App stops when screen locks iPhone

How to Stop Your iPhone Screen From Automatically Turning Off

• Benj Edwards
  Reviewed By

  @benjedwards



• Updated

Does your iPhone screen keep going dark or turning off while reading something, checking a shopping list, or any other time you dont want it to? Theres an easy way to turn off auto-lock on an iPhone in Settings. Heres how.

The reason your iPhones screen keeps dimming and turning off is because of a feature called Auto-Lock, which automatically puts the iPhone into a sleep/lock mode after a certain period of time. Two-thirds of the way through the set period, the screen dims to half brightness. To fix it, we need to turn Auto-Lock off.

First, open the Settings app by tapping the gear icon. Swipe down in the middle of your iPhones home screen to use Apples built-in Spotlight search if you cant find the app on your device.

In Settings, tap Display & Brightness.

In the Display & Brightness settings, scroll down and tap Auto-Lock.

Note: If you have Low Power mode enabled, Auto-Lock will be set to 30 Seconds, and you wont be able to tap on the option to change it. To change it, first disable Low Power mode.

In Auto-Lock, you will see a list of time options. These determine the length of time your iPhones screen will stay lit before turning off and going into Lock mode.

Here, were going to turn it off entirely, so select Never.

After that, exit Settings. Whenever you wake your iPhone, its screen will stay lit and will not go into Lock mode until you push the power button.

If you keep having trouble with a dimming screen even with Auto-Lock disabled, it could be because Auto-Brightness is enabled. Auto-Brightness can be disabled under the Accessibility options in the Settings app.

RELATED: How to Disable Auto-Brightness on Your iPhone

Its Usually Best to Reenable Auto-Lock Again Later

There are some drawbacks to disabling Auto-Lock. The first is battery life: Your phone will run out of battery charge much faster if you forget to turn the screen off. The second is security: If you leave your phone on and it does not lock automatically, anyone can potentially use it.

So, it might be best to turn the Auto-Lock feature back on when youre done. To do that, just repeat the steps above and select a time limit from the list instead of Never. Good luck!

RELATED: 8 Tips for Saving Battery Life on Your iPhone