Force portrait orientation mode

Question

I m trying to force the  portrait  mode for my application because my application is absolutely not designed for the  landscape  mode   After reading some forums  I added these lines in my manifest file    lt application    android debuggable  true    android icon   drawable icon     android label   string app name    android screenOrientation  portrait  gt    But it doesn t work on my device  HTC Desire   It switches from  portrait  lo  landscape   ignoring the lines from the manifest file   After more forums reading  I tried to add this in my manifest file    lt application    android debuggable  true    android icon   drawable icon     android label   string app name    android configChanges  orientation           android screenOrientation  portrait  gt    and this function in my activity class   public void onConfigurationChanged Configuration newConfig        super onConfigurationChanged newConfig       setRequestedOrientation ActivityInfo SCREEN ORIENTATION PORTRAIT       But again  no luck

User · Answer

I think you want to add android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden  to your activity  Otherwise the activity is restarted on config-change  The onConfigurationChanged would not be called then  only the onCreate

User · Answer

Short answer  Don t do it   Redesign your app so that it can run in both portrait and landscape mode  There is no such thing as a UI that can t be designed to work in both portrait and landscape  only lazy or unimaginative developers   The reason why is rather simple  You want your app to be usable by as wide an audience as possible on as many different devices as possible  By forcing a particular screen orientation  you prevent your app from running  usably  on devices that don t support that orientation and you frustrate and alienate potential customers who prefer a different orientation   Example  You design your app to force portrait mode  A customer downloads the app on a 2-in-1 device which they use predominantly in landscape mode   Consequence 1  Your app is unusable  or your customer is forced to undock their device  rotate it  and use it in an orientation that is not familiar or comfortable for them  Consequence 2  The customer gets frustrated by your app s non-intuitive design and finds an alternative or ditches the app entirely   I m fighting with this with an app right now and as a consumer and a developer  I hate it  As useful as the app is  as fantastic as the features are that it offers  I absolutely hate the app because it forces me to use an orientation that is counter to every other way that I use my device   You don t want your customers to hate your app     I know this doesn t directly answer the question  so I want to explain it in a little more detail for those who are curious   There is a tendency for developers to be really good at writing code and really terrible at design  This question  though it sounds like a code question and the asker certainly feels like it s a code question  is really a design question    The question really is  Should I lock the screen orientation in my app   The asker chose to design the UI to function and look good only in portrait mode  I suspect it was to save development time or because the app s workflow is particularly conducive to a portrait layout  common for mobile games   But those reasons neglect all the real important factors that motivate proper design    Customer engagement - you want your customers to feel pulled into your app  not pushed out of it  The app should transition smoothly from whatever your customer was doing prior to opening your app   This is the reason most platforms have consistent design principles  so most apps look more or less alike though they don t have to   Customer response - you want your customers to react positively to your app  They should enjoy using it  Even if it s a payroll app for work  it should be a pleasure for them to open it and clock in  The app should save your customers time and reduce frustration over alternatives   Apps that annoy users build resentment against your app which grows into resentment against your brand   Customer conversion - you want your customers to be able to quickly and easily move from browsing to interacting  This is the ultimate goal of any app  to convert impressions into revenue   Apps that don t generate revenue are a waste of your time to build  from a business perspective     A poorly designed UI reduces customer engagement and response which ultimately results in lower revenue  In a mobile-centric world  and particularly on the subject of portrait landscape display modes   this explains why responsive web design is such a big deal  Walmart Canada introduced responsive design on their website in November 2013 and saw a 20  increase in customer conversion  O Neill Clothing implemented responsive web design and revenue from customers using iOS devices increased 101 25   and 591 42  from customers using Android devices   There is also a tendency for developers to focus intently on implementing a particular solution  such as locking display orientation   and most of the developers on this site will be all too glad to help implement that solution  without questioning whether that is even the best solution to the problem    Locking your screen orientation is the UI design equivalent of implementing a do-while loop  Are you really sure you want to do it that way  or is there a better alternative   Don t force your app into a single display mode  Invest the extra time and effort to make it responsive

User · Answer

Something to complement  I have updated an app recently  the previous was working in both landscape and portrait mode  and I want the updated version should work in portrait mode  so I added   android screenOrientation  portrait    to the corresponding activity  and it just crashed when I tested the update  Then I added  android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden    too  and it works

User · Answer

I had this line in my AndroidManifest xml   lt activity      android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden keyboard screenSize locale      android label   string app name  android name  Project Name      android theme   android style Theme Black NoTitleBar  gt    Which I changed to  just added android screenOrientation  portrait     lt activity      android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden keyboard screenSize locale      android label   string app name  android name  Project Name      android screenOrientation  portrait      android theme   android style Theme Black NoTitleBar  gt    This fixed things for me

User · Answer

Set force Portrait or Landscape mode  Add lines respectively   Import below line   import android content pm ActivityInfo    Add Below line just above setContentView R layout activity main    For Portrait      setRequestedOrientation ActivityInfo SCREEN ORIENTATION PORTRAIT    Set Portrait   For Landscap   setRequestedOrientation ActivityInfo SCREEN ORIENTATION LANDSCAPE    Set Landscape   This will definitely work

User · Answer

If  you are having a lot activity like mine  in your application  Or if you dont want to enter the code for each activity tag in manifest you can do this       in your Application Base class you will get a lifecycle callback   so basically what happens in for each activity when creating the on create in Application Class get triggered  here is the code     public class MyApplication extends Application    Override     public void onCreate             super onCreate         registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks new ActivityLifecycleCallbacks                  Override             public void onActivityCreated Activity activity  Bundle bundle                    activity setRequestedOrientation                          ActivityInfo SCREEN ORIENTATION PORTRAIT        for each activity this function is called and so it is set to portrait mode                               Override             public void onActivityStarted Activity activity                                 Override             public void onActivityResumed Activity activity                                 Override             public void onActivityPaused Activity activity                                 Override             public void onActivityStopped Activity activity                                 Override             public void onActivitySaveInstanceState Activity activity  Bundle bundle                                 Override             public void onActivityDestroyed Activity activity                                   i hope this helps

User · Answer

If you wish to support different orientations in debug and release builds  write so  see https   developer android com studio build gradle-tips share-properties-with-the-manifest    In build gradle of your app folder write   android               buildTypes           debug               applicationIdSuffix   debug              minifyEnabled false             proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile  proguard-android txt     proguard-rules pro                 Creates a placeholder property to use in the manifest              manifestPlaceholders    orientation   fullSensor                     release               debuggable true             minifyEnabled false             proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile  proguard-android txt     proguard-rules pro                 Creates a placeholder property to use in the manifest              manifestPlaceholders    orientation   portrait                       Then in AndroidManifest you can use this variable  orientation  in any Activity    lt activity     android name   LoginActivity      android screenOrientation    orientation     gt    You can add android configChanges   manifestPlaceholders    configChanges      orientation   fullSensor   in debug and manifestPlaceholders    configChanges   keyboardHidden orientation screenSize   orientation   portrait   in release    lt activity     android name   LoginActivity      android configChanges    configChanges       android screenOrientation    orientation     gt

User · Answer

I think android screenOrientation  portrait  can be used for individual activities  So use that attribute in  lt activity gt  tag like     lt activity android name    lt Activity Name gt       android label   string app name       android screenOrientation  portrait  gt                   lt  activity gt

User · Answer

Note that  android screenOrientation  portrait       android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden    is added in the manifest file - where the activity is defined

User · Answer

According to Android s documentation  you should also often include screenSize as a possible configuration change   android configChanges  orientation screenSize       If your application targets API level 13 or higher  as declared by the   minSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion attributes   then you should also   declare the  screenSize  configuration  because it also changes when a   device switches between portrait and landscape orientations    Also  if you all include value keyboardHidden in your examples  shouldn t you then also consider locale  mcc  fontScale  keyboard and others

User · Answer

Don t apply the orientation to the application element  instead you should apply the attribute to the activity element  and you must also set configChanges as noted below   Example    lt activity    android screenOrientation  portrait     android configChanges  orientation keyboardHidden  gt   lt  activity gt    This is applied in the manifest file AndroidManifest xml

[android] Force "portrait" orientation mode

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