Lock ALL Apps Except ONE on iPhone and iPad Using iOS Guided Access

While searching the net for how to lock individual apps on my iPad 3, just the way I do with Apps.Lock Free for Android, I stumbled on the iOS Guided Access feature. Though not exactly what I want but the feature is the only solution to restricting access to my iPad for now.

Let’s say for example, a friend wants to play Angry Birds game on your iPad and you won’t want him/her going hog wild through your iPad, you can restrict him/her to the game app without been able to access any other app on the iPad.

What is Guided Access?

Guided Access simply limits your device to a single app and also lets you control which features of the app are available for use. The home button is disabled, along with multitasking, allowing users to operate within a single app. It is an accessibility feature that came out with iOS 6.

You can make use of it when you want to stay focused on a task while using your device and if you’ve got kids, you can use it to restrict your kids to a kids app when you hand over your iPad to them.

Teachers can use it to limit students to an educational app, preventing them from browsing the internet or doing any other thing on the iPad. Business owners can also use it to limit their staff and customers to a specific app, thereby preventing them from messing around on the company’s iPad.

Guided Access in iOS

How Do I Enable Guided Access

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access. Right there, turn it on, set a passcode and set whether the device can go to sleep during a session.

How To Use Guided Access

After you might have enabled it and set your passcode, go to the app that you would want to enable Guided Access and launch it. Triple-click the Home button, then then click Start. Thereafter, if you hit the Home Button, a little banner rolls in from the top reminding you that you’re in Guided Access mode.

 How To Use Guided Access to Restrict Areas of iPhone and iPad Screen

If you would want to disable app controls and areas of the app screen, circle the area. You can also use the handles to adjust the area

For example, if you want to restrict access to a particular book in the iBooks app and you don’t want the user to access other books in the library, you can simply draw a circle around the word “Library” while enabling “Guided access” on the book.

The “library” button will be grayed out and the user will not be able to tap on it, although the user can swipe left or right to read pages in the book. Pressing the “home button” will pop up an alert reminding the user that “guided access” is enabled.

You can “Turn off Touch” to ignore all screen touches and you can also “turn off motion” to prevent your device from switching from portrait to landscape or from responding to any other motions.

How To Exit Guided Session

If you want to disable or end a guided access session, triple-click the Home button and enter your passcode. Should in case you get stucked someday, you can check out :”How to exit out of Guided Access when it locks up“.

That’s all.

What’s your take on this feature?


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Comments

One response to “Lock ALL Apps Except ONE on iPhone and iPad Using iOS Guided Access”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Inability of the user to tap the grayed out area of the app might be so frustrating to the user especially when you act as if you don’t know what’s up. Nice though..

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