait a minute for your iPhone to completely shut down.
Press the power button to turn your iPhone back on.

Turn your iPhone sideways. If the screen still doesn’t rotate, move on to the next solution.

5. Reset all Settings

If none of the above solutions worked, go ahead and reset all iPhone settings. Once it completes, your iPhone 16 Pro screen should rotate without issues. Here’s how:

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
Go into General.
Tap Transfer or Reset iPhone. It’s all the way at the bottom.
Tap Reset.
Tap Reset All Settings. Once the reset process is completes, it is almost certain that the iPhone 16 Pro screen not rotating would be a thing of the past!

6. Visit Apple Store

If the screen on your iPhone 16 still won’t rotate, you probably have a hardware problem. , it may be time to contact Apple Support to fix the problem. Your device may have a broken accelerometer or another issue that you’d need a professional to fix. Taking your iPhone to your local Apple store or authorized Apple repair store is the first step to getting the issue fixed.