Lock Screen

Changing the wallpaper or background on your iPhone and iPad is a great way to update the appearance of your device, and now there are cool new Dark Mode wallpaper options to choose from. To use this tip, be sure you've updated your device to iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 so that you can turn on Dark Mode and find the new Dark Mode wallpaper selection. Let's get started finding and changing our device's wallpaper to a Dark Mode option. 

If you lose sight of your phone in a public place, like leaving it plugged into the wall of the coffee shop while you do some remote work, your data is susceptible to USB hacking tools such as keyloggers. USB Restricted Mode can help secure your data by preventing access to the Lightning port after your device has been locked for an hour. 

iPhone notifications and alerts can be really helpful, or they can be disruptive; luckily there's a way to change the way you receive Lock Screen notifications on the iPhone, so you're not overwhelmed. With previous operating systems you had to go into the Settings app to change email, app, and iMessage notifications, but beginning with iOS 12 on the iPhone, a Lock Screen notification is easy to customize without entering Settings. Apple calls this process Fine Tuning; let's get started learning how to Fine Tune your iPhone notifications without leaving the Lock Screen. 

Here's a time-saving feature to boost your productivity: Lock Screen apps. You can open the Notes app directly from the Lock Screen of your iPhone. Lock Screen Notes are helpful for quickly marking down all the notes, checklists, links, and sketches that you want to have close at hand, without having to unlock your device. Let's get started learning how to add Lock Screen Notes to your iPhone so you can master this feature. 

Touch ID and Face ID are great iPhone security features, but if you want the best protection for your device, you need an iPhone passcode. Apple's default six-digit numeric passcode is already pretty hard to crack, but you can change your iPhone passcode to one that's even more secure. You can change the passcode on your iPhone to an alphanumeric code that's six digits or longer. That combination of letters, numbers, and length will bring your iPhone security to the next level. In addition to setting up Face ID or Touch ID, your passcode helps keep your iPhone safe from prying eyes. If you're looking for the best security code possible, an alphanumeric code is your best bet. Let's get started learning how to set a new passcode on your iPhone now. 

Do you want to know how to open the Camera app on your iPhone 11 or 11 Pro quickly? Or are you wondering how to access the flashlight? This tip will teach you how to access both your flashlight and camera, right from the Lock screen. Before the iPhone X, you had to swipe left on the Lock screen to open the iPhone Camera, but things changed when Apple got rid of the Home button. When looking at the Lock screen on your iPhone 11 or 11 Pro, you’ll see two icons on either side near the bottom: a camera and a flashlight. Having quick access to the Camera app and flashlight on your iPhone 11 is a great feature that utilizes some of your extra screen space. But how do you open the Camera app or turn on the flashlight from the Lock screen? Your instinct may be to tap each icon, but you’ll need to make it a 3D Touch or a long press. Here’s how to access the flashlight and camera from the Lock screen on your iPhone 11 or earlier iPhone without a Home button.

By now we’re all familiar with Touch ID, the fingerprint authentication security feature introduced with Apple’s iPhone 5s in 2013. The iPhone X replaces Touch ID with a facial recognition system, Face ID, which can be used to unlock your phone, open apps, make purchases in iTunes, and more. Biometric authentication protects our phones, but also introduces new privacy concerns by leaving iPhone users open to the possibility of criminals stealing data or law enforcement accessing it without a warrant. If you have even a few seconds notice before a robbery or unlawful search, you can discreetly and temporarily disable Touch and Face ID on your iPhone; let's learn how.

Gestures on the iPhone’s touch screen have always been important, but with no Home button on the iPhone X and later models, gestures become essential. To perform functions like a forced shut down or returning to the Home screen on your iPhone X, XS, XS Max, or XR, you're going to use unique gestures that combine the Side and Volume buttons in place of the missing Home button. Common features, like talking to Siri, opening Apple Pay, and closing apps, now have unique gestures that utilize your phone's physical buttons, Face ID, and the touch screen. This article covers all the tips you need to know, like how to use Reachability, take a screenshot, and how to temporarily disable Face ID on the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR. Let’s get started with how to use gestures to navigate iPhone models X and later.

The iPhone uses status icons to show a lot of information in a very small space on the screen. If you've ever wondered what some of the symbols on the top of your iPhone are trying to tell you, then you've come to the right spot. Some iPhone icons are more commonly known, such as the Wi-Fi signal icon, but some, like the Orientation Lock icon, mystify many. It’s good to know what all the iPhone icons mean so you can utilize their features or make sure at a glance that they’re turned on or off. Here’s your guide to the most common iPhone status icons.

Can someone hack my iPhone? How do I know if my iPhone is hacked? We tend to think of our iPhone getting hacked as a far-fetched scenario, but large tech companies like Apple take security seriously, and pay big money to white hat (good guy) hackers to find the bugs and loopholes they can’t see. iPhones can definitely get hacked, even with the ever-increasing layers of security Apple implements to protect our devices. While it’s not worth panicking over, it’s good to take precautions and use the security features on our iPhones, and also to exercise caution to not unwittingly allow hackers access to our devices. You can do a lot to secure your iPhone and protect it from possible hackers. We've already gone over Apple security and privacy efforts, ways to protect personal data on your iPhone, and how to keep a password safe, even while you're sharing it. The 14 tips below will ensure you’ve implemented every safeguard possible; here’s how you can protect your iPhone from hackers and cybercrime, both local and remote.

When you allow Siri to be accessed from your Lock screen, you may want to consider what Siri is capable of doing without unlocking your device. For example, let’s say you’re in a room with multiple other people. If one of them were to activate Siri when you have Voice Dial turned on, they could tell Siri to call someone without needing your passcode. But if you have Voice Dial turned off, Siri won’t make the call until you enter your iPhone’s passcode. This may or may not be important to you, but it’s good to know what can and cannot be accessed from Lock screen. Here’s how to turn Voice Dial off on iPhone.

iPhone camera access on Lock screen is incredibly easy to do with iOS 10. Before iOS 10, a small camera icon resided in the lower right corner of the Lock screen that allowed you to bring up the Camera. But now you’re only a swipe away from the Camera on Lock screen. Here’s how to access Camera from Lock screen in iOS 10.

I've had the experience of finding a smartphone and having a hard time figuring out who the owner is. It always seems urgent, since I know the owner is desperately looking for it. Should you find a lost iPhone or iPad, you can simply ask Siri who the owner is. Siri will tell you the owner and show contact information. Here’s how to return a lost iPhone or iPad to its rightful owner.

Control Center is great because it allows you to quickly do all kinds of useful things like turn Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, and Do Not Disturb on or off, lock your screen orientation, control playback, adjust volume levels, open your phone's calculator, and use your iPhone as a flashlight. However, some people worry about privacy when Control Center is accessible from Lock Screen (although, rest assured, nothing private can be opened without unlocking your phone), and others get tired of accidentally opening Control Center in an app while playing a game. Which is why Apple made it possible to turn off access to Control Center from Lock screen and within apps. Here’s how to disable access to Control Center from Lock Screen.

Passcode on the Apple Watch works quite a bit differently than setting a passcode does on the iPhone. On iPhone, you have to enter the passcode every time the screen goes off. But it would be super annoying if you had to enter a passcode on Apple Watch each time you lifted your wrist—no one would use it if that were the case. A passcode on Apple Watch is only asked for when your Apple Watch restarts, after you’ve manually locked it and are attempting to unlock it, and when you’ve removed the watch from your wrist and put it back on. That’s why setting a passcode for Apple Watch is an effective privacy measure, yet it’s also not so inconvenient that users won’t bother setting a passcode. Now that you know why it’s a good idea to set a passcode on Apple Watch, here’s how.

Part of iOS 10 on the iPhone is having a widget screen that’s to the left of your Lock Screen. The widgets screen allows you to see snapshots of certain apps and information. But you can use the search bar at the top to do a phone-wide search for Mail, Notes, websites, apps, wikipedia pages, movies, Twitter, and more. Don’t worry about privacy—you’ll have to unlock your phone before accessing the information. But if you know what you’re looking for, this feature can save you some time getting there. Here’s how to search your iPhone from the Lock Screen.

iOS 10 on iPhone added a fresh Widgets screen, available with a right swipe from Lock Screen or Home Screen. On this Widgets screen, you can choose what information is displayed. If you allow Maps Nearby to be active, you can easily search for nearby locations with Lunch, Coffee, Shopping, Gas, and more. Searching for nearby maps locations from the Widgets screen in iOS 10 jumps right to the information you need once you’ve unlocked your iPhone. Here’s how to search nearby locations from Widgets screen in iOS 10.

If your iPhone keeps going to Lock screen after showing a black screen and then a spinning wheel—we've got a fix below. We're going to show you how to fix the "iPhone keeps locking" problem many iPhone users run into. If you simply want to change your Lock screen settings to turn off Auto-Lock or change how quickly your screen dims, we'll cover that as well. What is Auto-Lock? Auto-Lock, or sleep mode, is one answer to how to save battery on the iPhone and iPad. This setting dims the screen after a set amount of time in order to extend iPhone battery life and prevent others from accessing your unlocked iPhone. If you disable Auto-Lock to get rid of your automatic screen lock time, it will cut into your battery life. You may also be wondering, "why is Auto-Lock grayed out on my iPhone?" We'll tell you why this happens, and how to fix it.

There’s a lot or a little you can access when your iPhone is locked, depending on the iPhone Lock screen settings you choose to enable. Lock screen access to your notifications, Siri, Wallet, and control of your smart home is certainly convenient. But if you're concerned about someone else being able to use those features when your phone is locked, you can also disable access for maximum privacy and security. We've already gone over how to change the auto-lock time on your iPhone and how to write notes from the Lock screen. Now, here’s how to customize your Lock screen settings, whether you have an iPhone X, an iPhone 11, or even the new iPhone SE.