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Stolen Device Protection
- Thread starter Rafagon
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Hi there! Did you get to the bottom of this? As my partner is having the exact same issue... and as his work use a profile he has lost all access to his work emails etc!
Thanks!
Same here, you cannot start the countdown then get back to it later in the day, in my beta testing experience you need to set a 1 hour timer and hit the settings within minutes of the countdown ending.
For those that are having issues with the countdown restarting... Are you tapping the notification that pops up at the end of the countdown, and then disabling it from there; or are you going all the way through Settings again yourself? If the latter, I wonder if that could be part of the problem.
FWIW, I missed my notification and didn't see it until 55 minutes later. So nearly two hours has passed, yet I was still able to tap it and turn off SDP. (I cleared out all my significant locations so I'd be forced to do the countdown.)
FWIW, I missed my notification and didn't see it until 55 minutes later. So nearly two hours has passed, yet I was still able to tap it and turn off SDP. (I cleared out all my significant locations so I'd be forced to do the countdown.)
So my second iphone, which never leaves the house, is behaving the same way.
I turn on SDP and even if I authenticate via FaceID without error. I still get the 60 minute delay if I try to disable it again.
This is to be expected and a big worry for housebound people- except housebound people probably will not get mugged for their phone in a bar when drunk and may not want SDP.
If I was housebound with carers coming in and out I might use the new 17.4 option and force SDP on with biometrics as “Always” - like your “housebound” phone
Sorry to resurrect a slightly dated thread (especially as my first post). I stumbled across this after having the same problem with my iPhone not recognizing my home, and I've had SDP employed since the first few days after it was rolled out. I've tried all of the steps I could find in other sites and am awaiting the hour countdown (at home).
I was going through some other steps to protect the info on my phone in the event that someone grabs it and has access to it (such as from shoulder surfing). My biggest concerns are (1) my password manager app on my phone, and (2) my son who frequents bars more than me - and the spate of druggings and robberies in which faceID can be used to unlock a phone.
I was going through some other steps to protect the info on my phone in the event that someone grabs it and has access to it (such as from shoulder surfing). My biggest concerns are (1) my password manager app on my phone, and (2) my son who frequents bars more than me - and the spate of druggings and robberies in which faceID can be used to unlock a phone.
My biggest issue was iPhone sometime insisting to prompt for passcode, the exact reason is yet to know, maybe after a few attempt of faceid checking.
Same as you did I enabled SDP right after it released. It looks like in unfamiliar locations iPhone would not go into an infinite loop of asking passcode, instead i could bypass passcode prompt and then the iPhone would ask for faceid. That s a nice thing. It is unclear if the aforesaid is the real mechanism as it is not documented in the SDP release notes.
The pitfall is, the working of SDP is heavily hinged on significant locations. I went to travel to a region in which Apple s location service (find my) is not supported. While I was travelling there, the iPhone would prompt for passcode infinitely.
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Quite often I have my iPhone at my desk and when I reach for it, the Face ID does not work, so I get the pass code prompt. That is not a real hassle but... if I enable Stolen Device Protection and select "Always" instead of "Away from Familiar locations"; will I have to wait an hour each time in these cases, just to use my iPhone?
As far as I know, the delay is for accessing the functions requiring higher level of security, eg. to change passcode.
With either faceid or passcode, one could anyway unlock the phone to use it generally.
If Apple trusts that faceid is more secure and entering passcode in passcode is not safe. I don’t know why for some reasons iPhone would prompt for passcode once a while.
So you don't forget it? I see people at work using Touch ID to unlock their Macs constantly and when they need to use their password, they draw a blank! There's no harm in being asked for your password once in a while.
Also the device’s passcode is used as a recovery method key for iCloud Keychain, so if you forget the passcode you could get locked out of all your iCloud stored passwords and passkeys.
Then what is the benefits of using: 'Away from Familiar locations'? Why not just use 'Always'?
I wish Apple would give us an option of the delay period. 1 hour is not enough in many circumstances. Should be like up to 6 hours for those that don't carry their iPhone on them all the time.
Anyone agree on this option?
entering passcode in public is worrying.
actually, SDP was released to mitigate the situation that the passcode was exposed then the user was followed and his iphone was stolen.
Go into a corner or put your back against the wall or put your coat over your head and iPhone or go into the toilet...
There are numerous ways to protect yourself if you must enter your passcode in public. SDP should help you if your iPhone is stolen, don't give people a reason to take your iPhone in the first place because you weren't protecting your passcode. Also, use an alphameric one!
That's gonna go down great when I am standing at the checkout Friday night in a packed store and attempting to pay is met with "your passcode is required to enable Face ID". Biometrics on iPhone is great except that when I am not at home I get asked more often to enter my passcode even though the 7 day period isn't up yet and it shouldn't force entering the passcode more than once a week which is what it does on my Macs and iPads. Even worse is when I am travelling, the passcode is forced about once per day, randomly. Standing at the checkout not being able to open the Wallet with Face ID has happened on multiple occasions.
The iPhone seems to be able to smell when it's going to be most inconvenient. My last very inconvenient situation although without security implications was getting lost riding a bicycle taking the iPhone out of my pocket with one hand and instead of quickly opening the map with Face ID of course I was met with the passcode being forced.
Not to mention that the people who get their passcodes stolen with their iPhones are usually targeted by multiple criminals of the same gang that pick an easy target they might end up following around for a while. They won't follow you if you watch your surroundings like a hawk, but if you ever let your guard down just once that's enough. I was robbed in my own street where 2 guys quietly stepped out of hiding from a quiet corner behind me, trailed me for mere seconds and whilst I was looking down at my bag for my keys they had robbed me and were already gone within seconds and all during daylight in public. I went into a fight response without thinking with one guy whilst the other had already taken off with my wallet but he was crazy strong and I couldn't stop him from taking off as well. Nobody else on the street even noticed, that's how quickly it happened.
Your "put your coat over your head" mindset will totally work because you are cautious 100% of the time, never let your guard down even 30 seconds away from your front door in a safe neighbourhood and turn around every couple seconds to make sure nobody is following you. Yeah that's gonna work really well.
Stolen device protection is nice as these things will keep happening no matter what, the only problem I have with it is that it's opt-in by default whereas it should be enabled by default and require opt-out if you as an experienced user determine you don't want this feature. Hopefully Apple enables it across the board in the future once they have collected enough data about how well it works.
I think you are making this problem way too big. I am prompted for my PIN very rarely, usually only if Face ID failed a few times (like when fiddling around with the phone while carrying something else), or then once a week. And then I just enter it, no big deal. I don't think you will have someone ready to watch you enter your PIN and ready to steal your phone at every corner al lthe time.
I'm sorry you got robbed, that sucks. But you can't just assume that everyone will rob you - that must be way too stressful.
I mean it's the same here except for when I am travelling and then it's daily. And I dislike that just when I am in a crowd of tourists often getting out my iPhone for photos the iPhone will prompt for the code, relatively often. Even if I just want to access the camera and don't need to unlock the iPhone the iPhone will immediately switch to the passcode prompt and I can't swipe to the camera from there, I first have to hit the cancel button.
I travel a lot and there is definitely a stricter passcode behaviour when the iPhone detects it hasn't been home in a while. At home it asks me once per week as usual or maybe once more in between but certainly not nearly every single day. I can occasionally get the the passcode prompt up to 3x on the same day too even though Face ID isn't failing or anything.
It seems to depend on the amounts of times it unlocks and every x unlocks it wants the code. But since it unlocks with Face ID everytime I take it out for a quick photo (it's so fast I can't prevent Face ID from unlocking) it can go through what's probably a hundred unlocks in a day just by taking photos.
(Equally annoying is that I would prefer to keep the phone locked when using the camera in case someone snatches it out of my hand but Face ID is too quick.)
I don't think the stricter password behavior is related to the fact that you're traveling or haven't been whole in a while. I think it has to do with the actual behavior while traveling (as I mentioned, fiddling around with the phone, taking pictures, then it can't recognize your face, stuff like that).
I also notice it when traveling. I use my phone differently and when it fails to recognize my face 2-3 times in a row, it will ask for my passcode. Yes, it's annoying, but it's due to behavior, not to the actual traveling.
But yes, I agree, it's not ideal.