How to force view controller orientation in iOS 8?

For iOS 7 - 10:

Objective-C:

[[UIDevice currentDevice] setValue:@(UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft) forKey:@"orientation"];
[UINavigationController attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation];

Swift 3:

let value = UIInterfaceOrientation.landscapeLeft.rawValue
UIDevice.current.setValue(value, forKey: "orientation")
UINavigationController.attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation()

Just call it in - viewDidAppear: of the presented view controller.

Orientation rotation is a little more complicated if you are inside a UINavigationController or UITabBarController. The problem is that if a view controller is embedded in one of these controllers the navigation or tab bar controller takes precedence and makes the decisions on autorotation and supported orientations.

I use the following 2 extensions on UINavigationController and UITabBarController so that view controllers that are embedded in one of these controllers get to make the decisions.

Give View Controllers the Power!

Swift 2.3

extension UINavigationController {
    public override func supportedInterfaceOrientations() -> Int {
        return visibleViewController.supportedInterfaceOrientations()
    }
    public override func shouldAutorotate() -> Bool {
        return visibleViewController.shouldAutorotate()
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    public override func supportedInterfaceOrientations() -> Int {
        if let selected = selectedViewController {
            return selected.supportedInterfaceOrientations()
        }
        return super.supportedInterfaceOrientations()
    }
    public override func shouldAutorotate() -> Bool {
        if let selected = selectedViewController {
            return selected.shouldAutorotate()
        }
        return super.shouldAutorotate()
    }
}

Swift 3

extension UINavigationController {
    open override var supportedInterfaceOrientations: UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        return visibleViewController?.supportedInterfaceOrientations ?? super.supportedInterfaceOrientations
    }

    open override var shouldAutorotate: Bool {
        return visibleViewController?.shouldAutorotate ?? super.shouldAutorotate
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    open override var supportedInterfaceOrientations: UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        if let selected = selectedViewController {
            return selected.supportedInterfaceOrientations
        }
        return super.supportedInterfaceOrientations
    }

    open override var shouldAutorotate: Bool {
        if let selected = selectedViewController {
            return selected.shouldAutorotate
        }
        return super.shouldAutorotate
    }
}

Now you can override the supportedInterfaceOrientations method or you can override shouldAutoRotate in the view controller you want to lock down otherwise you can leave out the overrides in other view controllers that you want to inherit the default orientation behavior specified in your app's plist

Disable Rotation

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override func shouldAutorotate() -> Bool {
        return false
    }
}

Lock to Specific Orientation

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override func supportedInterfaceOrientations() -> Int {
        return Int(UIInterfaceOrientationMask.Landscape.rawValue)
    }
}

In theory this should work for all complex view controller hierarchies, but I have noticed an issue with UITabBarController. For some reason it wants to use a default orientation value. See the following blog post if you are interested in learning about how to work around some of the issues:

Lock Screen Rotation

This is what worked for me:

https://developer.apple.com/library//ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIViewController_Class/index.html#//apple_ref/occ/clm/UIViewController/attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation

Call it in your viewDidAppear: method.

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    [UIViewController attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation];
}