How to Toggle iPhone Rotation Lock without Using Control Panel

* This article is from our Tip of the Day newsletter. . *

Many people like to keep their iPhone's screen rotation locked so that it doesn't switch into landscape orientation accidentally. When you're watching a video or doing something else where landscape orientation would be helpful, it can be disruptive to need to open the Control Panel to turn the rotation lock off.

Why You'll Love This Tip

  • Quickly lock or unlock screen rotation.
  • No need to interrupt your viewing by opening the Control Panel.

How to Unlock Screen Rotation on iPhone with Back Tap

Your iPhone's Accessibility settings have a lot of useful features available, even for people who don't think of themselves as having accessibility issues. The Back Tap options, for example, allow you to set up actions to be performed just by tapping the back of your phone two or three times quickly. A large number of different actions can be performed this way, and in this tip, we'll show you how to set this function to turn the screen rotation lock on and off. For more quick guides on using features like these, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter.

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  1. Open Settings.

    Home screen with Settings app icon marked.
  2. Scroll down to find and tap Accessibility.

    Settings screen with Accessibility option marked.
  3. Scroll down to find and tap Touch.

    Accessibility settings screen with Touch option marked.
  4. Scroll down to the very bottom and tap Back Tap.

    Touch Accessibility settings screen with Back Tap option marked.
  5. Tap either Double Tap or Triple Tap, whichever you want to use for the shortcut.

    Back Tap settings screen with both Double and Triple Tap options marked together.
  6. Tap Lock Rotation.

    Back Tap options for Triple Tap screen with Lock Rotation option marked.

Now your iPhone's screen rotation lock will be toggled whenever you tap the back of your phone two or three times (depending on which option you selected) quickly. Try it a few times to get used to it. You can also set another action to the other Back Tap if you think of something else you'd like to be able to activate in this way.

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Author Details

Brian Peters's picture

Author Details

Brian Peters

Brian Peters is a Feature Web Writer at iPhone Life, a creative writing hobbyist, and general technology enthusiast. He has a bachelor's degree in English, and has completed National Novel Writing Month multiple times. He lives in the Austin, Texas, area with his wife, two dogs, and two cats.