Tech Tip Tuesday: How to Prevent a thief from disabling your iPhone tracking

Did you know that when your iPhone is locked you can still access the control center, by swiping up from the bottom right of the lock screen?

The control center allows you to enable/disable stuff, access the camera, and control your phone"s volume among other things.

Do you know who else can use this? Anyone who steals your phone.

This allows a thief to use the control center from the lock screen to turn on airplane mode, disabling cellular data and Wi-Fi hindering your ability to use “Find my iPhone".

Here is how to disable the control center from a locked iPhone

  • Tap Settings
  • Tap “Touch ID & Passcode"
  • Scroll down to “Allow access when locked” and turn “Control Center” off.

You may also be able to turn on airplane mode with Siri, so you may want to disable that too making Siri inaccessible from the locks screen as well.

That’s it. Control Center is no longer accessible from your iPhone"s lock screen!

Happy Computing!

If you learned something today, great! If not, maybe share your own tech tip in the comments below!


I"m Adam, I"m known as Warwagon on the forums. For the past 19 years, I"ve been operating my own computer repair business. In doing so, I deal with the average computer user on a day-to-day basis.

Every bit of information I provide for people I do so with the lowest common denominator in mind. It"s a common misconception that everyone who joins or browses a tech site is a techie. Some people are just looking for guidance. That is why for some, these tech tips may seem a bit too simplistic but they are educational for others.

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