iPhone Does Not Rotate Screen Upside Down

Question

Level 1

82 points

iPhone Does Not Rotate Screen Upside Down

Hi,

I would like to use my iPhone (6 Plus, iOS 8.3) standing upside down (because of the power cable connector being at the lower end of the phone). However, the screen does not rotate upside down (screen rotation is enabled, zoom disabled, I have restarted the phone). Or to be more precise, iOS menu screens do not rotate upside down (some apps do, and the iOS menu screens do rotate to landscape if the phone is positioned that way).

Is this a bug on my particular phone? (or in general?)

Is this a "feature" of iOS? (maybe Apple wishes to train our skills reading text upside down / typing PIN upside down?)

Is there a setting that I am missing? (or anything else I could to get the screen to rotate upside down?)

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

iPhone 6 Plus, null

Posted on Jun 14, 2015 3:32 AM

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Answer 1

Bschm1dt

Level 1

9 points

Apr 20, 2017 9:24 AM in response to _daniel_

This is positively the WORST "feature" of any "smart" phone ever. I am very often wanting to see the screen while either charging it or listening to headphones and standing it up. Can't do that with this feature. At least let us decide if we want to disable it. OR put the connection on top. Those are the only reasonable solutions.

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Answer 2

Bschm1dt

Level 1

9 points

Jul 27, 2017 12:06 AM in response to Bschm1dt

And to the ridiculous apple defender that suggested to use a dock. Wow! Just... Wow. So now I need to carry a dock every where i go ? That comment is more ridiculous than this feature.

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Answer 3

Jun 25, 2015 6:47 AM in response to _daniel_

It's a "feature", not a bug. It is useful if you want to use the phone in landscape mode while lying on your side. You first turn the phone to landscape mode, then turn another 90º so the power connector is up. The phone will stay in landscape mode so you can watch it while lying down.

If you want it plugged in and standing up, use a dock.

<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MGRM2/iphone-lightning-dock>

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Answer 4

_daniel_ Author

Level 1

82 points

Jul 27, 2017 12:07 AM in response to FoxFifth

I have sent the issue and the suggestion for design improvement (creating an option to have iOS on iPhone rotate the same way as iOS on iPad) to Apple.

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Answer 5

_daniel_ Author

Level 1

82 points

Jun 25, 2015 5:12 AM in response to _daniel_

*nudge*

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Answer 6

_daniel_ Author

Level 1

82 points

Jul 5, 2015 9:11 AM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Thank you, Malcolm, appreciate the feedback!

I'll live with it, but it should be noted that it's a bad design decision to my mind. My iPad does rotate upside down (iOS should at least be rotating consistently). A better design would be to let the user set the rotation behaviour as an option – or rotate in all directions until one activates the rotation lock in whatever preferred rotation (in both cases we would not lose your user lying down use case, but fulfill my standing up while charging use case).

I use a dock, but only in office and at home, but I don't take it for travels and cafes and the like... just to much stuff to carry X)

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Answer 7

FoxFifth

Level 10

468,819 points

Jul 5, 2015 9:13 AM in response to _daniel_

You can make the suggestion to Apple: https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

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Answer 8

MJD007

Level 1

4 points

Jun 22, 2016 11:39 AM in response to _daniel_

Hi Daniel,

You probably already found the answer by now, but I hear the 8.0 - 8.3 updates disabled the upside down rotation feature. I'm in the same boat because I have a cool fan attachment that would allow me to plug a fan in the lightening connector and, if my hone rotated upside down, I'd be able to use it while the fan blue air in my face. But since the iPhone no longer functions upside down I can no longer use the fan.

Bummer.

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Answer 9

teerscat

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2017 8:28 AM in response to MJD007

Does anyone know the answer to this yet? I have been searching the Internet for an hour now and can't find a hack... ugg. Please no condescending remarks on how I should just use a dock.

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