Automatically Toggle iPhone Orientation Lock for Specific Apps

[TexasAggie013]

I’ve set up two versions of this. One to unlock when opening video/photo apps and one to lock when those apps close. Bit if a pain to keep those lists in sync but this way the toggle doesn’t get off its expected behavior if I unlock randomly for another purpose and forget to lock back.

If only there was a way to get current orientation lock status. Then an if statement could condense these two automations.

 

[Boeingfan]

Very helpful, thank you.

 

[phenste]

Nice and handy tips! That was very helpful. Thank you!

Anyone miss the Landscape Mode on iPhone?

View attachment 2209169

I still don’t get why they got rid of this—I suppose widgets have something to do with it, but given iPhone screens have gotten nothing but bigger (with the sadly-forgotten-by-Apple exception of the mini), it only makes sense to bring it back.

I remember before I’d gotten into Plus- (in my case, Max-) sized phones, I found myself jealous of those who had this option…then it disappeared almost as quickly as I opted for more screen real estate.

 

[falkon-engine]

This is the place we need AI to program the shotcuts

If only Siri were actually smart. Or apple gave users the ability to do things like this very easily. And by locking down the springboard UI, normal non-jailbroken users have to resort to these complicated unintuitive steps just to get a quality of life improvement.

 

[MrRom92]

Almost every video app has a simple button just to rotate the video window, even if the orientation lock is on… EXCEPT the native iOS video player. It’s really such a joke. It makes watching web videos in safari really, really unpleasant. I had a jailbreak tweak to resolve this well over a decade ago, out of all the simple updates apple could implement they can’t manage to figure out a stupid little rotate button?

 

[citysnaps]

Thanks for the tip - appreciate it!

 

[dk001]

Thanks for the tip however it does highlight one of the failures with iOS/iPadOS.
Solutions aren’t simple as a design standard. Instead so many are grandiose, buried, or use features just to use them (like Shortcuts because Apple doesn’t provide a solution).

 

[vegetassj4]

Just use Apple's crack A.I. assistant.

Hey Siri, Lock Screen:



Hey Siri, Lock Orientation:

 

[ChrisA]

Shortcuts is such a mess. It's ridiculous having to do all the above in order to achieve such a simple thing.

This is a fundamental problem with all "point and click" user interfaces. It applies to iOS, macOS, MS Windows and Android. Users like "point and click" because it is easy to use, BUT the flaw is that if the developer did not provide an option or button to click, you can't do the function. Developers have to balance the number of buttons and menus against the ease of use. Could you imagine having 2,000 options in five layers of menus?

The old command line interface in the terminal did not have this problem because a user can always type whatever he wants and can combine apps in a nearly unlimited number of ways. If only they would study and learn the command language. Few people are willing to do that.

So what can be done? The Shortcut app tries to provide the options we have with command line interfaces in a point and click way. You can build up complex actions by choosing a series of actions and conditions from menus.

But this solution has its issues as well. Those used to a simpler "point and click" are not used to creating sequences and conditions and think it is hard and complex. Those used to typing at the terminal see it a "Dumbed Down" and clunky.

Apple tries to balance this between being easy to use and being powerful. I think they got it about right. You can learn to use Shortcuts in about an hour or so.

I just used Shortcuts for controlling the bedroom lights in the Home app. I have a motion sensor and a light level sensor, and I want the light to go to a "low" setting when a person walks in the room but ONLY if the level of natural light coming through the windows is very low. I don't need the lights on in the daytime. Then in addition, if the wall switch is operated, this take precedence over the motion sensor. It is a simple automation and the kind of thing Shortcuts can handle.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

It amazes me that this hasn't been a toggle within Settings since the original iPhone dropped.

Also incredible of Apple to think Shortcuts is a great idea but then never add Siri functionality to Shortcuts.

There are myriads of very basic Shortcuts that are too hard or cumbersome for the average user to set up but would be very easy to have Siri do for the user.

But no.

 

[dannyyankou]

Nice and handy tips! That was very helpful. Thank you!

Anyone miss the Landscape Mode on iPhone?

View attachment 2209169

I miss the iPhone 6 Plus landscape keyboard. It was weird at first, but I got used to it. And I liked the cut copy and paste controls

 

[Rafagon]

I wonder if I can set one up for Low Power Mode for certain apps. I watch Netflix in Low Power Mode 99% of the time — regardless of what my battery level is at. Netflix doesn't need to be on non-Low Power Mode, and uses less battery when Low Power Mode is switched on.

 

[krspkbl]

8 step guide to use shortcuts.... lol

Needs to be a better way to do things than deal with shortcuts

 

[senttoschool]

Almost every video app has a simple button just to rotate the video window, even if the orientation lock is on… EXCEPT the native iOS video player. It’s really such a joke. It makes watching web videos in safari really, really unpleasant. I had a jailbreak tweak to resolve this well over a decade ago, out of all the simple updates apple could implement they can’t manage to figure out a stupid little rotate button?

That's right. There's no use for landscape mode except to watch videos. Add the damn rotate video button on the default iOS media player. How could Apple's world-renowned user experience team not figure this out?

 

[IMPOSSIBLEMAN]

I hate and rarely use these Shortcuts tricks.

How about Apple gets the idea and gives us a real shortcut as a Settings option ?!

 

[JosephAW]

Really? Should be a simpler way like long press for more settings.

Wish they had more than two setting for zoom, would be better with a slider in order to mimick a pro max screen on a regular pro screen.

 

[Lioness~]

Just use Apple's crack A.I. assistant.

Hey Siri, Lock Screen:

View attachment 2209248

Hey Siri, Lock Orientation:

View attachment 2209248

You beat me to it 👍🏼
I was just thinking that the very UN-smart assistant should be able to fix that.
As a joke of course, would never expect that.
When Apple get an assistant that actually can do such stuff, I will consider it.
Today it is just %#&% - not saying anything further about it.

 

[Havoc035]

The problem is the default iOS media player. It doesn't have a rotate button. This means if you always have the lock on, you must toggle it off while watching a video on the default player.

YouTube has this button. Most popular video apps have this button.

Apple refuses to add a rotate button in the default iOS video player.

If I could ask Apple only for one feature this would be it. Make it easier to switch video to landscape (or perhaps even do it by default) when you have screen rotate lock enabled.

 

[Aston441]

Nice and handy tips! That was very helpful. Thank you!

Anyone miss the Landscape Mode on iPhone?

View attachment 2209169

I've had that happen to my phone a few times depending on which weird apps I just exited. Wish I could make it stay that way sometimes.

 

[Avenged110]

I leave orientation lock on all the time, except in Safari, (just for YouTube videos) since, as others mentioned, the native video controls irritatingly lack a rotation button. iOS shortcuts are a mess, though, in terms of reliability. The automation I have to disable/enable the lock when Safari is opened/closed is only about 80% effective. There are many times, like most other automations, where it just inexplicably doesn't run.

 

[allonym]

Something I’ve wanted for ages. Thanks!

 

[coolfactor]

The problem is the default iOS media player. It doesn't have a rotate button. This means if you always have the lock on, you must toggle it off while watching a video on the default player.

YouTube has this button. Most popular video apps have this button.

Apple refuses to add a rotate button in the default iOS video player.

I leave the rotation lock on.

I haven't seen a "Rotate" button in YouTube, but YouTube does go to Landscape mode automatically when entering full-screen mode. Is that what you meant? What do you mean by a "Rotate" button?

Netflix also behaves well, automatically going into Landscape mode when media starts playing.

Very few apps have given me grief, but I do think Apple TV+ is one of them? I rarely use it.

 

[match14]

Nice and handy tips! That was very helpful. Thank you!

Anyone miss the Landscape Mode on iPhone?

View attachment 2209169

Yes, they should bring it back.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Nice and handy tips! That was very helpful. Thank you!

Anyone miss the Landscape Mode on iPhone?

View attachment 2209169

Gosh no. I was so happy when this pointless thing was dropped. So, so irritating for me. Pointlessly putting all the apps in a completely different place. Massively annoying.

On the iPad it’s even more annoying. There it’s necessary- yet with the last major iOS update (or the one before I forget) they made it so that landscape and portrait moved the icons and altered even the amount of rows shown. Before it just turned it around keeping everything the same. I don’t know how anyone thinks this works. What about knowing where your stuff is? Muscle memory? Don’t people work like that? Randomly wondering isn’t for me.

Ridiculous.

 

[Paddle1]

Am I missing something? I have an app on my iPad that is only useful to me in Portrait mode. I tried using this solution, and it did lock the rotation, but it didn't rotate the app first (iPad usually used in landscape mode). Is there an automation action to set portrait mode?

I'm not sure, the iPhone version is called "Portrait Orientation Lock" while the iPad just has "Rotation Lock". The latter doesn't switch anything when activated.