iOS 6 auto rotation issue - supportedInterfaceOrientations return value not respected

Question

I've got an app where I have a UINavigationController subclass as my rootViewController. I've got a UITableViewController that lets the user edit some settings, it should always be in portrait mode. My app also needs to support all other orientations after I push a MoviePlayer component onto the navigation controller.

The UITableViewController subclass has this implementation of supportedInterfaceOrientations:

- (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations {
    LLog();
    return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskPortrait;
}

The logging command tells me that this gets actually called.

The problem is that the return value is not respected, i.e. the screen turns to landscape orientation when I turn the device.

What can I do to make the settings view always show in portrait but allow orientation changes for the video viewer?

More information: my UINavigationController subclass doesn't override shouldAutorotate or supportedInterfaceOrientations. I haven't implemented

   - (NSUInteger)application:(UIApplication *)application 

supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow:(UIWindow *)window

method in my AppDelegate and I have enabled all orientations in the target summary.

Latreese

Answer 1

I had issue that some ViewControllers in the navigation stack support all the orientations, some only portrait, but UINavigation controller was returning all app supported orientations, this little hack helped me.

@implementation UINavigationController (iOS6OrientationFix)

-(NSUInteger) supportedInterfaceOrientations {
    return [self.topViewController supportedInterfaceOrientations];
}

@end

Imponderable

This is definitely a creative solution but I can't believe this is what Apple expects us to do. I'm having trouble understanding their new autorotation scheme. They say the top full screen ViewController rules. But, like you are pointing out, the top full screen ViewController is in many cases the NavigationController. Are we then supposed to subclass it, or create a category to implement the supportedInterfaceOrientations message? Doesn't feel right. – Homager

It doesn't feel right to me too, maybe it's just a bug in Apple implementation. – Imponderable

This does not work for me. I've tried subclassing as well since Categories don't ensure method override :( – Lattermost

Thanks for posting, have spent a day trying to get this to work and it is a great workaround @Mindaugas. Think Apple have dropped the ball on this. – Imco

See this answer for a more robust solution, along with a warning as to what can happen if you do end up using these kind of categories. – Bianchi

Answer 2

You also need to add:

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotate {
    return NO;
}

and set the supported rotations for the root view controller in the app plist file to only portrait.

Rollandrollaway

Answer 3

Category for UINavigationController not working for me. I don't know why. I solve my problem with such category of UIViewController:

@implementation UIViewController (Orientation)

- (BOOL) shouldAutorotate
{
    return YES;
}


- (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations
{
    NSUInteger orientations = UIInterfaceOrientationMaskPortrait;

    if ([self isKindOfClass:[PlayerViewController class]])
    {

        orientations |= UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscapeLeft;
        orientations |= UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscapeRight;

    }

    return orientations;
}

@end

Abey