Macworld:
A previously undocumented requirement asks for a passcode in a very particular set of circumstances: When the iPhone or iPad hasn’t been unlocked with its passcode in the previous six days, and Touch ID hasn’t been used to unlock it within the last eight hours. It’s a rolling timeout, so each time Touch ID unlocks a device, a new eight-hour timer starts to tick down until the passcode is required. If you wondered why you were being seemingly randomly prompted for your passcode (or more complicated password), this is likely the reason.
Good to see Fleishman getting to the bottom of this but very annoying that Apple instituted this new procedure without letting the user know. Many of us have been confused and/or annoyed by this for months.
serves you right forgetting 8 hours – I wish I had this problem
I feel that my iPhone and iPad have been acting that way for a long time. I’ve been wondering why I often get asked for a passcode the first time I use one of them in the morning.
I’d gladly type my password in exchange of 8 solid hours of sleep.
The problem for me isn’t that they made this change, it’s that they made it and didn’t tell anybody about it which lead to confusion. Apple has been doing a lot of this lately and it’s troubling.
From the article and some of the comments on other forums, it seems like the primary driving force here was to thwart law enforcement. Lovely.
So I’m being punished for not using my phone enough?
Agreed. Very frustrating. I just found another one last night. In the latest iTunes, you can no longer Control-Click on a file and create an MP3. They moved it to File>Create New Version. I don’t mind if they had duplicated but WTF was the point of removing it!? Jesus, Apple.
I agree. I see this as a pre-cursor to what would solve the problem totally. That would be initially the ability to create touch-ID passcodes. i.e. allowing one to use the stored multiple fingerprints, to make a passcode by using a sequence. If the Apple patent of touch ID behind the display comes to fruition, then I can see the ability to use multiple prints at once, like US Customs Global Entry Scanner, to enable access. Or, even using a single print placed in a sequence in various regions of the display as a more secure unlock code. All of which would mean it would be impossible to just unlock with a single print alone.
Very secret. Published in this secret document that you can only get on the dark web: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf
Totally undocumented. Not even on page 7 of that document:
“The passcode has not been used to unlock the device in the last six days and Touch ID has not unlocked the device in the last eight hours.”
But true, Apple didn’t trumpet it to the heavens, nor did Tim Cook personally call every user and tell them.
The very definition of “undocumented” nowadays.