I have an Android test project in which I wish to programatically change the orientation. My test: public class MainActivityLandscapeTest extends ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2<MainActivity> { public MainActivityLandscapeTest() { super(MainActivity.class); } private MainActivity mActivity; private Fragment mDetailFragment; private Fragment mListFragment; private Solo mSolo; @Override protected void setUp() throws Exception { super.setUp(); mSolo = new Solo(getInstrumentation(), getActivity()); mSolo.setActivityOrientation(Solo.LANDSCAPE); mActivity = getActivity(); mListFragment = (Fragment) mActivity.getSupportFragmentManager() .findFragmentById(R.id.listFragment); mDetailFragment = (Fragment) mActivity.getSupportFragmentManager() .findFragmentById(R.id.detailFragment); } public void testPreConditions() { assertTrue(mActivity != null); assertTrue(mSolo != null); assertTrue(mListFragment != null); assertTrue(getActivity().getResources().getConfiguration().orientation == Configuration.ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE); } /** * Only show detailFragment in landscape mode */ public void testOrientation() { assertTrue(mListFragment.isVisible()); assertTrue(mDetailFragment.isVisible()); } } The layouts for the activity is in seperate folders, layout-port and layout-land layout-port fragment_main.xml layout-land fragment_main.xml In landscape mode, the layout contains 2 fragments (Detail and list) while in portrait it contains 1(List only). If the device/emulator is already in landscape mode before testing begins, this test passes. If in portrait, it fails with a NullPointerException on mListFragment and mDetailFragment. Adding a delay (waitForIdleSync() and/or waitForActivity()) did NOT seem to solve my problem. How do i force the orientation to landscape in my test, while still being able to find the fragments using findFragmentById()?