PWA: Automatic screen orientation does not work in Chrome on Android

[Beet4]

1. What is not working as documented?

Running Android 13 on OnePlus 8 Pro and latest PhotoPrism as PWA in Chrome 113.0.5672.76.

The PWA does not rotate the screen when screen rotation is unlocked in the phone. Starting a video in fullscreen forces the PWA from portrait to landscape. After closing the video the PWA rotates as expected. After completely closing the PWA and re-opening it again screen rotation no longer works again.

It works fine if I open PhotoPrism normally in Chrome for Android. Other PWA in Chrome rotates as expected.

2. How can we reproduce it?

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install PhotoPrism as PWA in Chrome for Android.
2. Enable automatic screen rotation in the OS.
3. Open PhotoPrism PWA
4. Try and lay the phone in landscape, PhotoPrism does not rotate.

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3. What behavior do you expect?

PhotoPrism PWA to rotate when screen orientation is set to automatic in the OS.

[graciousgrey]

We have tested this on Android 11 and 12 - there it works properly.

It may be related to the Android version or the phone itself. Has anyone else experienced this?

[lastzero]

Maybe other Android users could help us test this, e.g. on their own device or using an emulator on a desktop computer? 🤖

[Beet4]

My wife just purchased the Galaxy S23+ with Android 13, it is showing the same behavior as my original post when installed as PWA in Chrome. As said, it works fine when using it directly in chrome without installing the app.

So two different manufacturers but both on Android 13 - so perhaps an issue in Android 13?

[rnik12]

Screen Orientation is working fine in my Samsung M31 - Android 12

[dbs-sticky]

I have no idea what PhotoPrism is, but I had a client just report a bug on one of my products (a PWA), and I ended up on this thread. Here's what I found.

1. My PWA works fine on Android 12, and iOS
2. My PWA DOES NOT work on Android 13 on my Pixel 6 Pro
3. My PWA DOES WORK on a friends Pixel 6 (not Pro, same Android version and OS as mine!)
4. Other PWAs (including the PhotoPrism demo) DON'T work on my Pixel 6 Pro.

In summary, I can't get any PWAs to rotate on my Pixel 6 Pro (yes, Auto-rotate is on). I don't think this is specific to PhotoPrism, but, it also doesn't seem to be a Android 13 issue either. As far as I can tell at the moment it's specific to Android 13 and "some" devices. I'm not sure this is very helpful though.

Note. On my Pixel 6 Pro. web site rotates in chrome, after installing the PWA, the app DOES rotate. If I then kill the app, and open it again, this is when if fails to rotate.

[dror3go]

Forget about Android versions - what about Chrome versions?

[dbs-sticky]

Chrome version was the same across the two Pixel devices. Sorry, typo in my post, was meant to say "same Android and Chrome as mine"

…

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[spuxx-dev]

I can confirm this and it's not due to wrong manifests. By default (without an 'orientation' entry in manifest), the PWA should accept the device's orientation while respecting orientation lock. Setting any orientation value in the manifest will ignore rotation lock, which appears to be intentional.

Firefox PWA appears to behave correctly.

[sltvtr]

I can confirm also - Photoprism installed as PWA from Chrome does not allow to rotate screen no mater what.
Chrome version: 114.0.5735.130 (I guess the latest)
Android: 13
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S20FE
It works when used as "normal" page inside browser.

And as a workaround I've tried installing PWA from Firefox - and that works! Thanks @spuxx1701 for the tip!