If you get frustrated when your iPhone screen switches from the upright position (known as “portrait” view) to the horizontal orientation (known as “landscape” view) at the slightest change swivel of your wrist, you may have gone searching for a way to lock the orientation so that doesn’t happen. On the iPad, there is an external button to lock the orientation of the screen, but on the iPhone that same button serves the mute function. Here’s how to lock your iPhone screen so that it is locked in the portrait orientation.

First, double-click your “home” button twice – that is the physical button at the bottom of your phone that takes you to the home screen.

If you click it once, you go to the home screen, but if you click it twice it displays that “recent apps” row at the bottom.

When the “recent apps” row appears after you double-click your home button, swipe the recent apps row towards the right. This will reveal the audio (music) tool bar in place of the “recent apps”, but you will also see, in the far lower left, this icon:

Simply press on that icon, and it will lock your screen!

To unlock your screen orientation, simply press on the icon again.

For some reason this will only work to lock your screen in the portrait (upright) orientation, not landscape (horizontal). But it’s still a pretty useful trick!