auto lock 'never' option is missing

Hi cate233,

Thanks for coming to Apple Support Communities for help today. It sounds like the Never option is missing on Auto-Lock in Settings > Display & Brightness.

This might be expected if you have a managed device. You can check in Settings  > General > Profiles & Device Management.

You can read more about MDM here: MDM overview for Apple devices.

Have a fantastic day!

@MichaelB2019, Thanks for the tip. You're indeed correct. I did have a "managed device" under General->Device Management (for my company email configs) that disable to Never option under Display&Brightness->Auto-Lock.

After removing that managed device, the Never option finally shows up again, so that I can disable auto-lock of the phone when I'm using google map while driving (which is a royal pain).

Thank you so much.

1. Open Settings
2. Tap General
3. Scroll down to the bottom
4. Look just below VPN; do you see Profiles, Device Management, or Profiles & Device Management?
5. If you see any one of these tap on it to open it and look for a company or school security profile.

If you find the profile you can delete it, but if you do, that will disable all apps provided by the company or school and cancel the company or school email account and VPN connection, if any.

The other possibility is if the phone is a company issued phone that is under MDM (Mobile Device Management). If it is then you cannot disable the setting.

@tiziana211, I think you'll see the option "Profiles & Device Management" only if you have managed device installed. In my case, when I installed and enabled my company emails/apps on my iphone, it created and installed a profile for it, that's why I saw the managed device on my iphone at the time. (The managed device of my company must have security policy to force my phone to auto-lock, for security purpose.) After I removed that managed device, the Never option (for disabling auto-lock in "Display & Brightness" shows up again).

I'm on 14.7.1 as well. I can also confirm that, now that I've deleted the managed device, I no longer see the "Profile & Device Management" option on my phone anymore (since I have no other profiles installed).

If you're still not seeing the Never option (to disable the auto-lock of the phone), it must be due to some other reasons, other than managed device.

Hope this helps.

Do you have a work Exchange email account? If so, that can change it as well.

You might think the app is "strictly for emails" but when you installed the app, but it has to have security policy configured and set on your phone. It doesn't matter if you "think" this is your personal device. When you expose it to the company or school by installing their app or vpn to access their system, you're allowing them to put restrictions on your device (which is understandable since every access point into their system can be a "weakest link."

You should try removing that app, and see if it helps.

On my iPhone 13 (iOS 15), the “Never” option was missing from my choices under Auto-lock. After reading the replies in this thread I had an idea; delete the Outlook (Microsoft) and Gmail (Google) apps from my phone. Once those two apps were deleted then I restarted my iPhone and noticed that the “Never” option was now present in the Auto-lock options.

So, if you’re missing the “Never” option from the Auto-lock options, it could be that you have either the Outlook or Google apps (from the App Store) installed and one of those apps is interfering with your Never option in Auto-lock. I suspect it could be the Outlook app, since that is related to the Exchange functionality.

FedericoV62 wrote:

Lawrence, security and data protection are not in question, but the way they have implemented security is crude and barbaric. My bank apps (I have 5 of them installed) work differently. Instead of taking control of my device, they just close the app. To open the app you need face ID or passwod. In my honest opinion this is a perfect example where the power of Microsoft has forced Apple to accept an holy ****. Now I'm in Santa Marta Colombia, I have rented a motorcycle with a phone holder and I need google map on my screen. To get the "NEVER" on auto-lock I had to delete my company email account. BTW my more sensitive bank apps are still working perfectly.

Except it is not Apple that has implemented this. Your COMPANY has decided that data on your phone must be protected, and by installing a company email account on your phone you have given your employer permission to take control of security features of your phone to protect THEIR data. If Apple did not offer this capability most companies would not permit company accounts on iPhones. It has nothing to do with your “sensitive bank apps”. It is all about your employer protecting their intellectual property and company-private communications.

Since you mention a phone holder on your motorcycle, you should read this→Exposure to vibrations, like those generated by high-powered motorcycle engines, might impact iPhone cameras - Apple Support

I had the never option, then I updated to iPadOS 15 and it was gone, but now I disconnected my exchange account. It’s back!

Check if your device is in Low Power Mode. If so, the auto lock option will be greyed out and the auto lock time restricted to 2 minutes.

Never is not an option in low power mode. It would defeat the purpose of low power mode.

MiniPennypacker wrote:

I don’t have a business or school account on my iPhone.

Yes, you do. As stated below.

have business/school emails that I’ve signed into through Mail App that have access to my notes, calendar, etc.

But these accounts are strictly email and have no relation to my personal device account.

Your 'personal device account' has nothing to do with it.

When you set up an Exchange account on the device, the administrators can enforce policies on the device via ExchangeActiveSync.

That is what's happening here.

Exchange email accounts for work or school contain proprietary information owned by the business or school. So it is natural that the owner of the Exchange email accounts wants some control over how you use THEIR data, and how exposed to theft it is. There is nothing “silly” about a business protecting its intellectual property or trade secrets; it would be gross negligence not to, and if it’s a publicly traded company it could expose them to shareholder lawsuits. You’re lucky that preventing you from leaving your phone lying around unlocked for hours where anyone could examine its contents is the only restriction on your phone. A lot of businesses also block copy/paste, sharing, updating, texting, other email accounts and other features of the phone that could compromise their data.

Lawrence, security and data protection are not in question, but the way they have implemented security is crude and barbaric. My bank apps (I have 5 of them installed) work differently. Instead of taking control of my device, they just close the app. To open the app you need face ID or passwod. In my honest opinion this is a perfect example where the power of Microsoft has forced Apple to accept an holy ****. Now I'm in Santa Marta Colombia, I have rented a motorcycle with a phone holder and I need google map on my screen. To get the "NEVER" on auto-lock I had to delete my company email account. BTW my more sensitive bank apps are still working perfectly.

Perhaps im lucky but after i tried turning Low Power Mode On and Off the option "Never" came back.

Just try it and please do not forget to reply if this helps!

Settings -> Battery -> Low Power Mode on/off

then check Auto-Lock options again if you can see "Never" there.