The situation where the video being played on the smartphone is displayed upside down or in the wrong orientation is quite common among owners of Xiaomi and Redmi. This can occur after an operating system update, resetting settings or due to accidental blocking of the screen rotation sensors. Users often get confused in the MIUI interface, as the location of the switches changes with each version of the firmware.
Sometimes the problem isn't software failure, but physical features of the device or third-party applications that intercept the accelerometer. In some cases, the video stream has a hard-coded metadata that forces the player to display the picture horizontally, even if the phone itself is held vertically. Understanding the nature of the error is the first step to quickly fix it without losing data.
In this article, we will look at all possible ways to correct the orientation of the image, from standard system tools to the use of specialized software, you will learn to configure automatic rotation, block it and force the position of the frame in popular video players, and will consider rare cases that require intervention in hidden settings or flashing configuration files.
Checking the basic settings of the screen rotation
The first thing you need to do is make sure that autorotation is active in the system. On modern MIUI and HyperOS shells, this parameter is taken to the control center, but can be duplicated in the basic settings. Often users forget that they have enabled locking, and try to look for the reason in more complex menu sections.
For quick activation, swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to open the notification curtain. Find an icon with a lock or arrows in a circle. If the indik is on blue or orange, autorotating mode is activated. If the icon is grey, the function is turned off, and the screen will be rigidly fixed in portrait mode.
⚠️ Attention: On some Redmi models, the orientation lock icon may be hidden in the second row of curtain widgets. Pull the curtain down to the end or press the edit button to add the switch to a prominent place.
If the standard switch doesn't work, you should check the accelerometer settings through the engineering menu or calibration. Sometimes the sensor just gets knocked down after the device falls, and the software activation of the function does not help correct the position of the picture, in which case software calibration through hidden codes or special utilities is required.
Use of the built-in video player Mi Video
The Mi Video player, pre-installed on all Xiaomi smartphones, has its own tools to control the display of video files. This is especially true if the video was shot on another device and has non-standard orientation metadata. The built-in software can ignore system settings and force the frame to turn.
To change the angle of the video, open the file in the gallery or through the Mi Video app. During playback, tap the screen to call the control menu. In the lower right corner or in the "More" menu (three dots), find the "Turn" tool. When you click on it, you will cyclically change orientation by 90 degrees.
☑️ Setting up the display in Mi Video
It's important to note that this is a temporary twist that only works during the current playback session, and the metadata of the file itself doesn't change. If you send this file to another user, the video can be turned over again.
⚠️ Warning: Permanent rotation saving in the regular player may not be available on older versions MIUI. In this case, the system will open the video each time in the original orientation set during the shooting.
For permanent correction, it is better to use the Save Copy or Edit function if it is available in your firmware version, which will create a new file with modified display parameters that will open correctly on any device, including computers and televisions.
Setting up orientation in YouTube and online services
Video rotation problems often occur in the browser or YouTube app. Web versions of sites may ignore the system rotation settings if the page code has a fixed display format. YouTube mobile application usually behaves predictably, but it also crashes.
If the video in Chrome or Mi Browser doesn’t turn over when you rotate your smartphone, try updating the page or switching to Full Site Mode. Often, mobile layout blocks horizontal mode for certain screen resolutions, and it’s also worth checking if Traffic Savings mode is enabled, which can limit the player’s functionality.
In the YouTube app, you turn automatically when the device is horizontal. If that doesn't happen, check the settings of the app itself. In the General section, you sometimes find the option to fix the orientation, which is more important than the Android system settings.
Secret code for checking the accelerometer
It is worth mentioning that some online cinemas use their own players, which can conflict with the MIUI shell. In such cases, cleaning the browser cache or using incognito mode helps. This eliminates the impact of extensions and accumulated session errors on the display of the video stream.
Application of third-party video players
When the standard tools are powerless, third-party solutions come to the rescue. Third-party players for Android have much more flexible decoding and display settings, which allow you to force the orientation, scale and proportions of the frame regardless of the file metadata.
One of the best solutions is the VLC for Android app, which is free, ad-free, and supports a huge number of formats, and the player interface has a dedicated turn button that changes the angle of view in real time, and it's ideal for watching videos shot on old phones or cameras with a custom codec.
Another popular option is the MX Player, which allows you to set the default behavior for all video files, and you can set the rule, "Always open horizontally" or "Ignore device orientation," which eliminates the need to turn the phone or look for a turn button every time.
- 🎬 VLC Player: Fully free, open source, best choice for complex formats.
- 🚀 MX Player: Powerful acceleration engine, handy gestures, but contains ads in the free version.
- 🎞️ XPlayer: Lightweight, with built-in converter and file hiding capability, good for older devices.
Using third-party software also helps to bypass the bugs of the Android system itself. If the Xiaomi gallery is buggy and does not show videos, the third-party player often copes with the task without problems, which makes installing such an application mandatory for any advanced user.
Video editing for a permanent change of orientation
If you want the video to be displayed correctly everywhere and always, you need to recode it. Just rotating the player is not enough, because it only changes the way the rendering is done, but not the structure of the file itself.
Xiaomi smartphones often have a gallery editor preinstalled, but it's basic. For a reliable result, you'd better download an app like CapCut, InShot, or YouCut. In these programs, you can download a video, press the Rotate button, and export a new file. When you export, the metadata will be overwritten, and the video will be horizontal or vertical forever.
| Annex | Difficulty | Quality of exports | Watermarking |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIUI Gallery | Low. | Original | No. |
| CapCut | Medium | High (up to 4K) | We can clean it up. |
| InShot | Low. | Good. | Got it in |
| YouCut | Low. | No loss. | No. |
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To permanently change the orientation of the video file, it is necessary to recode it in the video editor, and not just rotate it in the player.
The recoding process takes time and resources of the processor. On budget models Redmi processing a long video in 4K can take several minutes, at which time it is not recommended to run heavy games or other applications, so as not to cause overheating and trottling of the system.
Solving problems with accelerometer and sensors
If the screen doesn't respond to the device's rotation at all, there's probably a hardware or deep software sensor in any application. The accelerometer is a physical component that can fail after impacts or moisture, but often the problem is solved by software calibration.
To start, do a simple smartphone reboot, which resets the driver errors, if it doesn't work, try calibrating the sensor through the engineering menu. Enter the code ##6484## in the dialer. In the menu that opens, select the Accelerometer and follow the instructions on the screen (usually you need to put the phone on different sides).
⚠️ Note: Entrance to the Engineering Menu (CIT) It's safe, but don't change things you don't know. Calibration of the accelerometer is one of the few user-approved operations in this section.
In rare cases, resetting all settings to factory settings helps, which is an extreme measure that requires a full backup of data, and if the sensor doesn't work after the reset, and you see zero values on the engineering menu when you're driving, you'll probably need to replace the plume or module at the service center.
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Before calibrating the accelerometer, remove the case from the phone. A thick protective case can interfere with the device's tight fit to the table surface, leading to inaccurate calibration.