How to turn off automatic shut off on iphone

For optimal battery savings and security, you typically want your iPhone to lock automatically when it sits idle after a set period of time, just in case you leave it unlocked and unattended somewhere. On the other hand, sometimes you don’t want your iPhone to auto-lock. The good news is there are a few settings in iOS that can stop it from happening.

This iOS tutorial shows you how to prevent your iPhone screen from automatically dimming, locking, or turning off.

Why would you turn Auto-Lock off?

Although most people want Auto-Lock turned on because it helps conserve power and prevents nosy people from finding your unlocked device and going through your stuff, some might opt to prevent their device from locking automatically for various reasons. One of the most common reasons has to do with AirPlay mirroring. During AirPlay, you don’t want your iPhone or iPad to automatically turn off after a minute, as this will interrupt the flow, forcing you to unlock your device again and restart the AirPlay stream.

Another reason to disable Auto-Lock is if you read a lot of books or websites on your device and hate when your display’s backlight always goes dim on you while you’re in the middle of trying to read.

Plus, while uploading many files to Google Drive or Dropbox, you might want to keep the iPhone unlocked, as locking it can pause the upload or cause it to fail.

No matter your use case, preventing your screen from automatically turning off is a simple task and is often the solution to some of these common woes.

How to stop your iPhone screen from turning off

Here are three settings that ensure your iPhone screen doesn’t dim and lock automatically.

Turn off Auto-Lock

Follow these steps to turn off iPhone Auto-Lock and stop the screen from sleeping:

1. Open the Settings app and tap Display & Brightness.
2. Tap Auto-Lock.
3. Choose Never to prevent your iPhone screen from dimming and locking.

You can also choose options like 5 minutes to extend the auto-lock time.

When Never is chosen from the list, your device screen won’t turn off automatically after any period of time; it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, whether you’re in an app, staring at your Home Screen, or streaming via AirPlay.

Related: How to fix grayed out Auto-Lock setting on iPhone

Don’t turn on Low Power Mode

Irrespective of the option you choose in step 3 above, when your iPhone is in Low Power Mode, it’ll always automatically lock the screen after 30 seconds of inactivity. This is to prevent battery drainage, and you can’t change this. So, when you want to prevent your iPhone display from sleeping, make sure not to enable Low Power Mode (from Settings > Battery).

Related: iPhone screen too dark or dim? Here are 15 ways to make it brighter

Turn off Attention Aware Features

When the toggle for Attention Aware Features is enabled, regardless of the Auto-Lock setting (30 seconds to 5 minutes), your iPhone will dim and lock the display if it notices that it doesn’t have your attention, that is, you aren’t looking at your iPhone.

So, to prevent the screen of your iPhone with Face ID (X and later) from dimming and locking automatically, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and turn off Attention Aware Features.

Keep your iPhone screen always on

Overall, the need to prevent your iPhone or iPad screen from turning off automatically comes down to a limited audience of people based on how the device is being used.

Most iPhone users can benefit from Auto-Lock. So unless you’re a part of that limited pool, we recommend setting the feature to a designated time limit. This ensures you get the best battery life and device security.

To prevent your iPhone's screen from automatically turning off, open the Settings app, navigate to Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock, and select "Never" from the list. Disabling auto-lock reduces your iPhone's battery life and security, since it won't lock itself automatically when you stop using it.

Does your iPhone screen keep going dark or turning off while reading something, checking a shopping list, or any other time you don’t want it to? There’s an easy way to turn off auto-lock on an iPhone in Settings. Here’s how.

The reason your iPhone’s screen keeps dimming and turning off is because of a feature called “Auto-Lock,” which automatically puts the iPhone into a sleep/lock mode after a certain period of time. Two-thirds of the way through the set period, the screen dims to half brightness. To fix it, we need to turn “Auto-Lock” off.

First, open the “Settings” app by tapping the “gear” icon. Swipe down in the middle of your iPhone’s home screen to use Apple’s built-in Spotlight search if you can’t find the app on your device.

In “Settings,” tap “Display & Brightness.”

In the “Display & Brightness” settings, scroll down and tap “Auto-Lock.”

Note: If you have Low Power mode enabled, Auto-Lock will be set to “30 Seconds,” and you won’t be able to tap on the option to change it. To change it, first disable Low Power mode.

In “Auto-Lock,” you will see a list of time options. These determine the length of time your iPhone’s screen will stay lit before turning off and going into Lock mode.

Here, we’re going to turn it off entirely, so select “Never.”

After that, exit “Settings.” Whenever you wake your iPhone, its screen will stay lit and will not go into Lock mode until you push the power button.

If you keep having trouble with a dimming screen even with “Auto-Lock” disabled, it could be because “Auto-Brightness” is enabled. “Auto-Brightness” can be disabled under the Accessibility options in the Settings app.

RELATED: How to Disable Auto-Brightness on Your iPhone

It’s Usually Best to Reenable Auto-Lock Again Later

There are some drawbacks to disabling “Auto-Lock.” The first is battery life: Your phone will run out of battery charge much faster if you forget to turn the screen off. The second is security: If you leave your phone on and it does not lock automatically, anyone can potentially use it.

So, it might be best to turn the “Auto-Lock” feature back on when you’re done. To do that, just repeat the steps above and select a time limit from the list instead of “Never.” Good luck!

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