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"You must change your iPhone unlock passcode within 37 minutes."

Had this a few weeks ago on my 6 Plus - no Exchange or VPN or anything like that - had posted an earlier thread on it
Contacted Apple support at the time and their tech guy checked with his colleagues and none of them had ever heard of it before
Still don't know what caused it but phone is working ok and so far have not had any funny stuff happen with my Apple account
 
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my wife had this come up tonight and asked me about it. After a fair amount of searching on the internet i came across the solution below and it appears to have worked. She is running the latest IOS, not a beta not jailbroken and she does not have any profiles on the phone. Also she only runs one email account and there is no MDM control. This is what i told her to do and it appears to have cleared the request.

Josh

Close Safari completely from the multitasking window by double clicking the Home button and swiping up the Safari preview pane until it disappears from the screen. You may have to look for the Safari pane by scrawling to the left as there may be other panes there from other apps. Then go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Then do a forced restart. Hold down the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time for about 15-20 seconds until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the "Slide to power off" text if it comes up. You will not lose anything.
 
josh bear said:
my wife had this come up tonight and asked me about it. After a fair amount of searching on the internet i came across the solution below and it appears to have worked. She is running the latest IOS, not a beta not jailbroken and she does not have any profiles on the phone. Also she only runs one email account and there is no MDM control. This is what i told her to do and it appears to have cleared the request.

Josh

Close Safari completely from the multitasking window by double clicking the Home button and swiping up the Safari preview pane until it disappears from the screen. You may have to look for the Safari pane by scrawling to the left as there may be other panes there from other apps. Then go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Then do a forced restart. Hold down the Home and Wake/Sleep buttons at the same time for about 15-20 seconds until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the "Slide to power off" text if it comes up. You will not lose anything.
Click to expand...
Well, the restart alone might have cleared it out basically, as I'm not sure what Safari might have to do with it (unless we aren't talking about a real iOS prompt to do something with the passcode and actually some sort of a pop-up from a web page).
 
C DM said:
Well, the restart alone might have cleared it out basically, as I'm not sure what Safari might have to do with it (unless we aren't talking about a real iOS prompt to do something with the passcode and actually some sort of a pop-up from a web page).
Click to expand...


Hi

startup alone did not clear it. Using the instructions above that found on apple discussions board worked. 3 days later the pop up has not reappeared. From reading other boards it appears this may be a scam of some sort. Perhaps one that leads you to call a phone number where they sort your phone for a fee. I have seen that last piece before.

Josh
 
josh bear said:
Hi

startup alone did not clear it. Using the instructions above that found on apple discussions board worked. 3 days later the pop up has not reappeared. From reading other boards it appears this may be a scam of some sort. Perhaps one that leads you to call a phone number where they sort your phone for a fee. I have seen that last piece before.

Josh
Click to expand...
That sounds more like a web/browser pop-up then rather than an iOS prompt itself. I'm not sure if everyone is necessarily experiencing that over an actual iOS prompt.
 
I agree. I posted the solution that worked for my wife here based on the content of this thread. Hopefully it will help someone

Josh
 
josh bear said:
I agree. I posted the solution that worked for my wife here based on the content of this thread. Hopefully it will help someone

Josh
Click to expand...

I just got off the phone with Apple regarding this problem. The first level tech had not heard it and suggested turning off the passcode function while she searched for a solution. However, the senior advisor she ultimately transferred me to had experience with the problem and verified Josh's solution (clear the Safari history and data). The Sr. tech suggested that some Safari add-ons* (even from the App Store) can allow cookies. etc. to be placed on the phone that lead to this type of problem as you browse. She also said that using the private browsing feature in Safari may help.

While waiting for the first tech I did some trouble shooting and discovered that the "You must change your passcode . . ." message only showed up when I was on the home page. If I was on any other page and the phone went to sleep (whether on its own or I forced it), the message did not come on when I woke up the phone. But the message would return immediately upon going to the home page. So while the cause is apparently related to Safari, the way it shows up looks for all the world like an iOS prompt.

I did want to make two observations about the solutions. When I cleared the Safari history and data I lost all of the pages (about 7) I had open in Safari. So I recommend if you are going to use that solution you go to Safari and see what you have open and save it before you clear the history/data. Secondly, I learned pretty quickly from ensuing bank emails that the consequence of turning the passcode off and then back on causes you to lose all your Apple Pay connections and you will have to re-enter them.

-------

*In my case, I have 1Blocker installed to manage all the pop-ups that now blanket the web - whether you are reading news, following FB links, or shopping. I am not suggesting that 1Blocker itself is a problem, but I've read that there are many businesses, news organizations, and web-developers who are losing revenue and are very angry with web blockers and would not be above wanting to find ways to retaliate. And I am especially sympathetic to small developers and bloggers that are trying to make ends meet and need the revenue lost by ad-blockers. Unfortunately, what used to be simple ads have become guessing games on how to get out of an ad to read what you were browsing for in the first place.

While this latter part looks like a RANT, I included it so other people with the problem can assess what they may have installed or encountered that could be the root of this problem. If we collectively share the history someone may may be able to ascertain the cause - because someone is clearly out there messing with iPhone users. It would be great to develop enough information that future users who come across this thread will know what to do and maybe even what the cause is.
 
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Just had this come up for me today also. No profiles or exchange email accounts.

As someone asked above. i have Refine installed for content blocker.
 
This just happened to my friend, literally freaks her out. No MDM or Exchange account, although she had an Lotus Note IMAP and Google Gmail. Both are not exchange.

Likely it seems to be widely spread enough to be not a damaging malware or such. But it still puts me off this is coming from Apple, a company who put UX at 1st place.
 
Same here - happened several times now. This morning it asked me to reset my password but I could only use a 4 digit one!
No email accounts/profiles etc. Odd bug - typical Apple as of late!
 
I didn't change my password when it asked. I just did as others said and cleared web data and rebooted. It never came back.
 
josh bear said:
I agree. I posted the solution that worked for my wife here based on the content of this thread. Hopefully it will help someone

Josh
Click to expand...
Whilst some of these pop ups are probably caused by Safari, where a webpage creates a dialogue box that interrupts your screen, it's impossible for a webpage to FORCE you to change your iPhone passcode. So if you ignore it and it never comes back, it could've just been a webpage. But if you can't get rid of it until you change your code, its going to be something else.

The sandboxing in iOS would absolutely squash any attempt for a Safari webpage to manipulate a major security feature of the device. I think we have 2 seperate issues at play in this thread.
 
It came back today. Except it would not let me past screen unless change passcode. I hit continue and it wanted me to change it to 4 digit passcode. I use the longer one already. Why force me to use weaker one. Would not let me past screen. Normal reboot it came back. But holding the power button and home button reboot it was gone.
[doublepost=1463350436][/doublepost]Looked in log and diagnostics and only thing for the last 30 minutes is one for "ResetCounter"
 
My friend and I have both encountered this. No exchange or any of that jazz turned on. Very strange bug, hopefully just a bug.. Surprising Apple hasn't acknowledged this yet.
 
Had no idea this had been happening for so long. I experienced this on two separate occasions now -- on May 19th and just last night. Posted under another thread that had been started elsewhere on the forum where it was just seemingly the OP and me experiencing it.

My iPhone is a Personal 6+, original owner, no managment, no blockers etc. From what I've observed it does pop up on Home screen only. Apple Support had me first wipe the Safari web history like mentioned above, then had me Reset All Settings (still feeling the effects of these two moves). Had me change my passcode and I re-did my fingerprint. On the 19th I was on 9.3.1. A few days ago updated to 9.3.2. And then last night got hit with the Requirement screen again. Prior to the 19th I had never seen this. The Passcode Requirement Screen did countdown everytime I would ignore and turn the phone off and then back on. Got down to 4 minutes and I was more concerned about possibly bricking (wondering if this was something like the 10 passcode "guess" bricking of locked phone I had heard about--not a tech person 🙂) so decided to change the passcode before time expired. Did notice a prompt for Password to be entered however in the entry field). Not sure why it was always asking for Passcode but then a Password at this juncture. As someone else above mentioned, the Screen asked for a 4-digit, despite after the 19th I had set it from a 4-digit to a 6-digit! Very bizarre to ask for weaker security and this whole matter doesn't leave me with a comfortable feeling. Have not called Apple Support again, may do so on Tuesday under my Case number from the 19th to let them know "IT'S BACK!!"
 
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Goaliegeek said:
Today for the first time ever, a message appeared on my iPhone that said:
Passcode Requirement
You must change your iPhone unlock passcode within 37 minutes.




Then I had to enter my old passcode and put a new one in. Is this a 9.3 'feature?' I didn't see anything under settings that says to change it every x days.
Click to expand...

It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
[doublepost=1464975916][/doublepost]
Mac2me said:
Had no idea this had been happening for so long. I experienced this on two separate occasions now -- on May 19th and just last night. Posted under another thread that had been started elsewhere on the forum where it was just seemingly the OP and me experiencing it.

My iPhone is a Personal 6+, original owner, no managment, no blockers etc. From what I've observed it does pop up on Home screen only. Apple Support had me first wipe the Safari web history like mentioned above, then had me Reset All Settings (still feeling the effects of these two moves). Had me change my passcode and I re-did my fingerprint. On the 19th I was on 9.3.1. A few days ago updated to 9.3.2. And then last night got hit with the Requirement screen again. Prior to the 19th I had never seen this. The Passcode Requirement Screen did countdown everytime I would ignore and turn the phone off and then back on. Got down to 4 minutes and I was more concerned about possibly bricking (wondering if this was something like the 10 passcode "guess" bricking of locked phone I had heard about--not a tech person 🙂) so decided to change the passcode before time expired. Did notice a prompt for Password to be entered however in the entry field). Not sure why it was always asking for Passcode but then a Password at this juncture. As someone else above mentioned, the Screen asked for a 4-digit, despite after the 19th I had set it from a 4-digit to a 6-digit! Very bizarre to ask for weaker security and this whole matter doesn't leave me with a comfortable feeling. Have not called Apple Support again, may do so on Tuesday under my Case number from the 19th to let them know "IT'S BACK!!"
Click to expand...

It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
 
Goaliegeek said:
Today for the first time ever, a message appeared on my iPhone that said:
Passcode Requirement
You must change your iPhone unlock passcode within 37 minutes.




Then I had to enter my old passcode and put a new one in. Is this a 9.3 'feature?' I didn't see anything under settings that says to change it every x days.
Click to expand...
Hey bud,
This has happened to me once in the past and just today again. Now I had to quickly press on your Settings app before the prompt to change the PW. Do it quickly and you'll be able to access the Settings App before the lockout occurs. What I did and so far it has worked is

I went to <Settings - General, then into - Handoff & Suggested Apps and read under Installed Apps.

It seem to define the possible issue I or we all were and or are facing so I turned it off and the "strong arm prompt lock out" went away and I was able to use my iPhone again. Now I did clear my website history & data as well and that worked the first time this happened to me but not the 2nd time. I'm not the most tech savvy guy but after hearing that most likely it was not Apple I wasn't about to concede. Hopefully this helps give it a shot. You guys be safe.
 
Last edited:
securespace said:
It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
[doublepost=1464975916][/doublepost]

It is a malware - close Safari completely (very important), go to Settings, Safari and clear all history, cookies and website data. Hard reset your phone. Then the message will be gone!
Click to expand...
I'm curious, how does something from Safari pop-up an iOS dialog when Safari isn't in use and provide iOS options from within that dialog? How would such a "malware" work in iOS and what would even be the point of it?
 
i have had this happen twice before. both times my phone was in Low Power Mode, and in an area of poor cell reception.

as for the exchange, I have Outlook for iOS, which I believe to have been the problem.

while I was able to get it to go away without changing the passcode, I was unable to figure the exact cause of the issue.
 
I've never seen it before, but there have been more reports of it lately. Is it a bug or some new security features like some email accounts?
 
I unlocked my iPhone 6 running iOS 9.3.2 yesterday afternoon.
I was prompted to immediately change my passcode to a new 4 digit one. There was no warning.
My original passcode was 6 digits.
My passcode settings are to immediately require a passcode after the screen locks.
I don't have any configuration profiles on my iPhone.
I do not have any indication of a supervised iPhone via apple's mobile device management.
I do not have any microsoft exchange email accounts setup in Mail.

The key question is what triggered this prompt?
 

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Happens to me too, various points over the last few months.

No profiles (although I did install the beta profile last year, but it's long gone) and no exchange accounts.

How can this be malware? A not-open web page can force a TouchID enabled account to reset its keychain passcode? I struggle to believe that, and if it's true then well holy s***, someone do something..

BTW I have SektionEins' (banned) JB detector app installed and that says everything is as expected.
 
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