Lowell

Jul 1, 20211 min

Control Center - Keep It Under Your Control

Updated: Jul 16, 2021

The Control Center is a quick way to access several settings for your Apple device - things like volume and brightness controls, screen rotation lock, activating/deactivating airplane mode, WiFI, cellular, and Bluetooth connections. You can customize Control Center by going to Settings>Control Center and choosing from the options to add/remove icons.

During recent research, I discovered the Control Center on my devices was, by default, available from the Lock Screen. This is a security issue if you lose your device. Not only can someone get into various settings on your device, they can also disable WiFi and cellular settings which will keep Apple’s Find My features from working. You’ll be unable to track your device’s location.

There is a fix for this, but it is not in Settings>Control Center. I do not remember where I learned about the fix, so I cannot credit the author.

  1. Go to Settings>Face ID & Passcode.

  2. Enter your passcode or use Face ID/Touch ID if enabled.

  3. In the right pane, scroll down to the Allow Access When Locked section, near the bottom.

  4. Turn off Control Center and any other items you wish to block from the Lock Screen. I turned off everything.

How to Access Control Center

  1. On newer devices, tap the area in the upper right corner where the battery/WiFi icons are located.

  2. On some older devices, you need to swipe downward from the top right corner of the screen. Begin the swipe offscreen to avoid opening the Notifications widget.

  3. On even older devices, I think a swipe up from the bottom right corner opens Control Center.

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