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Here we go, another "if your not doing anything wrong, you got nothing to worry about" comment. Well, I dont expect the police to be kicking down my door and rushing in with a swat team. Its about as likely as winning the lotto.......but that doesnt mean I am against requiring police to have a valid search warrant. Its highly unlikely the Manson Family will burst into my home and stab myself and loved ones to death......but you better believe I wont be leaving my doors un locked. I WILL go through the hassle of dead bolting my locks and setting an alarm on my home when I leave. Guess what? You dont have to use touch id, you can leave your doors un-locked, you can leave your car running when you run into the store. For the rest of us though, we like these features so feel free to turn it off.

Here we go, another poor excuse for reasoning that proves that paranoia is still its own reward.

Your analogy basically stinks of reduction to the absurd.
 
If you sleep (or work, with a phone in a locker, or go to school) more than 8 hours, it's every day.

Conversely, perhaps some would like to set the delay to something even shorter.

Hey, they can default to 8 hours if they wish, but come on, make it configurable.
Please re-read the article to understand the actual requirements that are in play here--it's more than just the 8+ hours condition.
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No. For the first six days it's 48 hours.
And that's 48 hours of not unlocking at all (via TouchID or passcode).
 
Exactly this.

I've never set up a password on my phone because:

A) I'm not doing anything wrong. Go ahead and waste your time looking through my phone.

B) I don't keep anything important on my phone.

OK so what is someone takes your phone, then dials the pizza place and orders a pizza (since its not locked they can dial whomever).The pizza place has your address on file so bring you a pizza. Now it just cost you $15 for a pizza you didnt order or want by not having a pass code set. See It IS important to lock your device even if you are not doing anything wrong :D
 
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4. Remove battery
Takes 1 minute to do with simple tools. They can just keep force rebooting or putting the phone into airplane mode which shuts down all connectivity.
.

Having taken apart a lot of iPhones, I can tell you that it takes longer than 1 minute to pop the battery...mainly because unscrewing the connector plate is a pain. You also want to keep the screws.

It'd be easier to just buy a faraday back and stuff the phone in it. You'd have to be a pretty organized iPhone thief to have one of those, though...but if you can pop the battery in a minute you should use an f-bag instead.
 
That would explain why I've been getting asked for the passcode more frequently. I kept thinking did my device crash and reboot? But my apps would still be active so it wasn't that..
 
I think the reference in the article to the Fifth Amendment view on biometrics is a red herring. I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with government-- 6 days is too long for something like that to be meaningful. This is simply a mechanism to ensure that you enter your passcode once a week and the 8 hour rule is just so that it happens predictably in the morning.

For a lot of people, sadly, 8 hours means it pretty much guarantees it triggers on a weekend.

I wonder if this is a security measure, or a way of helping people not forget their passcodes. After using TouchID on my iPad for so long I started to worry if I'd remember the passcode I'd chosen.
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This isn't going to solve much because the vast majority of people still use a 4 digit passcode. Most don't know that they can make it longer, either 6 digits or alphanumeric. The root problem is that 4 digits is still an option.
If the phone wipes itself after 10 attempts, and a 4 digit passcode has 10,000 possibilities, then there's a 1 in 1000 chance that someone will manage to unlock my phone. If you include social engineering attacks or other outside information, then the chance is slightly higher, but if you include my ability to wipe it remotely then the chance is less.

I'm fine with that for most things.
 
What I find super annoying is having to put in my Apple ID password the first time u want to download something in the store. Why isn't TouchID enough? You already had to put in the passcode after the reboot anyway. Are they saying TouchID isn't trustworthy enough to confirm its really you?

what if you dead and the murderer is trying to steal your info, or rank up your credit cards? Every step must be done carefully I guess.
 
As someone who considers the possibility that the government will seek out and find something incriminating on my phone almost as likely as being struck by lightening twice in the same day, I find the constant demand to double-unlock it for my own use to be nothing better than an annoying sop to the massively paranoid.
I look at it this way: it's a digital version of "I'm Spartacus".

I don't think there's anything of interest in my data, but I believe there are people out there who need that kind of protection. If the only people seeking protection are those that a government might have interest in then governments know to go after those seeking protection. If everyone is sufficiently protected then it makes it a little harder for the J. Edgar's of the world to identify their political enemies.

Yes, it's a little bit more trouble for a lot of people to save a lot of trouble for a few people based more on philosophical outlook than anything that is likely to affect my personal life.

(and yes, I'm aware of how well "I'm Spartacus" worked out for everyone involved-- as with most metaphors, it should only be taken so far... )
 
So, just to clear things up, since this article and most of the commenters don't seem to understand what happened...

** THIS IS NOT NEW **

According to AppleInsider's article (and my own and several other posters' experience) there is no change in how iOS works regarding when it requires a passcode instead of Touch ID. All they did was fix the iOS Security Guide documentation.

iOS 9.x does (and always has) require a passcode instead of a touch ID when:

1) The phone has remained locked for 48hrs or...

2) The phone hasn't been unlocked using the passcode in 6 days *AND* hasn't been unlocked using TouchID in 8hrs.

So if you use your phone daily, the worst-case scenario is that you'll have to enter the passcode every 6 days. Unfortunately, the text that appears on the screen when #2 happens describes situation #1, which is confusing. But the basic functionality hasn't changed. Maybe they've changed that text - but I won't know for a few more days. lol Anyway, #2 has always been in iOS 9, but it was undocumented. Now they've documented it. That's all.

(I had often wondered why it would ask for my passcode every few days first thing in the morning. It's good to have that mystery solved, at least!)

Why does the headline & article say it changed? I don't know. Poor research? The AppleInsider headline is similarly misleading, which is even more perplexing, because their article actually says that an Apple spokesperson said that this is a change in documentation, not in functionality, but they went with the click-bait headline anyway.
 
So, just to clear things up, since this article and most of the commenters don't seem to understand what happened...

** THIS IS NOT NEW **

According to AppleInsider's article (and my own and several other posters' experience) there is no change in how iOS works regarding when it requires a passcode instead of Touch ID. All they did was fix the iOS Security Guide documentation.

iOS 9.x does (and always has) require a passcode instead of a touch ID when:

1) The phone has remained locked for 48hrs or...

2) The phone hasn't been unlocked using the passcode in 6 days *AND* hasn't been unlocked using TouchID in 8hrs.

So if you use your phone daily, the worst-case scenario is that you'll have to enter the passcode every 6 days. Unfortunately, the text that appears on the screen when #2 happens describes situation #1, which is confusing. But the basic functionality hasn't changed. Maybe they've changed that text - but I won't know for a few more days. lol Anyway, #2 has always been in iOS 9, but it was undocumented. Now they've documented it. That's all.

(I had often wondered why it would ask for my passcode every few days first thing in the morning. It's good to have that mystery solved, at least!)

Why does the headline & article say it changed? I don't know. Poor research? The AppleInsider headline is similarly misleading, which is even more perplexing, because their article actually says that an Apple spokesperson said that this is a change in documentation, not in functionality, but they went with the click-bait headline anyway.
Has #2 always been around though since the early days of iOS 9? It seems that recently people started coming across it and posting threads about it, while it hasn't been brought up much before. Sure it's not really proof of much, but seems like a fairly good indicator to go along with the recent articles about it that it might in fact be a more recent addition/change rather than something that has been around since the early days.
 
Has #2 always been around though since the early days of iOS 9? It seems that recently people started coming across it and posting threads about it, while it hasn't been brought up much before. Sure it's not really proof of much, but seems like a fairly good indicator to go along with the recent articles about it that it might in fact be a more recent addition/change rather than something that has been around since the early days.

My iPhone 6+ w/ iOS 9 has behaved this way since day one, so I'm going to say yes. Though I thought it was a bug because of the 48hr reference in the on-screen text when it happened. About once a week, it randomly (so I thought) decided it had been locked for 48hrs and required the passcode.
 
My iPhone 6+ w/ iOS 9 has behaved this way since day one, so I'm going to say yes. Though I thought it was a bug because of the 48hr reference in the on-screen text when it happened. About once a week, it randomly (so I thought) decided it had been locked for 48hrs and required the passcode.
I think it has been around a while, since with the iOS 9 update, I've noticed the passcode requirement in the morning but now without the explanations I use to get... "restarted" or "48 hours"--I guess it's too verbose to explain on the screen "iOS requires your passcode because you've not entered the passcode in more than 6 days and you've not used TouchID in more than 8 hours", yeah that's too much, and people would start complaining "BUT I SLEEP MORE THAN 8 HOURS" after that message. I'm shocked by how many posters that normally have good comprehension have been taken in by this one.
At the same time in some recent threads/posts about this, like the one at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/touchid-requires-passcode-every-week.1972675/, it seems that the messaging for this scenario is in fact different than all of those, meaning that at least the messaging related to it has been changed/introduced. So it sounds like even if this was there from the beginning, it wasn't really well/fully implemented perhaps until recently.
 
At the same time in some recent threads/posts about this, like the one at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/touchid-requires-passcode-every-week.1972675/, it seems that the messaging for this scenario is in fact different than all of those, meaning that at least the messaging related to it has been changed/introduced. So it sounds like even if this was there from the beginning, it wasn't really well/fully implemented perhaps until recently.

Wasn't the conclusion of that thread that the person was indeed experiencing the #2 trigger from my post above? I think I also mentioned that the on-screen text was misleading and confusing as to the cause of the passcode requirement, and hopefully they've fixed that. Since it hasn't been 6 days since 9.3.2 was released, I guess we won't know for a few more days. :)
 
I look at it this way: it's a digital version of "I'm Spartacus".

I don't think there's anything of interest in my data, but I believe there are people out there who need that kind of protection. If the only people seeking protection are those that a government might have interest in then governments know to go after those seeking protection. If everyone is sufficiently protected then it makes it a little harder for the J. Edgar's of the world to identify their political enemies.

Yes, it's a little bit more trouble for a lot of people to save a lot of trouble for a few people based more on philosophical outlook than anything that is likely to affect my personal life.

(and yes, I'm aware of how well "I'm Spartacus" worked out for everyone involved-- as with most metaphors, it should only be taken so far... )

Liked the movie analogy. :)

For people who feel like paranoia is the way to go, fine for them, but Apple isn't giving the rest of us the choice. It's either (to borrow another analogy) leave the front door unlocked all the time or have it lock behind you automatically whenever you go out to the mailbox. The fingerprint scan is plenty secure against theft. The only reason to add frequent passcode entry over the choice of the user is, essentially, to make a political statement.
 
Liked the movie analogy. :)

For people who feel like paranoia is the way to go, fine for them, but Apple isn't giving the rest of us the choice. It's either (to borrow another analogy) leave the front door unlocked all the time or have it lock behind you automatically whenever you go out to the mailbox. The fingerprint scan is plenty secure against theft. The only reason to add frequent passcode entry over the choice of the user is, essentially, to make a political statement.
I don't think this particular one is political. Having some conditions under which the passcode is required may be an anti-government measure, but this one is too infrequent to be of much value for that. I think this is more of a reminder to not forget your passcode.

I'm not opposed to having choices on some things-- if TouchID were super reliable, then having an option to do away with passcodes entirely might be a desirable option (perhaps with an iTunes connection necessary in the cases you've found yourself handling acid without gloves). Personally, for the reasons I gave above, I'd like it to default to passcodes on.

Mostly I'm just happy that I know why my iPad seems to want the passcode every weekend-- I'd been wondering what was triggering it.
 
OK so what is someone takes your phone, then dials the pizza place and orders a pizza (since its not locked they can dial whomever).The pizza place has your address on file so bring you a pizza. Now it just cost you $15 for a pizza you didnt order or want by not having a pass code set. See It IS important to lock your device even if you are not doing anything wrong :D
I don't have anything saved on my phone in regards to personal information such as my address.

I don't care that others want privacy. I was just saying *I* personally am not going to jump through a ton of hoops everytime I want to unlock my phone (which I do alot).
 
Excellent news! Now if only they'd add passcode/touch ID requirement for iPhone shut down :)
Bad idea. If forced to handover your phone: start pressing the power button when digging it from your pocket. By the time you have it ready to handover you swipe your thumb left to right over the top of the screen. The robber or officer receive a phone that is shutting down and they cannot stop that.

The robber will make like a bee and buzz off as soon as he has your (now worthless) phone. The officer will need a search warrant to force you to unlock your phone.
 
Is the implementation based on iOS version or sort of a across the based push to device? I ask because I was asked this morning for my passcode and the phone definitely didnt powercycle overnight...
 
This isn't going to solve much because the vast majority of people still use a 4 digit passcode. Most don't know that they can make it longer, either 6 digits or alphanumeric. The root problem is that 4 digits is still an option.

I also see a great deal of people that are not making use of TouchID at all. Most of the time the response is "I didn't know I could do that" or "I don't know how to set that up."

Over 80% of iPhone users use Touch ID.
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I hope they allow us to turn this off. Apple seems to be loosing touch with the user experience with the obsession over "security".

Because entering a password once every 6 days messes up the user experience? Brilliant
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I don't have anything saved on my phone in regards to personal information such as my address.

I don't care that others want privacy. I was just saying *I* personally am not going to jump through a ton of hoops everytime I want to unlock my phone (which I do alot).
Is the implementation based on iOS version or sort of a across the based push to device? I ask because I was asked this morning for my passcode and the phone definitely didnt powercycle overnight...

Did you even read the article?
 
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