Do you have an iPad that is physically accessible to everyone in the family, but you would like to limit the restriction of who can use the touchscreen device?? Have a nosy roommate or friend who likes to check out your messages or changes the status of your social network accounts?
The Apple iPad has the same feature as it’s iPhone sibling to lock the screen so you can secure your iPad by setting up a password.
The procedure is simple and uses the same 4 digit password to lock your Apple iPad
To start the process on setting up a password for your Apple iPad, click on the settings button on your home menu.
In the settings screen, you will be looking for the Auto-Lock and Passcode Lock.? If you have these disabled, start out with the Auto-Lock setting first to select how long the iPad will be inactive for until it locks the device.? After, we will go back to the Password Lock to determine how and set the actual password.
On the time settings page, choose how long you would like the iPad to not be in use for until it locks the screen.? Some people like to go real secure with that 1 minute setting but I find that incredibly annoying, especially if you are watching TV at the same time and happen to look away from the device.? I also stay away from anything over that 15 minute mark because leaving your iPad unlocked for over an hour is no real solution to the problem.? I chose 5 minutes because it’s the perfect amount of time that I would like the device to wait when I am not using it to lock.
Go back to the settings page by clicking the General tab at the top left of your iPad.? Click on the Passcode Lock setting this time so we can set the passcode that will prompt for 4 digits to unlock your iPad.? If your device has no current passcode, you will need to enable the passcode lock on this page.
Once you turn the Passcode setting to ON, you will be immediately prompted for a 4 digit input.? You can also change the password or reset your password to a new set of digits by clicking on Change Passcode directly below the option to enable or disable the Passcode.
Choose your 4 set of digits wisely.? I do not recommend using one digit nor do I recommend using 4 distinct digits.? My reason here is because of the fingerprints an iPad screen attracts.? Imagine how easy it would be for someone to come along and automatically discover which 1 or 4 keys you are using your passcode.? There are only so many combinations (even though 10,000 is still a lot) and they may be able to deduce if it is a birthday based on how good of a set of digits you choose.? Choosing 3 digits with one repeat helps ward off these types of threats!
You can also tweak the settings for the “Require Passcode” from immediately to a timed number of minutes before the iPad requires you to input the password again if it is still on.? Once again, I like to choose something in the 15 minute range because immediately is way too frequent and too long of time defeats the purpose of locking the device in the first place.
After these settings are enabled, your iPad is good to go!? Try it out by waiting the allotted time you have chosen for it to lock and make sure your passcode works.
