How To Make Your iPhone Stay Unlocked

Does your iPhone keep locking itself too early? There are many reasons you may want to prevent your iPhone from locking automatically, such as when you are reading an article on your phone yet not interacting with the screen. In this guide, I will show you how to keep your iPhone unlocked for convenience of use.

Why Your iPhone Locks Automatically

So, why does your iPhone lock automatically in the first place? Your iPhone is set to lock automatically for privacy purposes.

Imagine your phone never locks, and you leave it on the table and go to the bathroom. Anyone could pick up your phone and access your data. Thanks to the auto lock feature, the window of time for someone to do this is very small, thus protecting you.

However, this auto lock feature can sometimes be inconvenient. Imagine you are reading the screen but not scrolling, such as when you have ordered an Uber and are looking to track how far it is or whether it has arrived yet. In such a case, if your phone keeps automatically locking, it can be frustrating.

How to Change the Auto-Lock Time on an iPhone

Fortunately, you can change the auto-lock time and adjust the screen timeout. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock and select a time frame.

You can also select Never if you want to turn off Auto-Lock entirely. However, remember that if you set it to Never, your phone screen will never turn off automatically, so you will need to turn it off manually.

If you can’t select Never or it’s greyed out, your iPhone may be on Low Power Mode. If Low Power Mode is enabled, your iPhone is set to automatically lock at 30 seconds. Once you disable Low Power Mode, you can set the auto-lock time manually.

How Face ID Helps Keep Your iPhone Unlocked

If your phone has Face ID support (even if you don’t have Face ID enabled), you can also use it to keep your iPhone awake as long as you are actively looking at the screen.

Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and turn on Attention Aware Features. Once it’s turned on, your phone won’t dim as long as you are actively looking at the screen. However, it will also lower the volume of your alerts while you are looking at the device.

How to Keep Your iPhone Unlocked While Using Certain Apps

You can also use Guided Access on your iPhone to keep your screen awake when using a specific app.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access and turn it on. Then, adjust the Display Auto-Lock settings to Never, which will override your phone’s default Auto-Lock timeout when Guided Access is active.

Next, open the app you want to use and triple-click the side button of your iPhone for the Guided Access screen to appear (or the Accessibility Shortcut, from where you can access Guided Access). Click on Session Settings to adjust the settings (optional) and then click on Start to start your Guided Access session.

Note that Guided Access also disables other apps. Furthermore, you can require a passcode to exit Guided Access, set a time limit for usage, and more. It has a lot of use cases other than keeping the screen on, such as when handing your phone to your kid to use.

Why the Auto-Lock Option Is Grayed Out

The most common reason the Auto-Lock settings are greyed out is Low Power Mode is enabled.

However, if you got your iPhone from your company, and it has Mobile Device Management installed, this could be another reason. Go to Settings > General > Profiles & Device Management to check for policies.

Screen Time restrictions can also cause this to be greyed out. Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions to check for restrictions.

How to Fix an iPhone That Keeps Locking

If your iPhone keeps locking, and you already disabled Auto-Lock by setting it to Never, make sure Low Power Mode is not enabled and turn on Attention Aware features. Next, update your iPhone and restart it. Note that if your device has Mobile Device Management, you may not be able to change the Auto-Lock settings.

Should You Disable Auto-Lock?

While disabling Auto-Lock can be convenient, I don’t recommend it as a long-term solution. It puts your personal data at risk if you leave your phone around or if it gets stolen. Furthermore, it will drain your battery. Instead, I recommend turning on Attention Aware Features, which often accomplishes the same goal: keeping your phone unlocked while in use.

Tips for Keeping Your iPhone Secure Without Frequent Locking

To secure your iPhone while not having it lock all the time, secure individual apps, like Gmail, WhatsApp, and other apps that contain sensitive data with your passcode. Next, turn on Stolen Device Protection. Make sure Find My is turned on, so you can track your phone if it’s stolen and wipe it clean. Finally, I recommend setting Auto-Lock to 5 or 10 minutes rather than Never.

Conclusion

I hope this iPhone Auto-Lock guide was helpful in showing you how to keep your iPhone unlocked. I recommend setting it to 5 or 10 minutes rather than Never or turning on Attention Aware Features as an alternative.