Apple’s Safety Check: How to Lock Down Your iPhone From Abusive Partners

Granting family members the ability to see your location and personal information on your iPhone can be helpful under normal circumstances. But if you feel threatened by a partner or other family member who has become abusive or violent, you can take action with Safety Check.

Introduced in iOS 16, this new feature allows you sign out of iCloud on all your devices, revoke the access you have given to others, limit messaging to just one device, and stop sharing location data. The new mobile OS should launch in mid-September, but you can check it out early by downloading the iOS 16 beta.

Set Up Safety Check

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You can set up Safety Check under Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check on your iPhone. Tap the Learn more link to read Apple’s Personal Safety User Guide(Opens in a new window), which outlines how to protect yourself and your sensitive data if you do feel threatened by someone else.

At any time during this process, you can tap the Quick Exit link at the upper right. This will immediately take you back to the Home screen, if you don’t want anyone to see what you are doing.

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Tap the Emergency Reset button, then confirm the action through Face ID, Touch ID, or PIN. This will stop location sharing and revoke access to all apps. You will also be able to change your Apple ID password, review your security settings, and add or remove emergency contacts. Tap the Start Emergency Reset button to continue.

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To revoke shared information with other people and apps, tap Reset People & Apps to start the process. Anyone you cut off from sharing won’t be notified of your action, but they may notice that the shared information is no longer visible to them. To revoke access for everyone and all apps, tap Reset. To revoke access for only certain people and apps, tap Manage Sharing & Access.

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If you opted to reset the access for everyone and all apps, the next screen displays your trusted phone numbers. Tap the minus (–) button to remove a number you no longer trust. Tap Add a Trusted Phone Number to add a number. That number will then receive a text message with a verification code that you must enter on your current phone. Tap Continue.

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You are then asked to update your Apple ID password. You can tap Update Later in Settings if you wish to skip this step for now. Otherwise, tap the Update Password button. Type and retype your new password, then tap the Update Password button.

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You can then manage your emergency contacts. Tap the minus (–) button next to an existing emergency contact to remove that person, or tap Add emergency contact to add a different person. Tap Continue. You will then be told that the Safety Check is Complete. Tap Done.

Manage Access Manually

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Instead of going through the entire Safety Check process, you can choose to manually remove access to specific people and apps. To do this at the Safety Check screen, tap Manage Sharing & Access instead of Emergency Reset. You will then be able to review the people, apps, and devices that have access to certain information. Tap Continue.

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From the Sharing with People screen, you can see which contacts have access to your information and which services are being shared with your contacts. Under the People tab, you can select the people with whom you no longer wish to share your data. Under the Information tab, select the type of data you no longer want to share with others.

Tap the Review Sharing button to make any further changes, then tap Continue. The next screen displays the apps able to access certain data. Review the list of apps and select any you wish to remove. Tap the i icon to see all the bits of information a specific app is able to access. You can then select any specific types of data to remove.

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Tap the Information tab and select any pieces of information or features you no longer wish to share with apps, such as your location, camera, microphone, or media library. Tap the i icon to see all the apps with access to the selected data or feature and remove any from the list. When done, tap Stop App Access, then tap Continue.

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The next screen displays any devices currently signed in with your Apple ID. Select any that you wish to remove from your account. Then tap Remove Selected Devices.

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You can then tap Update Password to change your Apple ID password. Tap Update Later in Settings to skip this step for now. Next, remove any existing emergency contact and add a new one if you wish. Tap Continue.

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The next screen lets you update your device’s passcode. To proceed, enter your existing passcode and then type a new one. You can also tap Skip if you don’t want to change your passcode.

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If you have previously set up an alternate or second appearance on a Face ID-enabled iPhone, you’re next given the chance to reset Face ID and remove that second appearance. To do this, tap Reset Face ID and follow the steps to scan your face.

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The last screen tells you that the Safety Check is complete but describes other settings and features that may be sharing data or access with other people. Review the suggestions on this screen and take any further action that you may feel is warranted to protect your location, your privacy, and yourself.