How to prevent Siri and Wallet access from your lock screen

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Siri

Siri (Image credit: iMore)

Apple's voice assistant, Siri, can provide information and execute commands even from the lock screen. With the iPhones 6s, it can even be activated by your voice alone. That's incredibly convenient, but it also means other people can ask Siri for some basic types of information as well, and that's not very private. For most people it won't matter. The convenience will be more important and the potential information and access exposed not a huge problem. But, if you need to be extra private and extra secure, you can disable Siri—and even Wallet—and force an unlock to access them.

How to disable Siri or Wallet access from your iPhone or iPad lock screen

  1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
  2. Tap on Touch ID & Passcode.
  3. Enter your passcode.
  4. Switch Siri and/or Wallet off under Allow Access When Locked.


Note: Originally published, March 2013. Last updated, November 2015.

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Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

15 Comments
  • Because of this article, two things will now happen to me:
    1) My friends will stop using my Starbucks card.
    2) My Facebook will no longer be hacked via Siri and my lovely childish friends.
    -thanks iMore
  • Looks like we have the same friends, but this is a very good security measure.
  • Once again some great advice from the person who knows all about the workings of the iPhone. Thank you Ally. :)
  • Nice post. Am I the only one that finds passbook quite underwhelming. That is the idea has gotten very little acceptance or penetration? For example, I use it only for a to pay for Starbucks coffee and Delta Boarding passes (which
    technically i haven't used since i haven't flow in a year). But i already did BOTH of those things with their apps before. And i still need those app functionality on my phone so the app has to stay as it does far more than the passbook does. And things i'd really like it for, like putting my 4 or 5 grocery loyalty cards, it can't do for a myriad of reasons like the fact that all of my local grocery store scanners can't scan off of phones. Anyways my two cents. But boarding passes and starbucks? Cool but I could do that before.
  • Thanks Allyson! That's a great tip. The mild and rare inconvenience aside, it'll truly bring that passcode lock into effect.
  • While I still use an iPhone 4, my father and mother have the iPhone 4S and use siri a lot. I had no idea of this frightening security hole that existed. Thanks for the insights.
  • i love using siri and the new passbook feature. Siri needs to be more developed, google now is slightly better
  • This is good tip!
  • Security is paramount in these days, so this is a good feature.
  • This feature makes things a total PITA. Seems if you need to use this you may need new friends.
  • or maybe if you don't need this, you have boring friends
  • Thanks Ally. I used these instructions to do this on my Ipad. Although I have a cover on it, I keep leaning on the home button. Sometimes I don't hear the "ding ding", but I always hear the "I didn't understand".
  • Another great tip from iMore.
    Thanks
  • Being new to iOS this is good to know. The most helpful piece for me will be showing friends this tip. Now they won't have people, like me, messing with their phones.
  • On my iPad 3 (whatever Apple officially calls it these days), I have Siri disabled on the lock screen. I've been fighting the fact that when I close the smart cover, evoking the locking click sound, and put the iPad down, I often trigger Siri because of pressure on the home button through the cover. Today, having read this article, I finally realized that (at least on the iPad 3), closing the cover doesn't "lock" it merely turns off the screen, with locking happening after the Auto-Lock time. I had been foolishly believing the text under Settings->General->Lock/Unlock (which is On) which claims that closing the smart cover locks the iPad. Silencing Siri when closing the cover and putting the iPad down will involve a habit change which I'm working on: use the Lock/Power button, then close the smart cover. I will now insult Siri less often (she doesn't seem to appreciate the insults).