setOrientation returns "Unable To Rotate Device" on iOS simulators

[mtheresep]

Environment

• Appium version: 2.19.0
• xcuitest-driver version: 9.10.5 (also reproduced on 7.27.0)
• Xcode version: 26.2 (Build 17C52)
• macOS version: 15.7.5 (aarch64)
• iOS Simulator versions tested: 18.5, 26.0, 26.2
• Simulator devices tested: iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max
• Node.js version: v20.19.4

Description

POST /session/:id/orientation with {"orientation": "LANDSCAPE"} always returns Unable To Rotate Device on iOS simulators.

The GET /session/:id/orientation endpoint works correctly and returns PORTRAIT.

Steps to Reproduce

Start Appium

appium --relaxed-security

Create session with Safari (to rule out app-specific issues)

SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:4723/session \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d
'{"capabilities":{"alwaysMatch":{"platformName":"iOS","appium:automationName":"XCUITest","appium:udid":"<SIMULATOR_UDID>","appium:bundleId":"com.ap
ple.mobilesafari","appium:noReset":true,"appium:useNewWDA":true}}}' | python3 -c "import sys,json;
print(json.load(sys.stdin)['value']['sessionId'])")

Get orientation (works)

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:4723/session/$SESSION/orientation

Returns: {"value":"PORTRAIT"}

Set orientation (fails)

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:4723/session/$SESSION/orientation \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"orientation":"LANDSCAPE"}'

Expected Behavior

The simulator rotates to landscape and the endpoint returns success.

Actual Behavior

   {
        "value": {
               "error": "unknown error",
               "message": "An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Unable To Rotate Device"
              }
   }

What I've Tried

• Tested on iOS 18.5 and iOS 26.0/26.2 simulators — same result
• Tested with xcuitest-driver 7.27.0 and 9.10.5 — same result
• Rebuilt WDA with appium driver run xcuitest build-wda — same result
• Confirmed rotation lock is NOT enabled on the simulator
• The same test passes on AWS Device Farm with real devices

[KazuCocoa]

iPhone 17 and iOS 26.0/26.4 simulator were able to rotate with com.apple.mobilesafari bundle id as you attached.

• Appium v3.2.2
• xcuitest@10.41.0
• macOS 26.4.1 (25E253)

Appium/WDA sets the orientation through iOS's API, thus it might be an iOS-side behavior related.
https://github.com/appium/WebDriverAgent/blob/381e75ce6ad1afb97b46cc3aa72e758193af1353/WebDriverAgentLib/Categories/XCUIDevice%2BFBRotation.m#L23

I don't have your running environment's macOS environment, but it also could be related in terms of simulators since the behavior depends on the host machine OS as well.

Do you have a newer OS version's environment to try it out?

[mtheresep]

@KazuCocoa Thank you for the reponse!

I upgraded my macOS version to 26.4.1, and the issue persists, so it doesn't seem to be a host OS issue in our case.

The key difference looks like the Appium/driver versions:

• Ours: Appium 2.19.0, xcuitest 9.10.5
• Yours: Appium 3.2.2, xcuitest 10.41.0

Unfortunately we're locked to Appium 2.x because our test automation framework has a dependency on it and doesn't yet support Appium 3.x.

[KazuCocoa]

Could you share the device log for the simulator? It might have more info about it.

https://github.com/appium/WebDriverAgent/blob/v9.15.3/WebDriverAgentLib/Categories/XCUIDevice%2BFBRotation.m#L21-L38 is the code for the version. It has no changes with the latest - it depends on Apple's API behavior