How to Turn Off Auto Rotate on iPhone 13

While it can be useful when your iPhone rotates between landscape and portrait, it can also be frustrating.

This is especially true if it’s due more to the way that you are positioned rather than the way you are holding your device.

Our tutorial about how to turn off auto rotate on iPhone 13 can walk you through the process of changing the portrait orientation lock setting so that the device stays in portrait.

You can also check out this turn off auto rotate iPhone video for more on this topic.

How to Disable the Auto Rotate Setting on an iPhone 13

  1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen.
  2. Tap the Portrait Orientation Lock button.

Our guide continues below with more information on the iPhone 13 lock rotation feature, including pictures of these steps.

If you are having trouble reading things on your iPhone because the screen keeps switching between orientations, then you are probably trying to figure out how to turn off auto rotate on iPhone 13.

When you turn your iPhone screen, it usually turns, too. This occurs because there is something inside the iPhone called an accelerometer that can sense how you are holding the device.

Usually, this is a really helpful thing because you are trying to look at something in a different orientation, so the phone’s adjustment helps you out.

Occasionally, however, it can prevent you from looking at something on your screen in the manner that you want. Or, perhaps, you aren’t standing or sitting upright, so the phone isn’t correctly identifying the orientation that you need.

Fortunately, you can turn off the iPhone’s auto-rotate feature by opening the Control Center, then tapping the Portrait Orientation lock button near the top-left of the menu.

Once you have turned on this orientation lock your phone will stay in the portrait orientation, regardless of how you are holding the phone.

Our article below provides additional information on the iPhone orientation lock, as well as another way that you can use it by adjusting an accessibility setting on the device.

Video About Turning Off Auto Rotate on an iPhone

How to Shut Off Screen Rotation – iPhone 13 (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in the iOS 15.3.1 operating system.

Once you complete the steps in this guide and you know how to turn off auto rotate on iPhone 13, be sure to remember where to find that setting, as you will probably need to enable the auto rotation feature again at some point in the future.

Step 1: Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open the Control Center.

swipe down from the top right of the screen

Step 2: Touch the button that looks like a lock with a circular arrow around it.

This is the Portrait Orientation Lock button. When the button is white it means that the lock is on and you won’t be able to rotate the screen to landscape.

how to turn off auto rotate on an iPhone 13

If you haven’t used the Control Center very much before then it’s a good idea to get familiar with it. There are a lot of useful controls on this menu that are easier to access this way, such as adjusting the display, adjusting the volume, or toggling off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and much more.

You can also go to Settings > Control Center and elect to remove some options from the Control Center or add some other options that might be more useful to you.

Tired of typing your passwords? Find out about a tool on the iPhone 13 that can save your passwords for you.

Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about the iPhone 13’s portrait orientation lock.

More Information on How to Landscape iPhone 13

If you have the AssistiveTouch circle on your screen because you have enabled that feature, then you can include an orientation lock option to that control as well.

Simply go to the Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch screen then select either the Single-Tap, Double-Tap, or Long Press option under Custom Actions, then choose the Lock Rotation option there.

Alternatively, you could open the Customize Top Level Menu screen and choose an action there, then set Lock Rotation to that action.

You can then use that gesture on the AssistiveTouch button to apply the orientation lock.

Once you put on the portrait orientation lock your iPhone is going to stay in portrait mode regardless of how you are holding it.

Certain apps that only display in landscape mode will not be affected by this lock. For example, there are a number of games that only open in landscape mode, and those will continue to behave that way.

If you need to get your phone into landscape mode then you are going to need to go back to the Control Center and tap the same button to turn it off.

You will know that portrait orientation lock is turned off on your iPhone 13 when the button is gray. There is also a message that flashes across the top of the screen after you tap the button to let you know the status of the orientation lock.

With newer Apple device models like the iPhone 13, there isn’t any kind of status indication on the Home screen to let you know that the portrait orientation lock is enabled. However, on older iPhone models that had a Home button, you would often see a lock icon at the top of the screen when the lock is activated. This goes for other Apple devices, too, like the iPad and the iPod touch where you can also lock the screen orientation.

If you are swiping down from the top-right corner of the screen and nothing is happening, then you may have an iOS device model where the Control center is opened differently. In that case you will need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen instead.

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