Crash on presenting UIImagePickerController under iOS 6.0

Question

My app only supports landscape orientations via the supportedInterfaceOrientation properties.

Using an iOS prior to iOS 6, my app can successfully load an instance of UIImagePickerController via presentViewController:animated:completion: even though the UIImagePickerController itself only supports portrait orientation.

The image picker simply presented itself sideways to the user. The user rotated the phone, picked their image, and then rotated back to landscape.

Under iOS 6.0, calling presentViewController:animated:completion: with the UIImagePickerController instance crashes the app. I can prevent the crash by adding portrait options to my supportedInterfaceOrientation properties.

However, operating in portrait really does not make sense for my app. I had thought I could use shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation to allow the app to "support portrait" but only be allowed to rotate to portrait in this one view. But now that method is deprecated, and I can't use the same technique with shouldAutorotate.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get around this issue under iOS 6.0?

Liquesce

BTW, as I've been investigating this, I compiled and ran the sample code "Popovers" and it executes perfectly in all orientations under Xcode 4.5 and iOS 6 Simulator, so I think this is bug in UIImagePicker when the supported orientation mask is not All. Planning to file a bug if I can somehow prove this ;-) – Yang

Please see my answer for explanations of this bug – Trypsin

A lot of people are using the solution of subclassing UIImagePickerController, this is really not the way to do this. May I bring your attention to the Apple documentation which specifically notes: The UIImagePickerController class supports portrait mode only. This class is intended to be used as-is and does not support subclassing please review my answer here with an Apple approved solution: https://mcmap.net/q/162901/-crash-on-presenting-uiimagepickercontroller-under-ios-6-0 – Trypsin

Apple fixed this bug in iOS 6.1, please check out this answer for the workaround: https://mcmap.net/q/162901/-crash-on-presenting-uiimagepickercontroller-under-ios-6-0 – Trypsin

This answer also helped me fix orientation crash when game center login dialog tried to popup when my game was beginning. The game never crashed when you are already logged into GC. But when you logout outside the game and start the game, then it was crashing, The top answer helped me fix it. – Blighter

Answer 1

iOS 6.1 - fixed

As of iOS 6.1, this no longer occurs, it is very important to follow my tips in order to avoid a crash under iOS 6.0.x, the below still applies to that.

---

iOS 6.0.x workaround

This is in actual fact a bug in iOS 6.0, this should be fixed in future iOS releases.

An engineer from Apple has explained this bug and a workaround here: https://devforums.apple.com/message/731764

This is happening because the Application wants landscape orientation only but some Cocoa Touch View Controllers require strictly Portrait orientation which is the error - not that they should be requiring more then Portrait but their interpretation of the Applications requirements.

An example of this can be the following:

iPad app supporting landscape only displays a UIImagePickerController via a UIPopoverController. The UIImagePickerController requires Portrait orientation, but the app is forcing landscape only. Error and... crash

Other frameworks that have been reported as problematic include the Game Center login view controller.

The workaround is pretty simple but not ideal... You keep the correct orientations declared in your info.plist/project info pane, but in the Application Delegate class you declare that you allow all orientations.

Now each View Controller you add to the window must specify itself that it can only be Landscape. Please check the link for more details.

---

I cannot stress how much you should not be subclassing UIImagePickerController as the accepted solution is insisting you do.

The important thing here is "This class is intended to be used as-is and does not support subclassing."

---

In my case I added this to my application's delegate (I have a landscape only app), this tells the image picker it can display, because portrait is supported:

- (NSUInteger)application:(UIApplication *)application supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow:(UIWindow *)window{
    return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskAll;
}

And then in my view controller which happened to be a UINavigationController, I included a category with the following:

- (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations{
    return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscape;
}

Now my app doesn't rotate, and the image picker asks the delegate if it can display as portrait and it gets told that's okay. So all plays out well.

Trypsin

Just for clarification, I added this method to my AppDelegate.m -(NSUInteger)application:(UIApplication *)application supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow:(UIWindow *)window { return UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight | UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft; } – Acerbity

None of this worked for me. Sure the popover displays correctly, but now my app will rotate to whatever orientation it pleases, including portrait which I definitely don't want. What do I do to fix this? – Semiweekly

It sounds like you are not setting up the navigation controller tip correctly. The app delegate is going to say its okay for all rotations, but your root view controller (your container controller) must then restrict it to only landscape. If you're app is rotating all orientations then its the last part you've done wrong. – Trypsin

Answer 2

I had a similar issue, but in an iPad landscape app. I was presenting the image picker in a popover. It crashed under iOS 6. The error suggested that the picker wanted portrait, but the app only offered landscape views, and ... importantly ... the picker's shouldRotate was returning YES.

I added this to my ViewControllerClass.m that is creating the picker

@interface NonRotatingUIImagePickerController : UIImagePickerController

@end

@implementation NonRotatingUIImagePickerController

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotate
{
    return NO;
}

@end

and then used that class instead

UIImagePickerController *imagePicker = [[NonRotatingUIImagePickerController alloc] init];
[myPopoverController setContentViewController:imagePicker animated:YES];

That solved the problem for me. Your situation is a bit different, but it sounds like fundamentally the same error.

Chasidychasing

Worked perfectly for me. Thanks so much! – Liquesce

I ran into the same exact problem, so upvote on the question and upvote on the answer! What are you setting for your supportedInterfaceOrientationsForWindow: ? I was returning UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft | UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight but that's causing my app to launch in portrait! Info-Plist is showing both landscape left and landscape right – Yang

FIXED By returning UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscape and setting shouldAutorotate to return NO, my app now launches in landscape and the viewcontroller which presents the imagepicker doesn't crash. – Yang

Subclassing UIImagePickerController is really not the way to do this. May I bring your attention to the Apple documentation which specifically notes: The UIImagePickerController class supports portrait mode only. This class is intended to be used as-is and does not support subclassing please review my answer here with an Apple approved solution: https://mcmap.net/q/162901/-crash-on-presenting-uiimagepickercontroller-under-ios-6-0 – Trypsin

Don't bother UIImagePickerController -- just use a category to achieve the same result, it's way easier too. https://mcmap.net/q/162812/-supported-orientations-has-no-common-orientation-with-the-application-and-shouldautorotate-is-returning-yes-39 – Obe

Apple fixed this bug in iOS 6.1, please check out this answer for the workaround: https://mcmap.net/q/162901/-crash-on-presenting-uiimagepickercontroller-under-ios-6-0 – Trypsin

Answer 3

While subclassing UIImagePickerController works, a category is a better solution:

    @implementation UIImagePickerController (NonRotating)

    - (BOOL)shouldAutorotate
    {
        return NO;
    }

    -(UIInterfaceOrientation)preferredInterfaceOrientationForPresentation
    {
        return UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait;
    }

    @end

Monegasque

Why was this answer down voted? In a slightly different situation with my portrait mode only app I found that adding a category with: [at]implementation UINavigationController(landscape) - (BOOL)shouldAutorotate { return YES; } - (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations { return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscapeRight|UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscapeLeft; } - (UIInterfaceOrientation)preferredInterfaceOrientationForPresentation { return UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight; } [at]end to my app delegate and then selecting the all orientations under Summary, it fixed it. – Rosenberg

Answer 4

Reporting from iOS 7.1:

In addition to what the above answers specify it seems that you have to absolutely enable portrait modes in the info.plist.

Without this none of the above code/fixes worked for me.

Pother

Answer 5

-(NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations
{
   return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskLandscape;
}

Will fix the issue but from iOs7

Wafer