Your iPhone probably contains a lot of personal information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Setting a passcode will provide a certain amount of security, but a 4-digit numeric passcode only has 10,000 possible combination, so someone that is determined enough could eventually get it.
One way to get around this is to enable an option where your iPhone will erase all of the data on the phone if the incorrect password is entered 10 times. Our guide below will show you where to find this setting so that you can enable it.
*Note that this may not be a great idea if you often have trouble entering your own passcode, or if you have a small child that likes to play with your iPhone. Ten incorrect attempts can happen pretty quickly, and you wouldn’t want to erase your iPhone data over an innocent mistake.
Device used: iPhone 6 Plus
Software version: iOS 9.3
Here is how to erase all of the data on your iPhone 6 if the passcode is incorrectly entered 10 times in a row –
- Open the Settings menu.
- Select the Touch ID & Passcode option.
- Enter your passcode.
- Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap the button to the right of Erase Data.
- Tap the Enable button to confirm.
These steps are also repeated below with images –
Step 1: Tap the Settings icon.
Step 2: Tap the Touch ID & Passcode option.
Step 3: Enter the device passcode.
Step 4: Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap the button to the right of Erase Data. Note that the option is not turned on yet in the picture below. If there is green shading around the button, then this setting is already enabled.
Step 5: Tap the red Enable button to confirm your selection and enable your iPhone to erase all of the data on the device if the passcode is incorrectly entered ten times.
Would you like to use a passcode with letters, or with a different amount of characters? Learn how to change the type of passcode that you use on your iPhone.