How to Set Orientation Lock with Action Button on iOS

by Rian

Of many things Apple have added to iPhone, or removed from iPhone, one thing I do not understand is how half-baked Action Button is. It’s true that configurable button is more preferable, but it is also true Action Button is not configurable enough to become a new feature of its own. A lot of it comes down to what Shortcuts can do and can’t do, and while setting Orientation Lock is perfectly doable with a simple shortcut, it’s not clear cut why Apple hasn’t made this system-provided option.

Instructions

1. In Files > On My iPhone folder, create a folder to save shortcut data. In this instruction, I will call it “Shortcuts, local”. *
2. Download the Set Orientation Lock shortcut and initialize. It will ask for the folder to save the data, and the filename. The default values are “On My iPhone > Shortcuts, local” and “iPhoneOrientationLock.txt”. *
3. In the Settings > Action Button, choose to open Shortcut, “Set Orientation Lock”.
4. The phone will vibrate once if the orientation lock is enabled (i.e. will not rotate) or twice if disabled (i.e. will rotate).
   

*You can change the values however you like. But I do recommend keeping it on local, On My iPhone.

Afterthoughts

If you are unsure about downloading a shortcut, here’s a quick summary of what’s inside the shortcut so that you may create your own. Currently shortcut can’t get the orientation lock status, only turning them on/off. It is possible to create a shortcut where it would simply trigger the lock on/off without any other bells and whistles, but after using the very basic shortcut for awhile, I wanted mine to show if it’s enabled or not.

Currently, the shortcut triggers the lock and then vibrates once if the lock is enabled, or twice if disabled. This is done by triggering the lock, read the save file, and then update the file.