If you’ve found yourself entering your passcode more frequently since you updated to iOS 9 — even though you have Touch ID enabled — it’s thanks to Apple’s latest security measures.
In an update to its Security Guide, published this month, the company confirms that iOS 9 will make you enter your passcode if you haven’t used your iPhone or iPad in at least eight hours.
We know now that fingerprint scanners don’t allow us to do away with passcodes completely. Even if you have a device with Touch ID, you will still be asked for your PIN or passcode from time to time — especially after restarting.
But in iOS 9, those prompts became more frequent. You will now be asked for your passcode if your device hasn’t been used within eight hours, or if your device hasn’t been unlocked with a passcode within the last six days.
If you thought you were entering your passcode more since updated to iOS 9, then, it’s not just in your head. Apple’s changes mean your passcode is now required even more, but it is obviously intended to provide your with more protection over your data.
Just as they did before iOS 9, iPhones and iPad with Touch ID will also ask for your passcode after five failed fingerprint recognition attempts, after receiving a remote lock comment from Find My iPhone, after registering new fingerprints, and after being left idle for 48 hours.
Source: Apple
Via: MacWorld
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
3 responses to “iOS 9 security update means more passcode unlocks”
I don’t get it. How does having to enter your password every eight hours make your iOS device more secure? If it did, why not get rid of Touch ID entirely and just go with passwords only? I would think that requiring fingerprint identity is the most secure method as that’s what it was touted to be. Personally, I find it incredibly annoying to have to use a password that often.
I am guessing this is in response to the recent Federal court cases Apple has been involved in.
Law enforcement officials can get a court order to require you to place your finger on the TouchId sensor to unlock the device. But, they can’t require you to provide or enter a password/passcode.
Wrong. It isn’t “You will now be asked for your passcode if your device hasn’t been used within eight hours, or if your device hasn’t been unlocked with a passcode within the last six days.”
From the iOS Security Guide: The passcode has not been used to unlock the device in the last six days and Touch ID has not unlocked the device in the last eight hours.
See the difference? There is a difference between the words AND and OR.
If you’ve used the passcode within the last six days, the not unlocking via Touch ID within the last 8 hours doesn’t apply.