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OnePlus 5 doesn’t adjust left & right audio recording channels when the phone is rotated

The further we get from the announcement of the OnePlus 5, the more bizarre issues seem to crop up. Today it’s being revealed that the OnePlus 5 suffers from another odd problem. When recording video, stereo audio channels don’t adjust to the phone’s orientation.

Update: OnePlus has confirmed that it is working on a fix for this issue on both the OnePlus 5 and the 3/3T.

We are aware of this issue and we will be fixing it in an upcoming OTA.


Each phone that can record stereo audio in the video uses a microphone on either end of the device to gather sound for the left and right audio channels. Since you can record video in either landscape orientation, phones generally record stereo sound based on the orientation, switching the audio channel assigned to each microphone accordingly.

OnePlus, on the other hand, doesn’t do this. Instead, holding the phone in one landscape orientation vs the other causes the audio channels to either be correct, or inverted. This is well demonstrated in the video below (via Reddit). To hear the problem, you’ll need to listen either with stereo speakers or headphones.

This is something OnePlus can definitely fix with a software update, but for now, it’s good practice to shoot videos on the OnePlus 5 with the home button facing to the left. Doing so allows the channels to line up correctly, but if the phone is flipped, it goes back to what is shown in the video.

Performing the same test on my Google Pixel clearly demonstrates the flaw on OnePlus’ end, and Hayato Huseman was able to perform the test on his OnePlus 5 to confirm that the audio channels do not switch with orientation.

Unfortunately, OnePlus 3T users are facing the same problem. This has seemingly been an issue for some time in OnePlus’ software, but it’s just now being discovered. Again, it should be a simple fix for the company to roll out, but seeing that the OnePlus 3/3T have been discontinued, it could be a while until that rolls out, if at all.

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