When troubleshooting an Android screen that won’t rotate, start by examining the most common root causes. A hardware failure is unlikely, so first, try rebooting or updating your phone for an easy fix.

Here, we’ve compiled proven solutions for this issue, arranged from easiest to most difficult.

How to Fix It When Android Screen Won’t Rotate

This issue has been reported happening on any Android phone, so it’s usually nothing to worry about. Walk through these steps and you should be able to resolve the issue.

1. Turn on Auto rotate. You’ll find this setting in the Quick Settings menu. If you see Auto rotate highlighted in blue, then auto rotate is turned on. If you don’t see Auto rotate, but there’s a Portrait icon instead, auto rotate is disabled. Tap Portrait to turn on auto rotate.

   If you’ve turned on the Talkback app in Accessibility Settings, you should know that enabling auto rotate can cause issues. Rotating the screen will interrupt any spoken feedback that’s currently in process.

2. Don’t touch the screen. Remember, your Android screen is a touch screen. Holding your finger on the screen while rotating the phone will prevent auto-rotate from working. Performing any Android gestures has the same effect. To rotate, hold the phone by its edges only. If you’re sure you weren’t touching the screen, calibrate the touch screen to ensure it isn’t detecting taps when you’re not touching it.

3. Restart your Android phone. Restarting your phone purges system memory, which often resolves many strange behaviors. It will not only resolve minor issues, like your Android screen not rotating, but could also fix a slow phone or fix a frozen screen.

   This should only be a reboot, not a reset. You shouldn’t have to reset your Android phone to fix this issue with the screen not rotating.

4. Allow Home screen rotation. If a specific screen, like your Home screen, Lock screen, or Voice call screen won’t rotate while other apps do, this may not be an issue with the auto rotate feature at all. By default, auto rotate will not rotate these screens. You can enable this by going back to the auto rotate icon described in the first step and tap just below the icon to enter its settings. Turn on Home screen, Lock screen, or Voice call screen to enable that.

5. Update your Android. New OS updates often include fixes for bugs and other issues. If there are any new viruses or malware that affect auto rotate, the newest updates could include patches. If you’re experiencing other symptoms of an Android virus, you’ll need to work on removing the virus from your phone.

6. Double check rotate settings in the app you’re using. For example you can set videos to rotate in Google Photos. Those app settings could be conflicting with your phone attempting to auto rotate.

7. Calibrate your Android’s sensors. Move your phone in a figure-eight motion to reset the accelerometer and G-sensor to their default settings. This can help the phone better respond to screen rotation motions.

8. Uninstall recently installed apps. If you recently installed any apps before this behavior started, that app could be causing conflicts with your Android’s auto rotate feature.

9. Send the phone in for repair. The root cause could be faulty hardware and it might need professional repair.

Cause of Android Screen Not Rotating

Any of the below issues can prevent your screen to rotate properly when you turn your phone.

• Auto rotate option is turned off or not working.
• The screen you’re using isn’t set to auto-rotate.
• Recent apps are interfering with auto-rotate.
• You’re touching the screen when you rotate.
• Your Android needs to be updated.
• G-sensor or accelerometer is faulty.