When iOS 9 was released , Apple updated its list of case in which iOS ask for a passcode even whenTouch ID is enable . A antecedently undocumented requirement demand for a passcode in a very particular set of luck : When the iPhone or iPad has n’t been unbolted with its passcode in the previous six twenty-four hours , and Touch ID has n’t been used to unlock it within the last eight hours . It ’s a trilled timeout , so each time Touch ID unlock a equipment , a new eight - 60 minutes timer starts to check off down until the passcode is require . If you enquire why you were being on the face of it randomly prompted for your passcode ( or more complicated parole ) , this is probable the understanding .
The list antecedently included ( and still includes ) restart the machine , five failed fingerprint recognition attempts , receiving a remote lock statement viaFind My iPhone , enrolling new fingerprints in Touch ID , and not having been unlocked in any fashion in 48 hours . These rule are in place ostensibly to prevent compelling or pressure someone to ply a fingerprint , raising the streak to take or crack a passcode instead .
This addition number beforethe San Bernardino caseand the Department of Justice and FBI ’s now - abandoned efforts to get Apple to provide a custom operating system to unlock a phone . However , it might have some bearing when a court fiat is issue to compel someone to use a fingerprint to unlock an iOS gadget , as in a late case . This timeout would total an additional ticking clock , but would n’t needs affect the issue . Some courtyard have require parties enter a word to decrypt a gadget or a punishing drive , thoughwhether that be self - incriminationhasn’t yet made its means to higher courts .
Users ( include this newsman ) begin noticing this change in the last several hebdomad , even though an Apple spokesperson articulate it was added in the first release of Io 9 . However , a smoke point key out this restriction only appear in theiOS Security Guideon May 12 , 2016 , harmonize to the templet ’s interior PDF timestamp . Apple refuse to explain the rationale for this restriction .
An unnoticed rule, but triggering more often?
Macworld was alarm to this change when lecturer David Shanahan emailed the Mac 911 help editorial about being move for his passcode on both an iPad Air 2 and an iPhone 6 once or twice a week in the morning after leaving them appoint overnight . That had also been this writer ’s experience .
Security expert and Macworld contributor Rich Mogull sustain he had seen the modification in conduct , and did n’t realize until he was asked about the limitation , which he then confirm he had n’t previously seen mention or document . research worker Jonathan Zdziarski also confirmed that he had n’t seen this requisite before , and said , “ It explains what the Scheol ’s been going on with my telephone set , though ! ”
The exact language of this additional timeout is : “ The passcode has not been used to unlock the equipment in the last six days and Touch ID has not unlock the equipment in the last eight hours . ”
Neither Mogull nor Zdziarski could fix why this period of time had been chosen . Zdziarski said he ’s been asking Apple for some time to either set the timeout menses to eight hour , down from 48 , or to earmark user to select a time period of fourth dimension . He would also care to see an alternative to require a passcode base on a geofence — a coordinate - base defined region . “ I would love it to automatically drink down the fingerprint all in all or set the exhalation down to even 4 hour or 8 hours if I ’m not inside some geofence I ’ve set up , ” he say .
An iOS twist can have its Auto - Lock setting change without a passcode , and one of the options for Auto - Lock is never . With that option engaged and continuous power , as long as the iOS gadget is n’t restarted or the Sleep / Wake release press out , the earpiece should remain incessantly unlocked . In that spot , the Touch ID timeout conditions never come into play .
However , if the gadget ever becomes locked or is seized while locked , it ’s a unlike narration . Because a law - enforcement or other government activity factor or a malicious political party would n’t necessarily lie with the last clip the passcode was get into , it raises the stakes high than the 48 - hour timeout . There would typically be no way for another party to know if the six - day period had pass off , nor whether Touch ID had been used in the late eight hours to unlock the iPhone or iPad .
It rest unreadable precisely why Apple bring this requirement , but finding this raw bullet power point clears up the mystery of why your iPhone and iPad have intercourse the odour of new entered passcodes in the morning .
