How To Lock iPhone Apps With Your Passcode

By using a Shortcuts automation, you can make it seem like one or more of your regular iPhone or iPad apps are locked and require your passcode to access. This low-security technique could prevent others from gaining access to important apps.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you how to require your passcode when accessing specific apps on your iPhone or iPad. 
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Now your iPhone is always protected by your passcode and face ID and touch ID. So if your iPhone is lost somebody can't access it without your passcode. But let's say your iPhone is unlocked.  Maybe you were using it and somebody grabs it from you or maybe you give it to somebody so they can look at, say, photos in the Photos App or maybe so a child can play a game on your phone. You just want to prevent them from actually getting into another app, let's say the Messages App to send a message or a social media app to see what is there. Currently there is no way to lock down just any app on your iPhone by requiring your passcode, touch ID, or face ID. But with iOS 16.4 you can actually create something in Shortcuts that will kind of do that for you. It's not ultra-secure but it will work in most cases. 
So as an example let's prevent access to the Calculator App. Normally this would be something else like Messages or Facebook or the Camera App, or something like that. I'm going to go into Shortcuts here and then on the main screen of Shortcuts at the bottom I can tap on Automations. I'm going to create a personal automation. Now a personal automation could be triggered by a number of factors. One of those factors is APP. If you select that you can have an automation triggered by when an app is opened. So let's go and choose the app. In this case I'm going to choose Calculator as the example. Then tap Done. So now this will launch this automation when the Calculator App is opened. I'm going to tap Next here and now we have to add Actions. So I'll tap Add Action. Then I'm going to Search for Lock. and look for Lock Screen. If you don't see Lock Screen then you may need to update your iPhone to iOS 16.4 in order to get it. So let's choose Lock Screen and that's it. I'm going to tap Next here and the only thing that this automation is going to do is lock the screen when Calculator is open. 
Now the next thing I want to do is to turn off Ask Before Running. Confirm and now it won't ask and won't notify. It will just run this. When the Calculator is opened it will lock the screen. Tap Done and then I'm going to return to the Home Screen. Now let's give it a try. I'm going to launch Calculator and you could see how Calculator launches but it immediately locks the Home Screen. Now since it is my iPhone it's not really a problem for me because I would just use Face ID and it will unlock. Chances are I'm already starring at the screen. But now I have to slide Up to exit the lock screen. You can see I'm in the Calculator App. So now I can use the Calculator App as normal. It would be the same thing, say, for Messages or Instagram or whatever. It's just going to give me an extra step as it does Face ID and I swipe up in order to get to the app. But somebody else, of course, Face ID wouldn't work, Touch ID wouldn't work, it would prompt them for the passcode and they wouldn't know it. So they wouldn't be able to get into that. As a matter of fact from that point on they couldn't do anything with your iPhone. They've locked themselves out. 
So to be clear, if somebody knows your passcode this doesn't protect you from anything. They could still get into everything on your iPhone. The passcode is still the key to it all. This only protects you if somebody has your iPhone, it is already unlocked, and now they try to access an app you don't want them to. It locks them out and since they don't know the passcode they can't go any further. So say if somebody grabs your iPhone while you're using it, it is unlocked. Then they try to, say, access your messages. If you have this setup for the Messages App then it would just lock them out as soon as they went to the Messages App. If you give it to, say, a child to play a game and they decide to be sneaky and then go over to one of your social media apps, as soon as they do that if this is set for that app it will lock them out. They'll have to come to you to unlock it since they don't have the passcode. 
It is actually not completely foolproof if they don't know the passcode. There is a way to be able to switch this Off if they know it is there. So if somebody knows that you've got this setup so if they go to say the Messages App it is going to lock them out they can turn it Off before they go to the Messages App. But the whole idea here is they don't know you've got this. There is no reason for them to suspect you set things up this way. So when they try to go to the app it locks them out and they can't do anything at all. Now a better way to do this would be for Apple to add something in Settings where you could go through your list of Apps and switch On require your passcode for any app that you want. 
Now let's look at some variations on this because while this isn't that hard for you to get access to the apps it still does require one or two extra steps to get into them. But you could modify this shortcut here by going into it and then adding something else to the actual actions. So I'm going to go into Do here to modify this. All it's going to do here is lock the screen. However, I could also go and look for Network. I can choose Get Network Details. One of the things you can choose is Network Name. You can see that is the default. Then I can also choose If and I can setup an IF statement in here and say IF the network details, which in this case is the Name, and then in the Condition part here do, IS NOT and then in text add the name of your WiFi network. So whatever that is called it has got to be exact though. Then move Lock Screen in there. So if the network name is not this then it will lock the screen. So that way when you're at home it won't actually bother you with the extra steps. Only when you're away using a mobile network or using somebody else's WiFi will it actually lock you when you go to specific apps. 
Now backup at this level here you can also define which apps, as multiple apps. So instead of when Calculator is opened you can tap here, go back in, and actually choose multiple apps here. So you can choose a ton of different apps, all your social media apps, your Camera App, whatever it is you want to have this extra little layer of protection on into here and then it will show three apps there. 
Now you can also set this up for When an App is Closed. So let's go and change from the Calculator App to say the Photos App. Like, for instance, assume that a lot of times you go and hand your phone to somebody to show them some photos. So now it is set to Photos instead of Calculator. Let's set it up to Is Closed. So now when you close the Photos App it will do this. So you can go to the Photos App with no problem to let somebody else look at your photos. Then if they try to go to the Home Screen or switch to another app then your phone locks. 
If you want to get rid of this all you have to do is go back to Shortcuts. Go to Automations and if you swipe from right to left you can see there is a Delete Button that gets revealed there. But you can also just have this available. Go into it and you can see Enable This Automation at the top. So if you want to use this for a little while and then get rid of it, you can just disable it. Then it is ready to be turned on again if you want it back. 
So this is a handy technique to know. It is not going to be something that protects you if they have somehow gotten your passcode. This won't stop them from anything. But it is handy to have this if you find that you often hand your iPhone to friends and family and you just want to make sure they don't get into other apps and mess around. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 8 Responses to “How To Lock iPhone Apps With Your Passcode”

Dreux

1 year ago

Great tip Gary! Thanks for this.

Indy

Smart tip, Gary, thank you. Apple will surely be adapting this - about time!

David Christensen

I followed this step by step. I have a different menu than you in automation I click open and select the app I don't get " Done" I get "next "clicking next it goes to actions. send message, open app & play music. I clicked on open app and another menu open chose from menu, if & stop this shortcut. I have a iPhone 13 and the same iOS but my menus are different than yours. it is so much more complicated then you demonstrated.

Gary Rosenzweig

David: Sounds like you aren't following along with what I am showing. I show Done and then Next both if you look closely. Then I show just what you describe here in your comment, but it sounds like you are not taking the same steps I am showing.

Graham Hoare

Gary- Great tip thanks- been looking for this type of protection for my iPhone & Ipad app's which have personal info .
I look forward to your weekly email- always something helpful- well done.

Kathy

Hi Gary, This is great thank you. I have two home wifi addresses, one for 2.4 & one for 5 ghz. I've successfully set up one automation for one of the two networks, is it possible to add a second wifi name to the same automation? I've tried but with no luck. Thanks in advance. Kathy

Kathy: Yes. Just have more parts to that IF statement. Check for one, then check for the other.

Debbie Jenkins

My grandchildren love accessing my phone. However, I have somethings they do not need to see. Thank you

Comments Closed.

How To Lock iPhone Apps With Your Passcode

Comments: 8 Responses to “How To Lock iPhone Apps With Your Passcode”

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