Take Photo Widget: Form data cleared when phone orientation changes during photo capture

If the user rotates their phone from vertical to horizontal while taking a photo, all previously entered data is cleared. It appears the form reloads when the Take Photo widget detects the orientation change. So beware.

You can add a notification the the Hover Text field of the control located above the Take Photo widget that says:

Rotating the phone after clicking the "Take Photo" button will cause all data fields already entered on this form to be cleared.

The Take Photo widget does not have it's own Hover Text field.

Hi David,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform support. You’re right, rotating the phone while using the Take Photo widget can cause the form to reload and clear all entered data. This happens because most mobile browsers refresh the page when the camera view changes orientation.

As a workaround, you can add a short note above the widget to let users know not to rotate their phone after tapping “Take Photo.” For example:

"Rotating your phone after clicking “Take Photo” will clear all entered data. Please keep your phone in one orientation."

Alternatively, you can use a File Upload field instead, which doesn’t trigger the same reload issue, and/or enable Continue Forms Later under Form Settings so progress is saved automatically.

I’ve also shared this behavior with our developers for review.

I just tested again and the form did not clear after clicking the Take Photo button and then rotating my cell phone from vertical to horizontal as it did a few days ago. Did the widget receive an update to correct this behavior in the interim, of is some other factor required to observe this behavior?

I've added a warning sentence on my forms as suggested. But am I missing something? The problem seems to have been corrected. I'm unable to observe the issue any longer. Could it be the result of some caching somewhere?

-Dave

With a bit more testing I've made a discovery. The Jotform only seems to exhibit the behavior of clearing prior fields after pressing the Take Photo button, and rotating the cell phone, when the form is embedded.

When the form is viewed directly on Jotofrm.com, the form does NOT clear the previously entered fields when the Take Photo button is clicked and then the cell phone is rotated.

But the the form is embedded using the iFrame embed method, the form DOES clear the form fields when the phone is rotated while taking a photo.

Here's a like to my embedded form:

https://www.sjpd.org/reporting-crime/prostitution-human-trafficking

Curious... More testing is warranted. But this seems to suggest that the problem is only evident when the form is embedded.

-Dave

Hi Dave,

I've cleared your form caches; your forms are now refreshed. Can you clear your web-browser caches and then try again using Google Chrome's incognito mode? Can you also share with us the screencast using Loom or Google Drive, but the link needs to be set to public? Are you filling out the form using the Jotform App or using the web-browser from your computer? Can you also share with us the form URL in question?

After we hear back from you, we’ll know what’s going on and how to help.

Sorry, No, this issue is only observed on my cell phone (iPhone). I have no way of recording my cell phone with another camera.

Steps to reproduce:

1.) Embed the form into another parent web page using the iframe embed method

2.) Load the embedded form into Safari on an iPhone.

3.) Fill out the form and click "Take Photo", now turn the camera from vertical to horizontal orientation, watch the form as it displays the camera feed in a window.

4.) Review previously filled out fields - if the test worked, the fields will all be empty because the form reloaded when tilted horizontally.

-Dave

Hi Dave,

Looks like you’ve also asked this on another thread. You can check out our answer there.

Let us know if you need any other help.

It sounds like the “Take Photo” widget is clearing the form data when the phone rotates during capture. Here’s what you can try to prevent that:

1. Lock the orientation before capturing the photo
2. Ask users to set their device orientation (portrait or landscape) and avoid turning it while taking the picture. This simple step often stops the form from resetting.
3. Use a widget version with better state handling
4. Some take-photo or camera widgets are built to preserve the form’s state (inputs, selections) even when orientation changes. Check if Jotform offers an updated or alternative version of the widget that supports this.
5. Auto-save fields periodically
6. If possible, store the existing form data in hidden fields or local storage while the photo is being taken That way, if the form “resets,” you can repopulate the fields.
7. Trigger a re-render instead of full reload
8. Instead of letting the form refresh or reload entirely on orientation change, try to rebuild only the camera input section — maintaining other field values intact.
9. Test across devices and browsers
10. This issue may behave differently on iOS vs Android or different browser versions. Try rotating during capture on multiple devices to isolate where the bug is most common.

By combining these (orientation locking + better widget + partial state saving), you can greatly reduce or eliminate the issue.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for flagging this. I’ve passed the details to our Developers to dig in. We’ll follow up as soon as we have any news. Here’s the link to that.

Reach out again if there’s anything else we can help you with.