HOW TO Turn on Guided Access

1 Open up Accessibility

Guided Access is one of many useful features in your device’s Accessibility screen, which you’ll find by going to Settings > Accessibility. If Guided Access isn’t already enabled, you’ll need to switch it on here.

2 Turn on Touch ID

If you have Touch ID, you can use it to quickly disable the Guided Access feature. You can toggle that on in Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access > Passcode Settings, where you can also create a default passcode.

3 Honk your horn

Guided Access can work in two ways; staying on until you manually switch it off, or staying on for a specified period of time. You can’t set that time period here, but you can add sounds and speech to alert the user of the time limit ending.

4 Override Auto-Lock

Your device probably has Auto-Lock set to a fairly short interval to preserve battery life, but you can override it here so that the person using your device won’t get locked out if they don’t use it for a few minutes.

5 Open the app

Guided Access locks your device down to the currently selected app. Here, we’re having a party and want to let our guests change the soundtrack in Apple Music. Open the app you want to use then triple-tap the Sleep/Wake button.

6 Set your boundaries

Guided Access automatically disables the bar at the bottom of the screen that you swipe to come out of an app. You can also disable parts of the app screen by drawing around them. Here we’re blocking access to the Edit and Account links.

7 Add more options

Tap Options to set a time limit, disable the volume and top buttons (aka the Sleep/Wake button) so that only Touch ID can exit Guided Access), disable keyboard input and so on. Only switch off things that you absolutely have to.

8 Specify time limits

If you tap the Time Limit toggle, you’ll now see a dial that you can use to set the appropriate limit. When the time limit expires, the screen will darken and lock, displaying a message that the Guided Access session has now ended.

9 Exit Guided Access

When you want to return to normal operation, triple-tap or use Touch ID on the Sleep/Wake button then tap End to exit Guided Access. Greyed-out bits are no longer greyed out, and ‘Guided Access Ended’ displays for a few seconds.