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Does this apply to the iPad? I didn’t use my cellular iPad for 3 days and last night I went to use it and it said passcode required after restart.
 
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That’s good. By the time these stolen iPhones make it to Africa and India they will hopefully be harder to break into.
 
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I think this is a very good feature. I also think that people should set their Apple ID to private on their devices so that it isn’t viewable much less able to be changed. You can do that by going to Settings > Screen Time > Content and Privacy Restrictions toggle on > scroll down to account and toggle ’don’t allow’ changes.’
 
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My old mother regularly doesn't use her iPhone for several days at a time. This could become highly annoying if every second time she picks it up again she'll have to reenter the device password and the SIM pin. It's already difficult to understand for her when to enter what cryptic code.
 
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I wish they let the user setup that feature to increase or decrease the time it takes to reboot when not in use. I think this is a great anti-theft feature to make it harder for the bastards to get into the phone's data. My iPhone was robbed in February 2024 and since then there have been thousands of login attempts into every single service that I use in my phone. They may have not been able to access all the information, but they managed to get hints of all the web pages and apps that I use and the login, username and/or email address (not the passwords as far as I can tell), specially online shopping sites and apps.

I would love to be able to setup my phone to reboot every 12 hours or so, I don't care waiting for a few munites to use my phone.
I would absolutely love to know how you think that somebody stole your iPhone and was unable to get into it yet they were able to access it to get your passwords or your password hint information for all of these different sites. I’m also curious how you’re able to know such a specific number That there has been thousands of attempts at passwords.
 
Hearing that a bunch of iPhones rebooted from inside an evidence vault reminded me of using the junkyard magnet in the back of the truck to destroy the laptop hard drive. Such a good scene.

jpbreaking-superJumbo.jpg
 
I'm going to agree with @BarrettF77 because if you leave a device and it reboots, it cannot access the system keychain, which prevents it from connecting to wi-fi, which means various updates and background services cannot run. This has the annoying implication that you may have to re-sign in to your Apple account because Apple expires inactive sessions fairly quickly.
 
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I would absolutely love to know how you think that somebody stole your iPhone and was unable to get into it yet they were able to access it to get your passwords or your password hint information for all of these different sites. I’m also curious how you’re able to know such a specific number That there has been thousands of attempts at passwords.
This is the Internet, where 345% of people make stuff up to clout chase
 
I'm going to agree with @BarrettF77 because if you leave a device and it reboots, it cannot access the system keychain, which prevents it from connecting to wi-fi, which means various updates and background services cannot run. This has the annoying implication that you may have to re-sign in to your Apple account because Apple expires inactive sessions fairly quickly.
I guess the key question is what situation one may be in where they haven't used their phone in over 72 hours. At least we know such a situation can't happen any more often than ever three days. Would seem odd for someone to regularly only pick use their phone like once a week or so. The situations where 99.999% of people would have phone idle for more than a few days are basically limited to accidentally leaving your phone somewhere.
 
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I guess the key question is what situation one may be in where they haven't used their phone in over 72 hours. At least we know such a situation can't happen any more often than ever three days. Would seem odd for someone to regularly only pick use their phone like once a week or so. The situations where 99.999% of people would have phone idle for more than a few days are basically limited to accidentally leaving your phone somewhere.
Honestly my phone is a glorified alarm clock that I pretty leave beside my bed 24/7 and don't really use. I use a VoIP service so I can receive/make calls using my computer. Outside of my scenario, I think @klasma also has a great use-case:

My old mother regularly doesn't use her iPhone for several days at a time. This could become highly annoying if every second time she picks it up again she'll have to reenter the device password and the SIM pin. It's already difficult to understand for her when to enter what cryptic code.

If my parent were to get an iPhone, they'd probably be locked out of their device and not able to get reach me (or anyone) for help unlocking it.

I guess I'm saying this is a fine option to have, and the default time interval is reasonable, but it should be user-configurable.
 
My old mother regularly doesn't use her iPhone for several days at a time. This could become highly annoying if every second time she picks it up again she'll have to reenter the device password and the SIM pin. It's already difficult to understand for her when to enter what cryptic code.
after 24 hours you have to reenter the password anyway, this doesn't change a thing. And SIM pin? you can just remove it for her as she doesn't need that.
 
Score a win for us consumers!

I do reboot my phone daily, and have for years. Why, because I’m just crazy 😬

I like crazy people because I am crazy too. 😁

There were times I made a clean install of macOS and maybe iOS almost daily, just because something I installed and didn't need made it somehow unclean. Or for macOS because I couldn't decide what version to use. Some iOS downgrades had been also made.

The worst times were after Yosemite had been released. I can't count how often I got back to an older version. I also didn't like iCloud for a while but wanted to write iMessages and SMS from my Mac and there was one version where this didn't worked but I liked it more than the next one because there was less iCloud.

And then the introduction of SIP and this strange new Disk Utility. Whenever that was... Was it High Sierra what introduced SIP? At least I downgraded very often to Sierra. And the new Disk Utility came already in El Capitan I think or did that one already had SIP or another new protection? There was an app with Themes for macOS that was discontinued because of El Capitan. Maybe just because Gatekeeper couldn't be set to "Anywhere" without a Terminal command.

This behavior started already on Windows, what really slowed down with everything you installed and deleted and with every new version.
On one day I thought 7 might be better than 8.1, but 8.1 was faster somehow and could look the same, only 8.0 was the bad one and XP also still worked or even 2000 and that was much faster than anything else and Windows NT 4.0 was also still there but didn't support USB or so.

Much worse was it, when I changed daily between DOS+Windows 3.11 and Windows 95. And later between 98 and 95. That was always a hassle with all those Service Packs. 😑

I think I am really crazy and better don't write more. 😳
 
after 24 hours you have to reenter the password anyway
It’s after 48 hours I believe, but you are right that it’s less than three days. She does manage to enter the passcode.

And SIM pin? you can just remove it for her as she doesn't need that.
You’ll have to explain that. If her iPhone gets stolen, the SIM is easily removed and abused without a PIN.
 
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The other thing is this may mean you can’t use an old iPhone as a server or other unattended appliance anymore, connected to a charger and lying in a cupboard.
 
I hate this feature with a passion and the fact that there’s no way to turn it off irritates the hell out of me. Steve Jobs said you ask your customers for permission on things repeatedly, and this secretive nature of how they do business is becoming more and more irritating.

I get the used case and the value of it, but for devices that I don’t use as often it causes them to sit there and think for a while after I unlock it as a catch up on all of the messages and everything which is hugely annoying
Security is always going to be a pain in the neck but the amount of people who do not touch their device in 3 days is a very small number.
 


With iOS 18, Apple introduced a feature that causes the iPhone to reboot every three days, security researchers have confirmed (via TechCrunch). In a demo video, security researcher Jiska Classen proved that an iPhone left untouched for 72 hours will automatically restart, and Graykey manufacturer also Magnet Forensics wrote a blog post about the feature.

iphone-passcode-green.jpg

After a reboot, an iPhone is more difficult to break into with the forensic tools used by law enforcement and others, such as bad actors. There are multiple unlocked states for an iPhone, and an iPhone that's at a passcode screen but has been previously unlocked with Face ID/Touch ID is easier to break into.

An iPhone that has recently restarted is in a "Before First Unlock" state, and that is when an iPhone is most secure because all data is encrypted. A reboot will initialize if a device is in a locked state (as in has been unlocked with Face ID or Touch ID but is now at the passcode screen) and has not been unlocked for a 72 hour period.

A 7-day inactivity reboot functionality was initially introduced in iOS 18, but the timer was shortened to three days with the launch of iOS 18.1. An iPhone in "Before First Unlock" state has messaging about Face ID/Touch ID being required after an iPhone restarts. An iPhone in the "After First Unlock" state simply says "Enter Passcode."

Apple has not provided details on inactivity reboot, and kept quiet about the addition of the feature. It was discovered when law enforcement officials noticed iPhones spontaneously rebooting following the launch of iOS 18. 404 Media last week shared a letter from officers in Detroit, Michigan, warning other law enforcement about the new limitation. While police speculated that the reboot could be tied to cellular network connectivity, iPhones will reboot regardless of connectivity status.

There was also speculation that an iPhone running iOS 18.1 could cause other iPhones to reboot, but that does not seem to be the case.

Law enforcement officials can still use brute force tools to get into iPhones running iOS 18 or later, but breaking into an iPhone must now be done before the iPhone restarts.

Article Link: iOS 18 Security Feature Causes iPhone to Reboot After Three Days of Inactivity
What about iPads?
 
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