“Portrait orientation lock” stuck on!

Whether I turn the “portrait orientation lock” on or off. The “Portrait orientation lock” remains on. Apps that are supposed to change when the phone is rotated, do not; such as Safari, files, notes, messages, etc.


So far, this is only happened once, I had to reboot the phone to fix the problem. (the cameras behavior, shows that the phone does know it has been turned.) the camera’s behavior is the same regardless of whether the lock is turned on or off generally. But any other app that was affected by that switch, did not properly rotate when the lock was turned off.


If this happens again, there are diagnostics that AppleCare can run, but I believe this is software related.


I’m mostly interested in knowing anyone that has had this problem, especially if it has been recurring.

iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 30, 2025 12:55 PM

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Posted on Sep 30, 2025 1:57 PM

I’ve met this maybe six times over the last decade or so, across a mix of iPhone and iPad, and a restart has always cleared it.


Happens less frequently in recent years, too.


If this is happening persistently, it’s probably a hardware problem with the iPhone or iPad.

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“Portrait orientation lock” stuck on!

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