How can I disable landscape mode for some of the views in my Android app?
30 Answers
Add android:screenOrientation="portrait"
to the activity in the AndroidManifest.xml. For example:
<activity android:name=".SomeActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" />
Since this has become a super-popular answer, I feel very guilty as forcing portrait is rarely the right solution to the problems it's frequently applied to.
The major caveats with forced portrait:
- This does not absolve you of having to think about activity
lifecycle events or properly saving/restoring state. There are plenty of
things besides app rotation that can trigger an activity
destruction/recreation, including unavoidable things like multitasking. There are no shortcuts; learn to use bundles and
retainInstance
fragments. - Keep in mind that unlike the fairly uniform iPhone experience, there are some devices where portrait is not the clearly popular orientation. When users are on devices with hardware keyboards or game pads a la the Nvidia Shield, on Chromebooks, on foldables, or on Samsung DeX, forcing portrait can make your app experience either limiting or a giant usability hassle. If your app doesn't have a strong UX argument that would lead to a negative experience for supporting other orientations, you should probably not force landscape. I'm talking about things like "this is a cash register app for one specific model of tablet always used in a fixed hardware dock."
So most apps should just let the phone sensors, software, and physical configuration make their own decision about how the user wants to interact with your app. A few cases you may still want to think about, though, if you're not happy with the default behavior of sensor
orientation in your use case:
- If your main concern is accidental orientation changes mid-activity that you think the device's sensors and software won't cope with well (for example, in a tilt-based game) consider supporting landscape and portrait, but using
nosensor
for the orientation. This forces landscape on most tablets and portrait on most phones, but I still wouldn't recommend this for most "normal" apps (some users just like to type in the landscape softkeyboard on their phones, and many tablet users read in portrait - and you should let them). - If you still need to force portrait for some reason,
sensorPortrait
may be better thanportrait
for Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and later; this allows for upside-down portrait, which is quite common in tablet usage.
Add android:screenOrientation="portrait"
in your manifest file where you declare your activity. Like this:
<activity
android:name=".yourActivity"
....
android:screenOrientation="portrait" />
If you want to do it using Java code, try:
setRequestedOrientation (ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
before you call setContentView
method for your activity in onCreate()
.
A lot of the answers here are suggesting to use "portrait"
in your AndroidManifest.xml file. This might seem like a good solution - but as noted in the documentation, you are singling out devices that may only have landscape. You are also forcing certain devices (that work best in landscape) to go into portrait, not getting the proper orientation.
My suggestion is to use "nosensor"
instead. This will leave the device to use its default preferred orientation, will not block any purchases/downloads on Google Play, and will ensure the sensor doesn't mess up your (NDK, in my case) game.
Just add this line in your Manifest:
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
Like:
<manifest
package="com.example.speedtest"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0" >
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name="ComparisionActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" >
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>
You can do this for your entire application without having to make all your activities extend a common base class.
The trick is first to make sure you include an Application subclass in your project. In its onCreate(), called when your app first starts up, you register an ActivityLifecycleCallbacks object (API level 14+) to receive notifications of activity lifecycle events.
This gives you the opportunity to execute your own code whenever any activity in your app is started (or stopped, or resumed, or whatever). At this point you can call setRequestedOrientation() on the newly created activity.
And do not forget to add app:name=".MyApp" in your manifest file.
class MyApp extends Application {
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
// register to be informed of activities starting up
registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks(new ActivityLifecycleCallbacks() {
@Override
public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// new activity created; force its orientation to portrait
activity.setRequestedOrientation(
ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}
....
});
}
}
If you want to disable Landscape mode for your Android app
(or a single activity) all you need to do is add:
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
to the activity tag in AndroidManifest.xml
file.
Like:
<activity
android:name="YourActivityName"
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="Your App Name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait">
Another way: A programmatic approach.
If you want to do this programmatically, i.e., using Java code. You can do so by adding the below code in the Java class of the activity that you don't want to be displayed in landscape mode.
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
If you don't want to go through the hassle of adding orientation in each manifest entry of activity better, create a BaseActivity class (inherits 'Activity' or 'AppCompatActivity') which will be inherited by every activity of your application instead of 'Activity' or 'AppCompatActivity' and just add the following piece of code in your BaseActivity:
@Override
protected void onCreate(@Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setRequestedOrientation (ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
// rest of your code......
}
How to change orientation in some of the view
Instead of locking orientation of the entire activity, you can use this class to dynamically lock orientation from any of your view pragmatically:
Make your view Landscape
OrientationUtils.lockOrientationLandscape(mActivity);
Make your view Portrait
OrientationUtils.lockOrientationPortrait(mActivity);
Unlock Orientation
OrientationUtils.unlockOrientation(mActivity);
Orientation Util Class
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.pm.ActivityInfo;
import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.os.Build;
import android.view.Surface;
import android.view.WindowManager;
/* * This class is used to lock orientation of android app in nay android devices
*/
public class OrientationUtils {
private OrientationUtils() {
}
/** Locks the device window in landscape mode. */
public static void lockOrientationLandscape(Activity activity) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_SENSOR_LANDSCAPE);
}
/** Locks the device window in portrait mode. */
public static void lockOrientationPortrait(Activity activity) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}
/** Locks the device window in actual screen mode. */
public static void lockOrientation(Activity activity) {
final int orientation = activity.getResources().getConfiguration().orientation;
final int rotation = ((WindowManager) activity.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE)).getDefaultDisplay()
.getRotation();
// Copied from Android docs, since we don't have these values in Froyo
// 2.2
int SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE = 8;
int SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT = 9;
// Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.FROYO
if (!(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.FROYO)) {
SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE;
SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT;
}
if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_0 || rotation == Surface.ROTATION_90) {
if (orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
} else if (orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
}
} else if (rotation == Surface.ROTATION_180 || rotation == Surface.ROTATION_270) {
if (orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT);
} else if (orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE);
}
}
}
/** Unlocks the device window in user defined screen mode. */
public static void unlockOrientation(Activity activity) {
activity.setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_USER);
}
}
You must set the orientation of each activity.
<activity
android:name="com.example.SplashScreen2"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.example.Registration"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.example.Verification"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.example.WelcomeAlmostDone"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.example.PasswordRegistration"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
</activity>
If you are using Xamarin C#, some of these solutions will not work. Here is the solution I found to work.
[Activity(MainLauncher = true, Icon = "@drawable/icon", ScreenOrientation = ScreenOrientation.Portrait)]
Above the class works well, similar to the other solutions. Also, it is not globally applicable and needs to be placed in each activity header.
You can force your particular activity to always remain in portrait mode by writing this in your manifest.xml file:
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"></activity>
You can also force your activity to remain in portrait mode by writing following line in your activity's onCreate() method:
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.your_layout);
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="in.co.nurture.bajajfinserv">
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"></uses-permission>
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
<activity android:name=".MainActivity" android:screenOrientation="portrait">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>
We can restrict the Activity in portrait or landscape mode by using the attribute or android:screenOrientation
.
If we have more than one activity in our program then we have the freedom to restrict any one of activity in any one the mode and it never affects the others which you don't want.
Add the below command to your project,
npm install
npm i react-native-orientation-locker
Then you use a manifest class like, React_Native (Your Project Folder)/ android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.payroll_react">
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW"/>
<application
android:name=".MainApplication"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:allowBackup="false"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="landscape"
android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"
android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name="com.facebook.react.devsupport.DevSettingsActivity" />
</application>
</manifest>
It worked for me. Try to add this code in the AndroidManifest file:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
....
....
</application>
Put it into your manifest.
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:screenOrientation="sensorPortrait" />
The orientation will be portrait, but if the user's phone is upside down, it shows the correct way as well. (So your screen will rotate 180 degrees.)
The system ignores this attribute if the activity is running in multi-window mode.
More: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element
In Kotlin, the same can be programmatically achieved using the below:
requestedOrientation = ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT
If your activity is related to the first device orientation state, get the current device orientation in the onCreate
method and then fix it forever:
int deviceRotation = ((WindowManager) getBaseContext().getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE)).getDefaultDisplay().getOrientation();
if(deviceRotation == Surface.ROTATION_0) {
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT);
}
else if(deviceRotation == Surface.ROTATION_180)
{
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_PORTRAIT);
}
else if(deviceRotation == Surface.ROTATION_90)
{
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);
}
else if(deviceRotation == Surface.ROTATION_270)
{
setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_REVERSE_LANDSCAPE);
}