As phone screens have gotten bigger and more clear, it became necessary for phone manufacturers to give users more options for looking at content.
One change that was implemented involved letting the screen rotate automatically based on how it was being held. This occurs thanks to something inside the phone that is called an accelerometer.
if you change the way that you are holding your phone, the screen will rotate between portrait and landscape orientation automatically.
Usually this is helpful, but it can be unwanted in some specific scenarios.
You can turn off the auto rotate feature on your Google Pixel 4A by swiping down on the Home screen, then tapping the Auto Rotate button.
Once the auto rotate feature is turned off the device will be locked into portrait orientation, and will stay in that orientation regardless of how you are holding the device.
Our guide below provides additional information enabling and disabling this setting on the Pixel 4A.
How to Disable the Google Pixel 4A Auto Rotate Option
- Swipe down on the Home screen.
- Tap the Auto Rotate button.
Our guide continues below with additional information on the Pixel 4A screen rotation, including pictures of these steps.
How to Stop Your Google Pixel 4A Screen from Rotating (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on a Google Pixel 4A using the Android 11 operating system.
Step 1: Swipe down in the middle of the Home screen.
Step 2: Tap the Auto Rotate button to turn it off.
The button that you need to tap is the one that is a rectangle made up of two arrows. The auto-rotation feature is enabled when the button is blue. I have it turned off in the picture below.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion on working with auto rotation on the Google smartphone.
More Information on How to Shut Off Auto Rotation on a Google Pixel 4A
Once you have disabled this option your screen will no longer rotate when you tilt it to the side or upside down. If this was the desired result, then great.
If this is something that you only want to do temporarily you can always turn auto rotate on for your Google Pixel 4A by swiping down on the screen to go back to that menu, then tap the Auto Rotate button again.
Some apps aren’t going to be affected when you turn off auto-rotate. Typically this will be games and other entertainment apps where the screen is in landscape format by default.
Another way that you can adjust the Google Pixel 4A auto rotation setting is through the Settings app.
If you swipe up on the Home screen to open the apps menu, you can select the Settings option at the bottom. You can then choose Accessibility. On the Accessibility menu, you can scroll down until you find the Auto-rotate screen option and turn it off. the feature is enabled when the button is blue, and is turned off when the button is gray.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing technology how-to articles and tutorials for over a decade. He has extensive experience in information technology both in small business and as a consultant.
His articles have appeared on dozens of websites and been read millions of times.
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