Take security seriously and interested in how to enable data protection on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? The good news is that if you use a passcode, iOS 4 data protections protects the hardware encryption keys on your device, making email, attachments, and 3rd party apps (if they enable it) much more secure. The bad news is, if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4, data protection might not have been turned on even with the passcode. Not to worry, we’ll walk you through all the possibilities, after the break!
How to set a passcode
If you haven’t got a passcode lock set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, that’s the place to start.
- How to set up a passcode lock
Bonus Tip: You can set your passcode lock to automatically erase your device after 10 failed attempts. That’s great if you ever lose your device but if you have young children who can get ahold of it, you might find yourself restoring your wiped device with frustrating frequency. Security is constantly at war with convenience, make your choice.
How to set a stronger passcode
With iOS 4 you can switch the passcode from simple 4-digit numeric to full on alphanumeric for seriously stronger protection.
- From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
- Switch the Simple Passcode toggle to OFF
- Enter your current 4-digit numeric passcode to verify
- Enter a new, strong alphanumeric passcode
A combination of numbers, letters, and symbols is good, pseudorandom is even better but the difficulty in remembering it probably outweighs any benefit.
How to check for data protection
Now that your passcode is enabled, check to make sure you have data protection on. (It should be on by default for all iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and iPad 2 devices, but if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4 it might not be.)
- From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen…
- Scroll down to the very bottom and look for the text “Data protection is enabled”
If it’s there, you’re good to go. If not, keep reading!
How to enable data protection if it’s not on by default
Remember, this is only for iPhone 3GS (2009), iPod touch 3 (2009), and original iPad (2010) if “Data protection enabled” isn’t showing up on the Settings screen.
- Restore your device from backup
Make sure you backup your device before restoring, then choose restore from backup to get all your data back onto your device. Once it’s done, sync and then check the Setting screen again to make sure data protection is now enabled.
Passcode Tips
Use these passcode settings to maximize passcode security:
- Set Require Passcode to Immediately.
- Disable Simple Passcode to allow the use of longer, alphanumeric, passcodes.
- Enable Erase Data to automatically erase the device after ten failed passcode attempts.
Additional Information
Enabling data protection on iOS devices that shipped with iOS 3
If you upgraded your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (3rd generation), or iPad to iOS 4, you will need to restore your device to make this feature available. Restoring will erase all user content from the device (your data will then be restored from backup).
Use the following steps to back up your data, restore the device, and then restore your data from the backup:
- Connect your device to iTunes and back up your data.
- Locate and right-click the device in the left-hand column of iTunes, and then select backup.
- When the backup is complete, locate and click Restore in the Summary pane.
- When the restore is complete, select the option to "Restore from a backup" in iTunes and pick the backup you created earlier.
- Note: iTunes automatically selects the most recent backup; you can verify this by checking the date and time the backup was made.
- Follow the directions to restore the backup. When the restore process is complete, set a passcode to enable data protection.
iTunes will download and reinstall iOS 4 on your device.
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