Cannot get landscape with portrait mode for image picker to work

Question

My app is in full landscape mode but when picking an image from the photo album I am forced to add portrait mode. I just want portrait mode to work when selecting an image.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem a while back. If I understand you question correctly, you want the app to stay in landscape mode unless the photo picker is presented. Here is what you have to do:

1. Go into your settings and make these three orientation options are checked: Portrait, Landscape Left, Landscape Right.

2. Go into your AppDelegate and add this static variable:

   static var canRotate = false {
       didSet{
         UIDevice.current.setValue(canRotate ? UIInterfaceOrientation.portrait.rawValue : UIInterfaceOrientation.landscapeLeft.rawValue, forKey: "orientation")
       }
   }
   

3. Also in your AppDelegate, add this function:

   func application(_ application: UIApplication, supportedInterfaceOrientationsFor window: UIWindow?) -> UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
       if AppDelegate.canRotate {
           return .portrait
       } else {
           //return the orientation you want your app to be in
           return [.landscapeLeft, .landscapeRight]
       }
   }
   

At this point, you can control the whether or not you can rotate the device by calling AppDelegate.canRotate = true or false

All that is left is to add this variable in your image picker code, here's what you do:

if UIImagePickerController.isSourceTypeAvailable(UIImagePickerControllerSourceType.camera) {
            let imagePicker = UIImagePickerController()
            imagePicker.delegate = self
            imagePicker.sourceType = .camera
            imagePicker.allowsEditing = true            

            AppDelegate.canRotate = true
            self.present(imagePicker, animated: true, completion: nil)
        }

Also, in this function:

func imagePickerControllerDidCancel(_ picker: UIImagePickerController) {
    AppDelegate.canRotate = false
    picker.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}

And in this one as well:

func imagePickerController(_ picker: UIImagePickerController, didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo info: [String : Any]) {
    AppDelegate.canRotate = false
    picker.dismiss(animated: true, completion: nil)
}

There may be optimizations for this code but this is the core functionality you'll need.

Let me know how this goes for you, if it works, glitches, or what not.