iPhone
How to Lock Settings on an iPhone
Learn a few effective methods for enforcing settings on an iPhone and locking settings in place so they can't be bypassed or changed.
One of the most common questions we get from Tech Lockdown customers is how to lock settings on iPhone. Whether you’re a parent setting up a device for your child or an adult looking to prevent yourself from undoing your own content restrictions, there are a few effective techniques that work reliably in both cases. In this guide, we’ll cover the most effective ways to restrict or completely block access to the Settings app on iPhone.
If you're trying to enforce content filtering on your iPhone, there are certain settings that you most likely need to protect to prevent restrictions from being bypassed.
For example:
- Internet connection settings could be changed to point away from a web content filter.
- Screen Time permissions could be disabled in order to get around website blocker apps .
Protect Specific iPhone Settings with Apple Config Files
Blocking the settings app entirely can be problematic since there are many legitimate reasons to access iPhone settings. Fortunately, instead of completely restricting access to all iOS settings, it's possible to protect specific iOS settings from being modified.
Apple provides a more powerful alternative to Apple screen time , supervised mode, that allows you to protect specific settings like:
- Lock VPN & DNS settings to your preferred settings
- Restrict the App Store
- Protect specific Screen Time settings so that they can't be changed even if the user bypasses the Screen Time passcode.
- Protect apps from being deleted
This approach uses Config files that add restrictions to your iPhone.
You can use an Apple Config Generator to install and protect these configs on your iPhone.
Keep in mind that in order to prevent Config Files from being deleted, you will need to configure your iPhone as a supervised device. You can follow our guide for enabling supervised mode on iOS .
Block the iPhone Settings App Entirely with Apple Shortcuts
If protecting specific iOS settings with config files is not an approach you can use, your next consideration might be to block the settings app entirely.
It's normally not possible to block the settings app, but you can piece together a few techniques to achieve a blocking affect using Apple shortcuts .
Using the shortcuts app, you'll need to create an automation that is triggered when the settings app is opened.
It should apply the action "go to home screen." Make sure that Ask Before Running and Notify When Run are both toggled off so that the automation runs automatically.
Once this automation is enabled, opening the settings app will result in the home screen being switched to almost immediately, creating a blocking affect.
If you need more help setting up this automation, check out our Apple Shortcuts guide .
The natural next question you might have is: "How do I prevent this shortcut from being disabled?" You can use an iPhone app blocker to restrict access to the shortcuts app so that the automation can't be disabled without unblocking the shortcuts app first.
