Android Tablet: portrait / landscape mode are reversed

Steps to reproduce

I tried but I couldn’t find the sandbox on Obsidian for Android?!? If that counts for anything, it’s a brand new clean install of Obsidian on Android with nothing turned on except white instead of dark theme (because it’s an eink device and black is a crime scene on eink) but the account login and having set up one vault and said two notes.

Expected result

the tabs side by side as expected

Actual result

only one tab is shown in landscape mode, not two, please see screenshot below

Environment

Sorry but the part "Swipe down from the top on mobile) enter "Show debug info"" doesn't work for me. When I swipe I just see the usual device menu. I tried to find this from the settings menu but I couldn't. If someone helps me with this, I will add it later.

Additional information

screenshot portrait mode

screenshot landscape mode

Please note that this issue seems to be exactly what is reported in this topic without solutions or replies: Android split view in landscape mode

It also seems similar to what is reported here: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/tablet-version-in-landscape-mode/46113 but the solution is to activate “developer mode”?!? I hope there is a better solution.
(Please note that one of the comments suggests that OP has mixed landscape and portrait modes but at least in my case the problem is indeed in landscape mode, also visible in the screenshots of the other topic above so it seems to be a common problem for Android that I could not find a solid solution solution reported for yet)

Many thanks in advance.

1 Like

Use case or problem

In my 8 inch android tablet, the app shows in tablet mode or desktop layout only in portrait. But in landscape it shows phone layout . But I think there is enough space in landscape mode for desktop layout.

Proposed solution

Fix this, add desktop layout in landscape as well.

Current workaround (optional)

Related feature requests (optional)

6 Likes

It sounds like you have “portrait” and landscape" reversed (unless the app is behaving strangely)— landscape is wide, portrait is tall.

App is indeed behaving strangely, at least in my case. I’ve got the same behavior with my galaxy tab s6

  • when my tablet is in portrait mode (tall) - obsidian shows ‘desktop mode’
  • when my tables is in landscape mode (wide) - obsidian shows phone layout. Which is not good because I cannot do splits and stuff :slight_smile:

One potentially interesting observation: when I use samsung dex - the feature of samsung tablets making them behave more like desktop - the obsidian shows desktop mode in landscape as expected. Not sure if that helps to pinpoint the problem, but that’s a potential workaround for samsung tablet owners like me.

P.S.: previously splits worked in both landscape and portrait. But I didn’t use obsidian on my tablet for more than a year. They were many updates since then so this fact is probably useless now :slight_smile:

1 Like

Found a solution. Got same problem with Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 lite.

  1. Activate developer mode in tablet.
  2. Go to developer tab and change “Minimal width” to 720.
  3. Profit.

Then you possible need to change font size to the amount you like.

P.S. The minimum width for Obsidian to consider the device a tablet is 570 or so. However, if you start editing, it will switch to mobile again. You can experiment and find out the most convenient ratio of interface scale and font size. It will be a value between 570 and 720.

1 Like

Just want to bump this feature request.

Im running an android tablet and the ability to force desktop mode would help make good use of the gutters around the actual content.

Edit: it seems that the side bars can be pinned so its possible to have both panels permanently open.

1 Like

I’m actually have this same issue and portrait and landscape are not confused. I’m working on a Boox tablet with a keyboard and I have it set to automatically change to landscape mode when connected to the keyboard and go back to portrait mode when disconnected.

When I open obsidian without the keyboard (in portrait mode) I am able to use split panes and have two noted open simultaneously. When I then connect the keyboard (automatically switching to landscape mode) it will show up like it does on my phone and has no split pane option.

Does it happen with obsidian 1.6.5?

Which tablet and android version do you have exactly?

Which android webview version do you have?

Not OP here, but I was trying to find a solution for this issue and found this thread.

I’m on 1.6.7, can confirm the issue still exists.

Issue:

  • In landscape mode, the layout shown is the mobile layout WITHOUT tabs on top (phone layout)
  • In Settings in landscape mode, instead of a two-pane display it only shows as a single pane (phone layout)
  • However, in portrait mode, the proper tablet layout is shown: two-pane layout in Settings AND tabs on top

I would also very much prefer tablet mode for BOTH portrait and landscape to fully make use of the wide screen space, especially in landscape mode.

If you need any further information feel free to ask, I really wish this issue can be fixed as it’s really frustrating to have a non-optimised layout in landscape mode.

Tablet: TCL NXTPAPER 10S
Android Version: 13
Webview Version: 126.0.6478.134