How to turn a photo on Xiaomi: all the ways from mirror reflection to turn at 90°

You took the perfect shot on your Xiaomi, but it turned upside down or reflected in the wrong way? This problem is familiar to many: photos can automatically unfold due to camera settings, gyroscope errors, or simply after transferring from other devices. Fortunately, you can fix the orientation of the picture on Redmi, POCO or Mi smartphones in seconds — and you don't need to install additional programs to do this.

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways you can do it, from the built-in tools of the MIUI gallery to the hidden features of Google Photos and specialized applications for advanced editing. You’ll learn how to deploy an image 90°, 180° or create a mirror image — even if you have an old model like the Redmi Note 4 or the flagship Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

1. Turn the photo through the standard MIUI gallery

The fastest way is to use the built-in gallery editor, which is available on all Xiaomi smartphones regardless of the MIUI version (even on MIUI 12 and later), the instructions are universal for models from Redmi 9A to Xiaomi 13T Pro.

How it works:

1. Open the Gallery app (flower icon).
2. Find the right photo and tap it to open it.
3. At the bottom of the screen, click the "Edit" button (pencil icon).
4. In the tool menu, select “Turn” (circular arrow icon).
5. Each tap turns the photo 90° clockwise, and to turn 180°, press twice.
6. After adjusting, click "Save" (check in the upper right corner).

⚠️ Note: If the Turn button is inactive (grey), the photo is edit-protected, as is the case with images downloaded from some messengers (e.g. WhatsApp with content protection enabled), the solution is to copy the photo to another folder or use the method. №3 of this article.

The MIUI Gallery also has a mirror function (flip horizontally/vertical).

1. Open the photo in the editor (as in the instructions above).
2. Slip on three points ("More") in the upper right corner.
3. Select "Reflect" and specify the axis: Horizontally or Vertically.

2. Correcting Orientation Through Google Photos

Google Photos offers more flexible editing tools than the standard gallery, which is pre-installed on most Xiaomi smartphones, but if it's not, download from the Play Market. MIUI Global and MIUI China.

Step-by-step:

• 📱 Open Google Photos and find the image you want.
• 🖼️ Slip on the photo, then click "Edit" (the icon with sliders).
• 🔄 Select the Tools tab (bottom of the screen).
• 🔁 Click “Turn” and twist the image until you reach the desired position.
• ✅ For mirror reflection, select "More» → «Reflect».
• 💾 Save the changes with the “Ready” button».

Google Photos automatically creates a copy of the edited photo without touching the original, which is handy if you're afraid of ruining the original image, but remember: the edited photos take up space in the cloud storage (if you have sync enabled).

💡 Useful life hack: If the photo turns itself when viewed in the gallery, but in Google Photos is displayed normally - the problem is the tags. EXIF. This can be fixed through the camera settings (see section 5).

3. Third-party applications for advanced editing

If the built-in tools don't work, try specialized applications. They offer more features: turn to the degree, batch processing and perspective correction.-3 tested:

Consider the process using the example of Snapseed (free, no ads, from Google):

1. Install an app from the Play Market.
2. Open the photo through “Open” in the app menu.
3. Select the “Turn” tool (the icon with the curved arrow).
4. Turn the image or enter the angle manually (for example, 180° for flipping).
5. For mirror reflection, use “Transform” → “Reflect”.
6. Save the result through Export.

⚠️ Note: Some apps (e.g. PicsArt) add watermarks to the free version. To avoid this, check your export settings before saving or use Snapseed.

4. Turn the photo on Xiaomi via PC

If you can't edit on your phone, you can transfer it to your computer and use desktop software, which is a great way to handle a lot of pictures, or if you need to control the angle of rotation.

Instructions for Windows:

• 🖥️ Connect Xiaomi to your PC via USB-cable (select File Transfer Mode in the Notification Curtain).
• 📁 Copy the photo into a folder on your computer.
• 🖼️ Click on the file with the right button → «Open with help» → «Photos (Windows) 10/11).
• 🔄 In the top menu, click “Turn” (or use the Ctrl hotkeys). + /Ctrl + -).
• 💾 Save the changes (Ctrl) + S).

For macOS:

• 🍎 Connect your smartphone and import photos to the Photos app».
• 🖼️ Click on the image twice, then click on "Edit».
• 🔄 In the tool menu, select “Turn” (or use the R key).

🔹 The advantage of this method: on the PC it is easier to work with RAW-files (if you shoot in this format on Xiaomi) 12S Ultra or other flagships. RAW We recommend using Adobe Lightroom or Darktable.

5. Why the photo itself turns and how to fix it

Sometimes the pictures unfold without you being involved.

• 📸 Incorrect camera settings: if the settings are enabled by the autoturn parameter gyroscope.
• 📱 Mistakes. EXIF-Labels: The camera is recording orientation incorrectly (a frequent problem on the Redmi Note 8 Pro and the camera is not correctly corrected). POCO X3).
• 📤 Transfer problems: some messengers (e.g. Telegram) ignore EXIF And they turn the photo around by their algorithms.

How to fix it:

1. Turn off the camera's auto-turn:
2. Reset the camera settings to factory:
3. Use EXIF cleaning applications (see spoiler section 3).

⚠️ Note: If the problem only occurs when sending a photo to WhatsApp or Viber, try opening the photo in Google Photos before sending it and manually rotating it to 90.° And then you go back to either side, and then you go back. EXIF-orientation-mark.

💡

If the photo turns itself when viewed in the gallery, but normally displayed in Google Photos – to blame EXIF-Labels. They can be removed through special applications or edit photos in Snapseed.

6. Package rotation of several photos at the same time

If you have to expand dozens of images (like after importing from an old phone), manual editing of each one will take too long. There are batch processing methods for that.

Method 1: Through Google Photos (on PC)

• 🖥️ Open photos.google.com in your browser.
• 📁 Select the desired photos (click Ctrl and click on the pictures).
• 🔄 Click "Edit» → «Turning (applies to all selected photos).

Method 2: Photo & Picture Resizer App

• 📱 Install an application from the Play Market.
• 📁 Choose a few photos in the gallery.
• 🔄 In the menu, select “Turn” and specify the angle.
• 💾 Click "Apply to all».

Method 3: File Manager (for power users)

If the photo is turned because of EXIF-tags, you can massively remove them:

1. Install FX File Explorer or Solid Explorer.
2. Go to the photo folder, press one image and select the others.
3. From the menu, select “Properties” → “Delete EXIF”.

💡 Tip: Before batch processing, back up your photos, like copying them to the cloud or to a flash drive, and that will prevent you from losing data if something goes wrong.

7. Features of photo rotation on old Xiaomi models

On Xiaomi smartphones from 2016-2018 (e.g. Redmi 4X, Mi A1, Mi Max 2), the gallery and camera interface is different from modern models.

These devices may also not be running the autorotation gyroscope, so you can turn it on.

Settings → Additional settings → Gyroscope and sensors → Autoturn of the screen (enable)

If the photos are kept in low quality after turning, check the camera settings:

Camera settings → Photo resolution → Select the maximum (for example, 12 MP instead of 9 MP)

FAQ: Frequent questions about turning photos on Xiaomi