a fix for an iPhone lock-screen annoyance you may be seeing too
 |
    5 years
|
Apple and a news organization, without asking, added what looks like a widget to my iPhone lock screen on Election Day.
It took awhile for me to figure out how to get it off, but I succeeded. If you have this and if it annoys you too, read on.
The lock screen is different from the home screen. The lock screen is what you see on your iPhone after it's gone to sleep, and you then pick it up. After you unlock your iPhone, you go from the lock screen to the home screen.
These (new-to-me, yesterday) updating lock-screen boxes aren't really widgets, though, in Applespeak, so searching how to disable widgets won't help. Apple calls updating boxes on the lock screen: "Live Activities."
If you see Live Activities and want them off, open Settings and scroll down to Face ID & Passcode, or if your phone has a low-center push button, Touch ID & Passcode. You'll have to enter your passcode. Then scroll down to Live Activities and switch it to the disabled position. That should stop it from appearing and updating.
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/enable-live-activities-ios/
If you still see it on your lock screen even though it isn't updating any more, try getting rid of it by holding down a finger on the element until it flashes and swiping left. Until you disable it in Settings, though, it may well respawn if you just swipe it off.
I really hate it when Apple and Microsoft make changes like this without my consent. It's My Device. Leave it alone unless I opt in.
Perhaps we have a lawyer out there…
I used to write code for a Windows based machinery monitoring system. Even though the client spent upwards of $50K for hardware and software, generally speaking the courts upheld that the client only had a license to the software and as such we could do what we wanted in the way of modifications without the permission of the end user.
I believe that this is the case with Apple as well in that if you perform an update, certain features, widgets as you call them, may be included since Apple MAY own the iOS operating system. Note that I said “MAY” and that is because at one time I heard that Cisco developed the iOS operating system and may still retain the intellectual rights.
We of course have to keep the lawyers employed….
John from PA
Settings
Thanks for the iOS settings tips. I've never been to that corner before. As I've not seen the problem you saw, I left "Live Activities" turned on, which is how I found it.
I generally leave OS configurations on defaults unless I have a specific need to change them. But I like knowing something about where they are.
personal GPS user since 1992