The Hidden Places Apple Hides Useful iPhone Settings – SlashGear

This entry requires some context. In February 2023, we reported that there was a growing risk of iPhone theft after using your passcode in public. Put simply, your passcode is the key to everything in your iPhone including your passwords, banks, and even your iCloud account which includes your photos and purchases. A would-be thief, having watched you enter your passcode, may then steal your iPhone, change the passcode, use the changed passcode to change your iCloud account’s password, and even generate a one-time key that completely locks you out of your iCloud account, so not even Apple’s customer service can help you.

Fortunately, a hidden setting in the Screen Time menu can help protect against that. We’ve already reported on how to avoid an iPhone hack once before, but this is so important, it bears repeating: if you navigate to Settings > Screen Time Content & Privacy Restrictions and scroll down to Allow changes, you can turn off the ability to change your phone’s passcode and anything related to your account. You will need to set a Screen Time passcode that is different from your main passcode. While a lost iPhone can be devastating, changing this setting can prevent such a loss from being absolutely catastrophic.

You can also change your Passcode to something alpha-numeric (using letters and numbers) to further protect your iPhone by going to Settings >Face ID and Passcode > [enter your current passcode] > Change Passcode > [enter your passcode again] > Passcode options.