Can I disable the iPhone's auto-rotation to landscape mode?

I can't stand iPhone's auto-rotation feature, e.g. rotate your phone just past some threshold, and the screen rotates from portrait to landscape.

This is always tripping me up, especially when I'm lying down and simply want to read my iPhone in portrait mode.

Is there a way to just disable the feature altogether?

Solution 1:

Before iOS 4 - jailbreak software changes could do this.

For iOS 4 and later, the lock function easily sets a portrait mode for all apps that run in both portrait and landscape.

You can lock the screen rotation on the iPhone 3GS and 4, running iOS 4, to portrait only by double pressing the Home button (bringing up the task switcher), swiping right to show the media controls and pressing the left most icon (looks like a refresh button), the rotation lock. When locked you will see a padlock in the icon and a new status bar icon of the same design.

Note: this does not affect applications which only run in landscape mode, such as most games.

Edit: Video of how to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYkUzYXtZT0

Solution 2:

No, there is no way to disable the accelerometer on an official iPhone.

Apparently for Jailbroken iPhones, there is a Cydia app called 'Rotation Inhibitor' (thanks JeffP) that lets you disable tilting for Safari and music mode. Info is here, but I have no experience with it.

Solution 3:

On iOS 7+:

• Slide your finger from the bottom of the screen upwards. A menu called Control Center should appear.

• Click on the lock icon.