My iPhone Can Rotate To Landscape Mode So Why Can’t The Device Orientation Lock Keep It There?
The Problem
There are a few apps that work better on my iPhone 6s in landscape mode, so I typically use them that way, and sometimes I want to use them while lying down. As most people know, when you hold your iPhone while lying down, it’s very easy to accidentally move your phone slightly so it rotates back and forth between portrait and landscape mode when not desired. Unfortunately, when you swipe up and select the orientation lock button, the iPhone switches back to portrait mode. Apple’s official answer: it’s working as designed.
The Solution
If an app is designed to work in landscape mode, and you rotate it to landscape mode, you should be able to choose the device orientation lock option to keep it in landscape mode, at least while within that app. Other apps that don’t support landscape mode can do what they want. It’s not that hard or unreasonable. Often Apple does a great job with design, but not in this case. The design needs to change.
Update [September 25, 2016]
On September 23, 2016, the web site 9TO5Mac.com published the article Feature Request: iPhone 7 stereo speakers amplify the need for Music app landscape support that details even the choice to not support landscape mode, regardless of whether or not the device orientation is locked, in one of Apple’s most important stock apps, Music. Apparently not enough people at Apple have used the Music app on an iPhone 7 yet.
Also, Apple appears to have chosen to rename the Device Orientation Lock as Portrait Orientation Lock. I guess that’s one way to choose to not fix a bug but instead to rename it as a feature.
What Were They Thinking? 