How to turn a photo on Xiaomi and save the changes forever: working methods 2026

Did you take a photo on Xiaomi, but it turned upside down? Or do you need to reflect the image horizontally/vertically and record the changes so that after rebooting the phone or synchronizing with the cloud, the picture does not return to its original state? The problem is familiar to many users of Redmi, Poco and Mi smartphones - standard editing tools in the MIUI gallery often reset turns when updating thumbnails or transferring files.

In this article, we will analyze 5 proven ways to turn a photo on Xiaomi and save the result forever – from built-in functions to third-party applications and manual editing. EXIF-All methods are relevant to MIUI 12-15 and Android 11-14, including the latest models like Xiaomi 14 Ultra or Redmi Note 13 Pro+. We will focus on the reasons for resetting the turn and how to avoid them.

If you've tried rotating images through a standard gallery before, but after rebooting or copying to a PC, the image is again displayed "upside down", the problem lies in the EXIF metadata. Most viewing applications (including the MIUI Gallery) take into account the Orientation tag, but not all programs save it correctly. We will show you how to fix this without loss of quality.

First, determine what kind of turn you need:

• 🔄 Turn on 90°/180°/270° — Classical change of orientation (for example, from book to landscape).
• 🔁 Mirror reflection – flip horizontally or vertically (for selfies or correction of “mirror” images).
• 📐 Correction EXIF — if the photo is not physically inverted but is displayed incorrectly due to downed metadata.

Important: Some methods require a superuser right (root) or install additional utilities. If you are not ready for such manipulations, choose a method without rooting (they are marked with the corresponding icon).

1. MIUI Standard Gallery: Why the Turn Is Resetting and How to Fix It

The most obvious way is to use the built-in Gallery from Xiaomi. However, here lies the catch: editing through the Change → Rotate menu applies the changes only to the thumbnail, not to the file itself. When synchronized with Mi Cloud or opened on another device, the photo will return to its original state.

To keep the turn forever through standard means:

1. Open the photo in the Gallery, click Change (pencil icon).
2. Select Turn and rotate the image until you achieve the desired orientation.
3. The key step is to click Save as a copy (not just Save!) after you turn, the new file will be created with the correct metadata.
4. Remove the original or rename the copy to avoid confusion.

⚠️

Note: If the gallery settings have Auto Improve option enabled (Settings) → The lab, it can re-record. EXIF-Turn it off before you save it.

This method works on 70-80% of devices, but on some firmware (e.g. MIUI Global 14.0.4), the saved copy is still reset, so move on to alternative methods.

Disable Auto Improvement in Settings

Make a backup copy of the original

Use the option "Save as a copy"

Check the result on another device-->

2. Editing apps: top-3 turn-fixing

If the standard gallery fails, third-party programs will come to the rescue, and we tested dozens of apps and selected those that are guaranteed to keep the rotation even after rebooting or transferring files.

The best options for Xiaomi:

• 📱 Snapseed (Google) is a free editor with no compression export function. After you turn, select Export. → Save a copy and mark Save Metadata.
• 🖼️ Photo Exif Editor – a specialized application for editing EXIF. Allows you to manually specify the Orientation tag (values: 1 - normal, 3 - 180)°, 6 — 90° hourly).
• 🔧 PicsArt is a universal editor with the option "Save as" (JPEG/PNG Suitable for mirror reflection.

Instructions for Photo Exif Editor (the most reliable way):

1. Install the app from Google Play.
2. Select the problem photo in the list.
3. Find the Orientation field and set the desired value (see the table below).
4. Save the changes – the file will be overwritten with the correct metadata.

⚠️

Note: When using Snapseed or PicsArt, disable the Optimize for the Web option in the settings – it deletes EXIF-data.

💡

If the photo is reset in Snapseed after editing, export it in PNG format – this format saves metadata better than JPEG.

3. Turning over a PC: Why it's more reliable than on a phone

One of the most reliable ways to transfer a photo to a computer and edit it there, is that desktop programs like Adobe Photoshop or FastStone Image Viewer force pixels to be overwritten, not just metadata, which ensures that the rotation remains even after any manipulation of the file.

Step-by-step instructions for Windows/macOS:

1. Connect Xiaomi to your PC via USB (select File Transfer Mode).
2. Copy the problem photo into any folder on your computer.
3. Open it in FastStone Image Viewer or Photoshop.
4. In FastStone, click Edit → Rotate/Flip and select the desired turn. Save the file (Ctrl+S).
5. In Photoshop: Image → Image Rotation, then File → Save As (select JPEG with 100% quality).
6. Transfer the edited file back to your phone, replacing the original.

Critical detail: If you edit a photo on a PC and then upload it back to DCIM/Camera, wait for full sync with Mi Cloud (Done with Cloud icon) otherwise the gallery can restore the old version from backup.

Advantages of the method:

• ✅ 100% turn-keeping guarantee (pixels are physically overwritten).
• ✅ Possibility of batch processing of several photos.
• ✅ No risk of quality loss with proper export settings.

4. Manual editing of EXIF via ADB: for advanced users

If you're ready for technical manipulation, you can change the metadata directly on your phone via ADB (Android Debug Bridge), a method that doesn't require root rights, but requires you to install Platform Tools on your PC.

Instructions:

1. Turn on Xiaomi Developer Mode (7 times click on the MIUI version in Settings → About Phone).
2. Activate Debugging by USB in Settings → Additional → For developers.
3. Connect the phone to your PC and check the connection with the command: adb devices (should display the serial number of the device).
4. Download ExifTool for Windows/Linux and put it in the folder with the platform-tools.
5. Execute the command to change orientation (example to turn to the 180°): adb push input.jpg /sdcard/ && adb shell "exiftool -orientation=3 -n -overwrite_original /sdcard/input.jpg"

⚠️

Note: Incorrect use of ADB can cause a gallery to crash. Before experimenting, back up your photo to the cloud or PC. Also make sure the file path in the command is correct - Xiaomi can use custom directories like /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera.

Advantages of the method:

• 🔧 No need to install additional apps on your phone.
• 📲 It works even on devices with a blocked bootloader.
• 🔄 Allows batch processing of several files by one team.

💡

ADB-The only way to change the method EXIF on phones with limited rights (for example, on corporate devices), where the installation of third-party applications is prohibited.

5.Using cloud services: Google Photos vs Mi Cloud

Cloud services can help and complicate things, like Mi Cloud often resets corners when synchronized, while Google Photos is more loyal to metadata, and let's figure out how to use clouds to make a difference.

Google Photos:

• 🔹 Open the photo in the application, click Change → Turn.
• 🔹 After turning, click Save copy – the file will be saved to a separate Edited folder.
• 🔹 Remove the original from Google Photos and rename the copy to avoid duplicates.

Mi Cloud:

It's more complicated, because it's aggressively caching thumbnails, and if you've edited a photo on your phone and then synced it to the cloud, you're likely to see the old version when you open it next.

1. Turn off autosynchronization in Mi Cloud Settings → Autoboot.
2. Edit the photo in any of the ways described above.
3. Go to Mi Cloud → Devices → This phone and manually upload only the edited file (not the entire folder!).

⚠️

Note: If you use Mi Cloud for backup, edited photos may roll back when you restore from backup. Before important edits, turn off automatic gallery reservations.

6. Frequent mistakes and how to avoid them

Even after a successful turn, the photo may again appear incorrectly.-5 causes and ways of eliminating them:

1.The gallery cache is not updated

After editing, clear the Gallery app cache:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Gallery.
2. Click Clear Cache and Clear Data (Warning: This Will Delete Albums and Sort Settings!).
3. Reboot the phone.

2. Conflict with MIUI Optimizer

System Optimization (Settings → Battery and Performance) can reset metadata. Disable it or add the Gallery as an exception.

3. Wrong file format

HEIC files (used on new Xiaomi to save space) don't support EXIF editing well. Convert them to JPEG via the HEIC to JPEG Converter app.

4. Synchronization with social networks

When you upload a photo to WhatsApp, Telegram or VK, the metadata is often reset. Before sending it, edit the photo on your PC or via Snapseed.

5. Damaged metadata

If the photo is not displayed correctly on all devices, check it through Exif Viewer (Android app).If the Orientation tag is missing or is incorrect, use Photo Exif Editor for manual editing.

💡

The most common mistake is editing photos directly in the DCIM/Camera folder, which MIUI considers "systemic" and can restore originals, and always work with copies in a separate folder (for example, Edited).

FAQ: Answers to popular questions