With a tablet that’s as big as the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, you might find yourself wanting to rotate the screen from time to time. However, there will be times when the auto-rotate functionality just “gets in the way”, rotating apps when you don’t want them to. This can happen because of the gyroscope sensor built into the Galaxy Tab S8 line of tablets, which has a tendency of occasionally being too sensitive. Today, we’re taking a look at how you can enable or disable the auto-rotate functionality on your Galaxy Tab S8.
Galaxy Tab S8: Enable/Disable Auto Rotate Screen
By default, auto-rotate is turned on, meaning that whenever you move your Galaxy Tab S8 between landscape and portrait modes, the screen will automatically adjust. Thankfully, there are two different ways that you can go about turning this feature off, and the first doesn’t require you to go into the Settings app.
- Unlock your Galaxy Tab S8.
- Swipe down on the Home Screen to reveal the Notification Shade.
- Swipe down again to reveal the full Quick Settings panel.
- Tap the icon labeled Portrait.
- Swipe up from the bottom to dismiss the Quick Settings panel.
It’s extremely convenient to be able to just swipe down on the home screen (twice) and access the Quick Settings toggle for auto-rotate. By doing so, you can quickly and easily turn the feature on or off, which can come in handy if you’re switching between different apps or the webpage you are viewing is better when in landscape mode as opposed to portrait.
Galaxy Tab S8: Enable/Disable Auto Rotate Home Screen
This next option applies to all of three of the tablets in the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup, as Samsung makes it possible for your home screen to automatically rotate. If you’re coming from a non-Galaxy phone, it can be a bit jarring to see your home screen in landscape mode. Plus, there’s the possibility that any of your home screen widgets could be affected and won’t look nearly as good. Here’s how you can enable or disable the ability to have your home screen automatically rotate.
- Open the Settings app on your Galaxy Tab S8.
- Scroll down and tap Home screen.
- Scroll down until you reach Rotate to landscape mode.
- Tap the toggle to turn the feature on or off.
With this feature enabled, you can turn your tablet into landscape mode and your home screen will follow suit. This may be better suited for those who are using their tablet on a desk, watching a video, and want to be able to go to the home screen and not have to change the orientation when navigating the UI.
Conclusion
Auto-rotate is one of those features that we often take for granted, and Samsung takes things a step further with the ability to have your home screen rotate instead of just apps. It’s something that not even the iPhone 14 Pro Max is capable of with its massive 6.7-inch display, which feels like a feature that Apple is purposely leaving off the tablet with its various smartphones. Let us know if you have any questions when it comes to enabling or disabling auto-rotate on your Galaxy Tab S8!
Joe D says
I have a Galaxy a7 that will rotate for any screen except when I am on the internet. It appears that the default layout for internet is portrait. How do I turn this off/disable. Frustrated!
Beth says
Suddenly my Galaxy tab a no longer rotates the screen. The icon to turn this on and off has disappeared as well. How do I fix this? I really need to have my screen rotate,
KarlLauritzen says
my Galaxy s6 lite pad will not rotate back to landscape only with Facebook….?hrlp
Ryan Cornmesser says
My only issue the compass/ GPS arrow thinks I’m facing the wrong way now.
Mike Chewkanes says
I have a TAB6 and I use AOL Mail. The AOL mail app will not rotate. I have the setting on auto rotate. all other apps and screens auto rotate-just not the AOL mail screen.
Raymond says
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. When I play pubg mobile and turn the tablet on its side the gyroscope doesn’t change too match me playing in landscape mode. So everything on the gyroscope is basically backwards as if it was in portrait mode. It is so frustrating. So while I have the tablet on its side, when I tilt the tablet forward and backwards my player looks left and right. When turn the tablet left and right my player looks up and down. Is there any way to change the gyroscope to where it’ll read that I have the tablet on its side so the gyroscope will work correctly? Please help.. the only reason I bought this tablet was to play pubg with gyroscope?? Does it have to do with being able to change device orientation??
Quittan says
While playing Pyramid some of the ads appear in landscape, after closing the ad the game reappears in landscape, the auto rotate is off so I have to either exit the game or turn auto rotate on to get back to portrait. Is this a Tab A7 issue or is the app overriding my settings
Janice Springsteen says
My new galaxy tablet A7 won’t stop screen rotation and there is no setting listed for that function. It constantly rotates. Please help.
Andrew Bloomquist says
On my Samsung Galaxy Tablet A, i selected option so that tablet screen rotates automatically. However, it DOES NOT rotate for a number of Apps. Is there anything I can do to resolve this issue or this a defect with the tablet?
Sue says
Please what is the solution to setting the screen to rotate on the Samsung Galaxy Tab a. I am extremely frustrated. Thank you
Laura J says
Thanks Jason Thomas — your suggestion worked!
Thomas Brown says
My Galaxy Tab 4a the screen is locked and it doesn’t recognize the face recognition and it doesn’t allow you to enter the pin so you can not unlock the screen. The power button doesn’t allow you to turn it off either. How do I unlock the screen?
Jacqueline Kendall says
No I use a program called guitar tap pro. When playing a song the screen advances upwards to show the next verses it did a great job up until about a month ago. Now the screen just jerks ahead at a very slow rate.
How can I fix this. This tablet was returned to the factorywithin days of purchasing it for other issues. Is this the tabletsfault. The reason I purchased the tablet was to run thiis program
Sheila Mueller says
Can not find out to rotate screen on my TabA. Where do I find it?
Maida says
I have the same problem as Arun with my TAB A. When I first got it the screen did autorotate; now it won’t.
There is n option to turn on/off in settings.
Mr BW WEBSTER says
No the problem has not gone away the title page is vertical the pages go horizontal when I turn the tablet horizontal the screen goes black.
I have turned the tablet off restarted turned the notification on and off
JB Adams says
I am using the app “Ultimate Rotation Control” on a Samsung Galaxy J3 phone. The app has many different choices for screen rotation. I sometimes need to turn my phone upside down. When I do that the screen rotates 180 degrees for about 1/2 sec. and then the screen goes completely blank. Even though the screen does rotate 180 degrees, their is a setting either in the phone or in Android 6.0.1 that won’t allow the screen to be on and rotated 180 degrees. Does anyone know how to correct this? I would like the screen to stay on even if it is rotated 180 degrees.
Jimmy Ong says
I have the same problem too. It use to rotate and the option is under the swiping of screen as explained. It is now gone. Grrr….
arun says
I have a Galaxy Tab A and the screen no long rotates. I’ve gone into into settings and there is no option to turn this on or off. I’ve cycled power and it will rotate to enter the password but once the password is accepted and sw starts to run, it rotates to vertical and will not go back to horizontal.
Alan Sr says
Thank you! I was totally frustrated and the solution was so simple.
Jason Thomas says
This happened to my galaxy a10. Whilst stuck in portrait, pull down settings/notifications window. Under wifi/sound/Bluetooth/aeroplane mode icons, pull down on ‘=’ underneath them, to reveal portrait mode. Press on the portrait icon to change it to ‘auto rotate’
Emily Delabey says
Mine just rotates when viewing photos on fb and my messenger won’t let me delete any msgs and when I need to forward something I press and it just blacks out how to fix this problem please and also it won’t let me edit after I make a comment the curler gets stuck k at the beginning of the sentence
Annette says
Thank you! ?
poondarick says
I have samsung galaxy tab pro 12.2 Android version 5.1.1. I tried to lock the screen from rotating from home page without success. Please help!
Kakashi Hatake says
I have a samsung galaxy tab A and It keeps turning off on me, the keyboard is glitchy, and whenever I turn it landcape, it turns off, and won’t turn on unless I turn it portrait again. have cracked it, could this be the issue??
Roger says
I have a Galaxy Tab A and the screen no long rotates. I’ve gone into into settings and there is no option to turn this on or off. I’ve cycled power and it will rotate to enter the password but once the password is accepted and sw starts to run, it rotates to vertical and will not go back to horizontal.
Jane B. says
Thank you so much, Mitch!
Jeanne says
Thanks Charles! You’ve saved my day!
Jim says
Thank you! I have no clue why auto-rotate turned itself off.
Gloria says
Thank you. Simple as turning on screen rotation. I didn’t even realized I had turned it off.
Diana says
Thank you. I searched lots of solutions but this was simple and just right!
Isabelle says
Thank you so much
Roxie says
My Samsung S6 Active flip flops between portrait and landscape when I play back video, even though rotation is turned on.
Carol says
Thank you, thank you for the info on screen rotation on my tablet! I had no idea how the camera ended up upside down, but looked at several sites and none of them helped me resolve this problem. Glad I found your site!
Cindy says
Perfect! The first suggestion worked. Wish the Samsung help section was as helpful.
Tony Boffey says
These things are so simple when you know where to find them!
Many thanks.
Barbara Malan says
Hey Mitch. I have installed the Arrow App on my Samsung Galaxy 10 tablet and now the screen will not auto rotate even when the toggle is set to on. I have tried the suggested method of enabling the auto screen brightness but this has not worked. Is there something that I can do to have Arrow on my tablet and also have the screen rotate when I need it to?
Thanks
Cherryl Makings says
My samsung 7 just stopped screwn rotating..but there is a fix…when you swipe down the curtain on the front screen, click the down arrow next to the settings button…cluck on screen rotate….FIXED
Charles Lawson-Glen says
If your lock screen stays in portrait mode and you have clean master installed.
On Clean Master:
1) Go to “Me”
2) Go to “Settings”
3) Go to “Weather Information Settings”
Switch off “Show on locked screen”
NdeBrouwer says
Hi, my samsung galaxy tab 4 lockscreen turns continiously from landscape to standing, very annoing. When I lock, I can see him turn. Any suggestions?
Spandan says
After I lock my device my tab is stuck in portrait mode even though screen rotation is on. Please help.
Will says
The icon at the top of the sreen was greyed out. I had no idea that this was in Accessibility. I looked in Display, where I think it should have been !!
Thanks for your help.
Wendy says
Thanks I just figured my question out. When on home screen I hold the screen until it is in edit mode and then choose settings. Sorry to bother you. :)
Wendy says
On my S7, I would like all screens to auto rotate except the home scree . My S5 did this but I haven’t been able to configure this setting on my S7. Does this option exist?
Wendy says
I want ask screens but my home screen to auto rotate. My S5 did this. Can the S7 do it?
Alex Marron says
Had spent like 15 minutes trying to figure this out by going directly into setting and display. I had just gotten this S7 device and was figuring it out. Finally gave up and googled the subject. This article came up 2nd from the top. It was a simple solution to unlocked. So simple that I felt stupid, but hey, we learn everyday. Thanks for posting this. – Alex
D. H. Hample says
I have same problem. When I turn on “screen rotation” it does not work – my screen stays in portrait mode.
Ellen says
I figured part of it out. There was a “full view”icon that flipped up at the bottom of the screen. Can’t flip it horizontally yet, but I did get rid of the distortion
Ellen says
Hello, I’m viewing a home video that is distorted vertically. All other videos play fine. I know about flipping vies, but I don’t know why this particular video is distorted vertically. Can you help?
Yo says
I have a Samsung S6 I don’t even have the rotation device in that section any longer. My system didn’t update and took away the rotation option. How do I get it back? Thank you for your help
clayton says
Thank you Google lol your always there for a quick fix
Robert LaGrove says
Thank you for your help.
Thomas says
Try taking the phone cover off…it works when i tried it.
Kevin m says
When I turn on orientation lock it automatically locks to portrait, but I want it to lock on landscape. Any pointers?
Gary says
Thank you for your help. Not even the Manual had the answer
Anthony says
I’m having trouble with that to did you find out how to fix the problem is turned the switch off and on I’ve even did a factory reset and still landscape mode is not working like it was when I first got it
Anthony says
I’m having trouble with that to did you find out how to fix the problem
Wild Swiper says
Thank you. This is great to know for those of us that accidentally lock our screens during a fast and furious swiping session.
Michael Graham says
I have turned the screen rotation on and off,
and it changes nothing…now what?