Cannot Turn Off Passcode Lock on iPhone or iPad

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Cannot Turn Off Passcode Lock on iPhone or iPad

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Q: I have an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4S. They are both logged into the same iCloud account. I currently have a passcode lock on both. I want to take the passcode lock off, but it won’t let me. The option for disabling it isn’t highlighted. It’s this way on both the iPad and the iPhone.

- Daniel

A: This issue most commonly appears when using a corporate Microsoft Exchange account on an iOS device. Microsoft Exchange allows corporate IT departments to set policies via ActiveSync such as requiring passwords, enforcing specific password policies such as length and password history, and even disabling certain features such as the Camera application. Note that the Google Sync service for Google Apps Business and Education accounts can also apply similar policies as these also use the same Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocols.

Such policies act as a minimum security standard, allowing you to set more restrictive options; as a result you may notice that fewer options are available for some of your other passcode settings as well. For example, the Require Passcode section normally allows you to choose a time interval ranging from Immediately to up to four hours, however if your IT policy limits this to 15 minutes, you will find that you can only select shorter time frames.

Unfortunately, if you have policies that are set as part of a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync account, the only way for you to remove these policies is to delete the actual account from your device, by going into Mail, Contacts, Calendars in your Settings app, selecting it, and choosing the option to delete it.

Note that this will also remove all e-mail, contact, calendar and reminder information associated with this account. If this is a Gmail account, you might be able to configure it using IMAP instead of Google Sync (Exchange ActiveSync) to avoid applying the security policies, although you will lose some features by doing this such as push e-mail and contact synchronization.

Alternatively, you could contact your organization’s IT group to see if there’s any possibility of them changing the policy or making an exception. While this is extremely unlikely to happen with a large company, many small businesses and community organizations are often simply using default policies that they’re not even aware of.

Lastly, if you’re not using an Exchange ActiveSync or Google Sync account, then these policies may have been set as part of a Mac OS X Server Profile or transferred to your device using Apple’s iPhone Configuration Utility or Apple Configurator. Any such policies will be listed in the Settings, General, Profiles section on your iPhone or iPad, however, unless your devices were pre-configured by your company before being given to you, chances are that you would know about these policies as you would have needed to install these yourself or enrol your device to a profile server.

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Comments

1

I followed your instructions and deleted the email account. I powered down the ipad, and then powered it back up. I then went into General—>Passcode Lock and the “Turn Passcode Off” option is still grayed out. An further suggestions?

Posted by Mike K on October 26, 2012 at 7:31 AM (PST)

2

Sir,

My ipad after being tried by lids for n number of times has got disabled permanently. THe data which includes some photos n videos re so important , that i cant get away with it at any cosy. there is no backup in icoyld even as it was my new ipad. Please suggest a way to unlock the ipad without loosing the data . ny monetary expene if needed is ok.

Posted by Dhawal on January 13, 2013 at 11:09 AM (PST)

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