The situation of a shot or recorded video being displayed upside down or sideways is familiar to many owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones. This can happen both at the time of shooting due to a failure of orientation sensors, and when viewing a finished file in the gallery. Understanding how to flip an image on a Xiaomi camera is necessary not only for the correct display, but also for the correct publication of content on social networks.
The problem most often lies not in the physical breakdown of the matrix, but in the software failure of the accelerometer or gyroscope, which is responsible for the position of the device in space. Sometimes the culprit is a third-party application or a specific shooting mode that ignores the standard settings of turning the screen. In this article, we will discuss all possible ways to correct the orientation of the frame, from simple actions in the interface to deeper settings of the system.
Before we start taking drastic measures, we need to make sure that the problem is software-based, and if the inverted image is only seen in one application, such as a third-party editor, then the system settings may be fine, but if the MIUI Camera or the standard gallery displays content incorrectly, a comprehensive diagnostic approach will be required.
Diagnostics of the problem: why the camera shoots upside down
The first step to solving this problem is understanding it. Why does Xiaomi's smartphone decide that the top is the bottom? A bunch of software algorithms and hardware sensors control the orientation of the image. If the accelerometer transmits incorrect data about the position of the device in space, the camera captures a frame with an erroneous orientation, which often happens after the phone falls or a sharp impact.
Another common cause is software conflicts: Updating a MIUI system or installing a new launcher can change the priorities of system services. In some cases, third-party applications that have access to the camera can “capture” the control of the sensors and not give it back correctly.
⚠️ Attention: If the problem with the image flip appeared immediately after the phone fell from a height, there is a high probability of physical damage to the camera plume or the sensor module itself.
It's also worth checking if the screen orientation fixing mode is enabled. While this usually affects the entire interface, some versions of the HyperOS or MIUI shell may have bugs where the screen turn lock affects the camera preview as well. Check the notification curtain and make sure the autorotation function is active.
It is important to distinguish between a situation where only the preview is inverted (what you see on the screen while shooting) and when the final file is turned. If the preview is "recessant", but the saved photo is normal, the problem is solely in the viewfinder display. If the file is saved incorrectly, then the metadata or the matrix itself is working with an error.
Basic orientation settings in the Camera app
To start with, the simplest and most obvious solution is that the standard Xiaomi camera app has a set of settings that can affect the final image. While there may not be a separate flip button, changing some parameters helps to reset the orientation error.
Open the camera app and click on the three bars in the top corner to enter the menu. Select Settings. Here you are interested in the section related to saving photos or videos. Some Xiaomi models, especially the global versions, have the option of saving geotags or orientation data. Try turning them off and turning them on again.
- 🔄 Check the autorotation of the screen in the notification curtain before starting the camera.
- 📸 Switch between shooting modes (Photo, Video, Portrait) to trigger a restart of the camera module.
- 🔒 Make sure that the system settings do not lock the screen rotation for the Camera application.
If the camera itself doesn’t work, try changing the resolution or aspect ratio, switching from 4:3 to 16:9 or changing the quality of the video can cause the system to reinitialize the video stream, which often eliminates visual glitches, including the wrong turn.
☑️ Diagnostics of camera settings
It's worth noting that newer versions of the HyperOS shell may have changed the settings interface. Look for items that contain the words "Save," "Orientation" or "Geometry." Even if there's no direct turn setting, resetting the camera settings to factory values (button at the bottom of the settings page) often solves the problem of software conflicts.
Using the built-in editor in the Xiaomi Gallery
If a photo or video is already taken and saved in the wrong orientation, don't rush to delete them.The built-in editor in the Gallery app on Xiaomi has powerful post-processing functionality. It allows you not only to fram, but also to change the orientation of the frame without loss of quality.
Open the problem image in the Gallery. In the bottom menu, find the Change button (an icon with a magic wand or sliders). In the tool menu that appears, select the Cover section (usually a two-corner icon), where you will see the 90-degree turn buttons and mirror reflection.
| Action. | Icon | The result |
|---|---|---|
| Turn left | 🔃 | The image rotates 90° counterclockwise. |
| Turn right | 🔄 | The image is rotated 90° clockwise. |
| Reflection | ↔️ | Mirror reflection on the vertical axis |
Once you have set the desired orientation, be sure to click Save. The system will offer two options: save as a copy or replace the original. If you want to save the original file with an erroneous orientation just in case, select Save as a copy.
The same functionality is available for video recordings. The process of editing video in the Xiaomi gallery is almost identical to working with a photo. You can crop the extra and rotate the frame. However, video processing can take longer, especially if the video is shot in high resolution 4K or 8K.
Third-party applications for video and photo correction
Staff tools don't always work perfectly, especially when it comes to batch processing or complex video. There are many apps in the Google Play and GetApps store that specialize in correcting orientation, and they often work faster and give you more control over the process.
One of the popular solutions is the Video Rotate & Flip app, which allows you to quickly turn a video 90, 180 or 270 degrees, and for photos, substitute galleries like Google Photos or Simple Gallery, which have a more intuitive interface for rotation, are great.
- 📱 Video Rotate is a simple tool for quickly changing the orientation of video files.
- 🖼️ Image Flip - a specialized application for batch rotation of photos.
- ✂️ InShot - video editor, allowing not only to rotate, but also to add a background if black stripes appear when turning.
⚠️ Note: When using third-party video processing applications, carefully monitor export parameters. Some free versions may lower bitrate or add watermarks, which will worsen the quality of your video.
Using third-party software is especially important if the Xiaomi gallery is “glutching” and does not save changes after a turn. External editors often create a new file with the correct metadata, ignoring the errors of the system media scanner.
Resetting settings and cleaning the camera cache
If the problem goes deeper and affects the application itself, cleaning up the data will help, not delete your photos, but return the camera settings to factory status, and it's an effective way to fix the software bugs that have accumulated over time.
To do this, go to Settings on your smartphone. Find the Applications → All Apps. Find the Camera in the list. Click on it and select Memory. Here you need two buttons: Clear the cache and Clear the data.
Settings → Applications → All applications → Camera → Memory → Clear dataOnce the data is cleaned, the camera app will reset all of your user settings: watermarks, framing grid, resolution preferences. When you first start up, the camera will behave like a new one. This often solves the problem with the stuck orientation sensor in the program code.
What if the data cleanup didn’t help?
Remember to restart the device after resetting, and the restart is necessary so that the system services responsible for the sensors also restart and receive “fresh” data from the camera application.
Calibration of sensors and engineering menu
In more complex cases, when software methods are powerless, it may be necessary to calibrate the hardware sensors. Xiaomi smartphones have a hidden engineering menu that allows you to check the operation of the accelerometer and gyroscope. If the sensors are “lie”, the camera will think that the phone is flipped.
To get into the test menu, open the Phone app and enter the code ##6484##. The CIT (Customer Information Test) menu will open.
Follow the instructions on the screen to calibrate. You usually put your phone on a flat horizontal surface and press the calibration button. If the sensor shows values far from zero, or if the calibration is wrong, the problem may be hardware.
- 🛠️ Put your phone on a completely flat surface.
- 📉 Watch the readings of sensors – they should aim for zero at rest.
- ✅ Pass the test successfully so that the system retains the new calibration parameters.
If the tests show a critical error or the values do not change when the phone is tilted, this is a direct sign of a malfunction of the module, in which case no program will help to turn the image correctly, since the system simply does not know where to top and where to bottom.
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Before entering the engineering menu, make sure that the battery is above 20%.While the testing process is safe, interrupting the calibration of sensors due to the phone switching off can cause autobrightness and screen rotation to malfunction in the future.