How to disable iPhone/iPad auto-lock while app is in foreground mode?

Question

I'm developing an music/video player app and just need to konw how to disable the auto-lock while my app is in foreground.

I know I've to use [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setIdleTimerDisabled:YES]; and [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setIdleTimerDisabled:NO]; at some point, but where is the best place to put them?

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 07 '22 at 13:46

26

Enable the idle timer in

- (void)applicationWillResignActive:(UIApplication *)application

and disable it in

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application

edited Jul 07 '22 at 13:46

Henry Ecker

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answered Feb 23 '12 at 12:16

It worked fine here but I'm wondering It'll work on dockstations and apple tv? Don't have any here to test. – jMelnik Feb 23 '12 at 12:29
I've heard that another option is to play a silent "sound". – Hot Licks Feb 23 '12 at 13:10
1

@HotLicks that would probably result in your app getting rejected, but no one could say that for sure. – Dan Rosenstark Aug 14 '12 at 23:04
Actually this is quite nice hack. Thank you very much :) – yershuachu Oct 15 '14 at 06:33
This is not the correct place because when any alert appears, or the notification center or control center is up then the application resigns active and you risk the device auto-locking. – malhal Aug 03 '15 at 14:32

malhal · Answer 2 · 2016-07-09T08:47:43.650

10

The best place to disable it is in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions. The system will automatically take care of making the setting have no effect when the app is in the background.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
    application.idleTimerDisabled = YES; 
    return YES;
}

I posted this alternative because the accepted answer does not prevent auto-lock when an alert appears (email, message, calendar event etc), or the notification center or control center is up.

edited Jul 09 '16 at 08:47

answered Aug 03 '15 at 14:35

malhal

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what if an application in the background? whether the auto lock disabled in this situation? – Damon Yuan Dec 10 '15 at 16:30
auto-lock is not disabled in the background, Apple don't allow it. – malhal Jul 09 '16 at 08:48

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 24 '17 at 17:09

7

Swift 3.0:

Inside AppDelegate.swift: application.idleTimerDisabled = true

Outside AppDelegate.swift: UIApplication.shared().isIdleTimerDisabled = true

answered Apr 24 '17 at 17:09

Crashalot

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 10 '16 at 14:50

3

And in Swift 3.0:

UIApplication.shared().isIdleTimerDisabled = true

answered Aug 10 '16 at 14:50

Lukl

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 28 '17 at 15:28

1

my 2 cents: for xcode 9:

 application.idleTimerDisabled = true

.....AppDelegate.swift:28:15: 'idleTimerDisabled' has been renamed to 'isIdleTimerDisabled'

so:

application.isIdleTimerDisabled = true

answered Oct 28 '17 at 15:28

ingconti

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How to disable iPhone/iPad auto-lock while app is in foreground mode?

5 Answers5