Are you unable to change the rotation of your iPad’s screen? Trying to view your iPad horizontally but it’s stuck on the verticle view (or vice-versa)? Locked into portrait or landscape mode on your iPad?
When Orientation Lock is turned on, your screen won’t rotate. Learn our top tips on how to get your iPad out of an orientation lock in a few simple steps.
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Check Your iPad’s Side Switch For Orientation Lock
- You can use the side switch on iPad to either lock the screen rotation or mute some iPad sounds.
- Tap Settings > General
- Locate Use Side Switch To
- Change to Mute
- Please note that not all iPads have this feature
- If Mute is selected, the switch on the side of the iPad mutes system sounds
- If you choose Lock Rotation, then the switch locks the screen
Use Your Control Center To Change iPad Rotation
Look at your device’s Control Center and see if orientation lock is on. If it’s highlighted, it’s on.
Tap it once to disable it and your screen should change position depending on how it’s held.
For older model iPads with a side switch, you may not see this option in Control Center. Change your side switch setting to Mute to get the screen orientation option in Control Center.
Close Open Apps and Restart
Sometimes your iPad gets stuck in an app and that’s why your iPad won’t rotate. So let’s close your apps and then restart.
How To Close iPad Apps
- Double Press the Home Button or Swipe Up the Home Gesture Bar to open the app switcher
- Swipe up on an app preview towards the top of your screen to close it
- Repeat until all apps close
- After you close all apps, restart your iPad by powering off, waiting 20-30 seconds, and powering back on
How To Restart an iPad
- On an iPad with no Home Button and iPhones X or later: press and hold the Side/Top/Power button and either volume button until the slider appears
- On an iPad or iPhone with a Home Button and iPod Touch: press and hold the Side/Top/Power button until the slider appears
- Drag the slider to turn the device off and after the device turns off, press and hold that Side/Top/Power button again until you see the Apple Logo
- With iOS 11 and above, restart using Settings > General > Shut Down
Force a Restart
- On an iPad with no Home Button and iPhone 8 and later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and immediately release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Power button until the device restarts
- On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad with a Home Button, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
Try Another App
Sometimes, our screen is locked into a particular screen rotation due to the requirements of an app–particularly game apps! Some apps only support portrait or landscape mode.
So open another app and see if your screen now rotates as you want.
