Two different locks
iOS has a rotation lock in Control Centre. It stops the interface rotating, but some apps — video players, games — ignore it and rotate anyway, and the recording follows them. Reel's Lock Orientation in Settings → General is a lock on the recording layout itself: whatever the device does, the captured frame keeps the orientation it started with.
When to lock
- Recording for Reels, Shorts or TikTok: lock portrait, always.
- Recording a landscape game: lock landscape before you start, hold the phone that way, and it will not flip when you set it down.
- Recording yourself to camera while moving: lock, or the camera bubble and the frame will fight.
When not to
A walkthrough of an app that genuinely changes orientation — a video player that goes landscape when you tap fullscreen — should show that. Leave the lock off and accept the rotation as part of the demo.
Asked often enough to write down.
Does the lock affect the camera bubble?
The bubble follows the recording layout, so yes — it stays where you put it relative to the locked frame.
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