Unfortunately there isn’t a universal fix. The Image Rotation Fixer works for many people, but not all.
The utilities WordPress and various plugins use to resize images often strip the EXIF data which is what is needed to determine the correct orientation.
What I would expect from those utilities is to actually flip the image based on the EXIF Orientation parameter. If I edit an image in the media library there are buttons to flip the image manually and they seem to actually recode the image data to flip it. So somewhere deep in WordPress there is the code to do that.
I downloaded some images that have been posted using Postie. Most of them still contain EXIF data includingthe Orientation parameter, but only if it had the value ‘Top left’. I have seen two examples where the original had Orientation: ‘Right top’. Those two still have all EXIF data except Orientation. So when images enter the media library there is a process that actually looks at this parameter and takes action based on the value. We’re almost there, I would say. But I’m not a software developer…
I tried several plugins: with Image Rotation Fixer I cannot upload pictures from recent Sony Xperia smartphones if they were taken in portrait mode.
iOS Images Fixer works, but – as the name suggests – only for images from iPhones/iPads. Apparently it looks at another parameter.
Fix Image Rotation did not work at all.
Hello,
I face the same problem as willemb2.
Is there a solution meanwhile?
Thank you
@hkr Have you tried the Image Rotation Fixer plugin?
Yes I tried this.
It did work partially.
The images are rotated correctly, but the thumbnails and other dimensions are not.
You can see it here:
https://sj-urflur.de/test-2/
Like so many WP plugins, the Image Rotation Fixer has not been updated for over 2 years. The author created it as an internship-project. He never replied to any problem report on the plugin’s support forum https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/plugin/image-rotation-repair. The last positive rating was 1 year 8 months ago. Still people keep recommending it 🙁
I have never found an alternative that works with recent WP versions.
IMHO the EXIF “Orientation” parameter is a disaster. Maybe it is useful within smartphone apps, but as soon as the image leaves the smartphone it causes nothing but trouble.
I just tested all the rotation fixers I could find:
“Image Rotation Repair” – Worked on most, but not all.
“iOS Images Fixer” – Worked on none.
“Image Rotation Fixer” – Worked on none.
“Fix Image Rotation” – Worked on most, but not all (recently updated).
Ultimately “Image Rotation Repair” and “Fix Image Rotation” worked the best. At some level all the tools are limited by the data embedded in the image. If the data is wrong or missing then there isn’t much the tool can do.
Thank you!
“Fix Image Rotation” is my choice and at a first test with an iPhone it is successful.
I have no other smartphones so I have to wait for other testings.
Thank you very much for your support!
When you say “worked” do you mean that it worked with Postie? So if I send a picture from a smartphone that is held in portrait position (EXIF Orientation parameter value 6 = “right, top” aka “rotate 90 CW”) with Postie, will it appear in portrait position in my WP post?
I had not even tried “Image Rotation Repair” because the plugin page says “Tested up to: 3.2.1”. I will try it when I find the time.
Yes it worked with postie the way you described
I did not check the exact EXIF value ( don’t know how) but the success is visible.
🙂
I was able to send all of the sample images from https://github.com/recurser/exif-orientation-examples to Postie with “Fix Image Rotation” active and each image was correctly displayed.
Thank you for the link. I tested it too and it was successful.
Have a nice day!
