Screen rotation missing in Android 5.0? Here’s where it’s hidden

Verizon Moto X 2014 with Android 5.0

I installed the Android 5.0 update on the Verizon Moto X 2014 handset last night and everything went smoothly. It wasn’t until a few hours later when I turned the phone into landscape mode using the Chrome browser when it hit me: I couldn’t rotate the screen, which was stuck in portrait mode.

No problem, I thought, as I pulled the Settings screen down from the top of the display. And then I saw something. Rather, I didn’t see something: The one-touch icon for screen rotation wasn’t appearing.

Android 5 settings screen Moto X

 

I did recall that Google Android 5.0 will add certain settings buttons once you’ve actually used the settings but when I went into the Display area of the Android settings, I didn’t see anything pertaining to screen rotation.

Thanks to Google+ I got the issue quickly resolved. Adrian Lee responded to my posting on this issue, saying the screen rotation is actually found in the Accessibility section:

“In stock Android the option usually lives under ‘Settings->Accessibility’ for some strange reason. Give that a try. My Nexus 5 had the quick settings toggle automatically after I flashed the factory image.”

Accessibility certainly isn’t the oddest place to put this toggle but if you’re not sure where to look or you’re new to Android, this spot might not be the first place you check. Once I enabled the setting, my Chrome browser started rotating as expected and the one-touch Settings button for screen orientation appeared, so all’s well that ends well.

Even so, I’d love to see Google ensure that the the screen rotation button is always present and accounted for in the pull-down menu; it’s a staple of everyday settings and ought to be visible all the time in my opinion.

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