The Google Pixel 6a comes with a feature that will detect whether or not you are holding the smartphone horizontally in landscape mode or vertically in portrait mode and then rotate the screen accordingly.
If you are experiencing auto-rotate issues with this smartphone model, then you can check out this troubleshooting article at Seeking Tech.
1. The auto rotation issue could be a temporary bug on your Pixel 6a. Therefore, you can try restarting your phone to see if doing so will make the auto rotate feature more accurate.
2. You can also try turning off and then turning on the Auto-Rotate setting. In order to do so, you can take the following steps:
- Pull down the Quick Settings menu by swiping downwards from the top of the screen.
- Expand the Quick Settings menu by swiping downwards from the top of the screen again.
- In the expanded Quick Settings menu, tap the Auto-Rotate setting to turn it off and then tap the same setting again to turn it back on.
- If you don’t see the Auto-Rotate setting, then you need to swipe to the right to see if it is located in the next page.
3. If you are enabled face detection for the auto-rotation feature, then make sure that you aren’t blocking the front-facing camera lens. Otherwise, your Pixel 6a won’t be able to detect your face.
4. Furthermore, you should also make sure that you are using your phone with some lighting available. If it is completely dark, then the front-facing camera lens may not be able to accurately detect your face.
5. If you still can’t get the auto-rotate feature to work with face detection, then we suggest disabling this setting by doing the following:
- Open the Settings App on your Google Pixel 6a.
- In the Settings menu, you then need to select Display.
- From the Display menu, scroll down and then select Auto-Rotate Screen.
- After getting to the Auto-Rotate Screen menu, make sure that the Enable Face Detection is disabled.
By disabling face detection, your Pixel 6a will now use accelerometers to determine when to rotate its screen.
6. If you are using accelerometers for the screen rotation, then there is a possibility that these parts are stuck for one reason or another.
To potentially get them unstuck, you can try hard tapping the back of your Pixel 6a several times.
7. You can also try disabling the Quick Tap feature by doing the following:
- Begin by opening the Settings App.
- Inside the Settings menu, you should then go to System.
- From the System menu, you then need to select Gestures.
- After getting to the Gestures menu, you then need to select Quick Tap to Start Actions.
- In the Quick Tap to Start Actions menu, make sure that the Use Quick Tap setting is turned off.
8. If the auto-rotate feature is not working only when you are using a certain app, then you can try updating the app to the latest software version.
9. It is also a good idea to update the firmware of your Google Pixel 6a as doing so may help fix the auto-rotation issues.
To manually update, open the Settings App and then go to System > System Update > Check for Update.
10. You may also want to consider doing a factory reset. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps:
- Go to the Settings App.
- In Settings, you should head over to System.
- From the System menu, select Reset Options at the bottom.
- After getting to the Reset Options menu, select Erase All Data (Factory Reset).
11. If your Pixel 6a is still not auto-rotating correctly, then there may be a hardware problem. In this case, we recommend that you contact Google to get support.