How to Turn a Photo in Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

When a picture is turned upside down or turned 90 degrees, familiar to every smartphone owner. On Xiaomi devices, this problem is solved in several ways, depending on the version of the MIUI operating system or the new HyperOS, as well as the application used to view. Often users are faced with the fact that standard editing tools are hidden in non-obvious menus, or the photo is automatically turned back after saving.

In this article, we will discuss all available methods for correcting the orientation of the image, learn how to use the built-in Gallery editor, how to work with the Mi Cloud service and what to do if standard tools do not help. Understanding the principles of EXIF metadata will help you avoid loss of quality when resaving files.

Use of the built-in Gallery editor

The fastest and most reliable way to change the orientation of the image is to use the regular Gallery application, which is preinstalled on all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones. The interface may vary slightly depending on the version of the shell, but the logic of actions remains the same for all models.

Open the image and look at the bottom toolbar, and there's a Change button (a pencil icon or slider icon) and then you press it, and you go into editing mode, and you need to find the turn tool, and it's usually presented as a square with an arrow or a 90 degree turn icon.

Press the turn button until the image is in the correct position. If you twist the photo, just keep pressing until you reach the right angle.

⚠️ Warning: After turning, be sure to click Save (check or save text). If you simply close the gallery without saving, all changes will be lost and the photo will remain inverted.

There's a caveat to the "Save as a Copy" feature, and in some versions of MIUI, the default is to create a duplicate file so that you don't damage the original, which is a useful feature, but it takes up extra space in the device's memory.

Working with EXIF metadata and orientation

Digital photos contain hidden information called EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) that stores information about the date of the shoot, the camera model and, importantly for us, the Orientation orientation tag. When you take a picture, the smartphone records it in one position, but tags it as it should be displayed.

Problems arise when the viewer app ignores the tag or misinterprets it, in which case the visual rotation through the editor actually bakes the new position of the pixels into the file, overwriting the original data, which can lead to micro-quality losses due to recompression of the JPEG.

For advanced users, there are applications that allow you to edit only EXIF-This is an instant operation that does not affect the quality of the image. However, standard Xiaomi tools usually hide this functionality.

⚠️ Attention: With frequent editing and resaving of the same photo, image quality can significantly deteriorate due to the accumulation of compression artifacts.

If you plan to process photos for print or professional use, try to rotate correctly the first time using the original file. In modern versions of HyperOS, image processing algorithms have become more sparing for resaving.

Turning photos through the Mi Cloud

Mi Account holders have access to the Mi Cloud cloud service, which syncs the gallery between devices.The cloud web version (i.mi.com) has its own built-in editor, which sometimes works better than the mobile app, especially if the phone has a software display failure.

To work through the cloud, you need to log in to your computer or other device, go to the Gallery section and select the photo you want. The web version interface allows you not only to rotate images, but also to apply basic color correction. Changes made in the cloud are automatically synchronized with your smartphone when you have the Internet.

This method is especially useful if the local gallery on the phone is “glutching” and does not store changes, and the cloud server will act as an external processor that will process the file and return the finished result to the device.

Alternative apps: Google Photos and third-party editors

If the standard Xiaomi gallery doesn’t suit you or isn’t working well, you can always use the Google Photos app, which is pre-installed on most Google-certified devices and offers a great, minimalist tool for working with frame geometry.

In Google Photos, you open an image, you click "Change" and you select the "Card" tool, and there's a handy turn button, and there's also the "Autolevelation" feature, which will try to fix the blocky horizon itself, and it's one of the best free tools on the market.

Also worth mentioning are third-party galleries like Simple Gallery or 1Gallery. They often provide more flexible batch processing settings. You can pick up 50 photos at once and rotate them all at once, which in Xiaomi's stock gallery sometimes requires extra action.

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Use Google Photos for a batch orientation correction: select a few photos, click "Change" -> "Copy edits", then apply to others.

Problems with autoturning the screen

Users often confuse the rotation of the image with the rotation of the smartphone screen. If the phone does not turn the picture on the whole screen, the problem lies in the settings of the system, not in the photo file, and the accelerometer and the corresponding system switch are responsible for this function.

Check the notification curtain, and it should have a "Swipe" or "Orientation" icon, and if it's turned off, the screen will lock in portrait mode regardless of how you hold the phone, and turn it on so that the interface responds to the tilts.

Sometimes the sensor sticks or doesn't work properly after a fall, and then calibration through an engineering menu or simply turning off and turning on the autorotation function helps, and it's also worth checking if the One Hand mode or similar functions that block the change of orientation are on.

Table of comparison of editing methods

To make it easier for you to choose the right tool, we have prepared a comparative table of the main ways to adjust orientation on Xiaomi devices.

As you can see from the table, the built-in gallery is best for one-time edits because of the speed, but if you want to keep the original safe and have access to a PC, the Mi Cloud web interface might be preferable.

Frequent mistakes and their solution

One common problem is when an inverted photo is correctly displayed on a phone but upside down on a computer or social media, a classic example of another device ignoring the EXIF tag.

In this case, simply saving the image in the phone gallery may not help if the sender app (like Telegram or WhatsApp) reads the old orientation tag again when downloading, the solution is one: save the photo as a new pixel recount file, not just changing the tag.

There's also an error when you cut off part of the image after you turn, which happens if you accidentally hit the "Cadration" tool instead of "Turn." Always check the frame before saving.

⚠️ Note: When you send a photo through messengers in "Compressed" mode (as a picture, not a file), the orientation is fixed permanently.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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If standard methods don’t work, send a photo to your favorites on Telegram or WhatsApp with a “No Compression” flag (like a file) and then save it back – this often resets erroneous metadata.