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Locking phone while on call

I cannot tell you how many times I've hung up on someone when trying to lock my phone while on a call. Sometimes I can lock it no problem without hanging up and other times it hangs up.

Does anyone know if there's a trick to prevent this from happening?

Thanks in advance

MacBook, 2006, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 1GB Ram/16GB Orange nano/ 32GB 3GS/ Apple TV 2.0

Posted on Jan 20, 2011 3:24 PM

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Posted on Jan 20, 2011 3:31 PM

Seems as though I may have answered my own question.

If you're on speaker phone and hit the "lock" button it will NOT hang up, if you have it to your ear and hit it it WILL lock.

Also, if you hit home button twice it will lock your phone with passcode lock if you have one.
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Jan 20, 2011 3:31 PM in response to djm027

Seems as though I may have answered my own question.

If you're on speaker phone and hit the "lock" button it will NOT hang up, if you have it to your ear and hit it it WILL lock.

Also, if you hit home button twice it will lock your phone with passcode lock if you have one.

Jan 20, 2011 4:44 PM in response to djm027

djm027 wrote:
if you have it to your ear and hit it it WILL lock.


Why do you need to lock the device when holding it to your ear?

The proximity sensor detects when the phone is close to your face and turns the screen off. When pulled away from your face, that proximity sensor turns the screen back on.

Not sure how you ever accidentally hung up on someone by trying to lock the device while on a call.

Jan 23, 2011 3:43 PM in response to What-Now

What-Now wrote:
One reason you would like to lock the phone without it being on speaker is if you have the ear piece plugged in. I sometimes want to lock my phone if my earpiece is in.


Yes, that is one option, but locking the phone does not cause the phone to hang up the call.

I lock my phone all the time when using the Apple supplied mic/earphones and it never hangs up on the caller.

I can only conclude that either this is a user created problem or an issue with a setting on the device.

Restoring as new would resolve any settings problem.

Mar 25, 2011 8:30 PM in response to djm027

I've found this same thing to be a problem. You are right, if you are on a call and you are using the speakerphone, or a bluetooth or wired headset, and you hit the on/off sleep/wake button, the screen locks and your call is not ended.

However, if you are on a call the regular way (using the earpiece), and you hit ht sleep/wake on/off button, it ends your call.

I spoke to someone at the Apple Store who told me this didn't used to be the case. But, now, in their infinite wisdom, Apple has decided that the proximity sensor is all you need. With the phone against your head, the screen is off. The problem is that if you pull the phone away from your head (say to change ears), the screen comes on instantly, and, if you happen to touch that huge red "end" button, you hang up your call.

This is another example of not giving people basic options. If I am on a call, I want to lock the screen so that I cannot hang up on it mistakenly. But, this appears to not be an option unless someone can tell me something I don't know.

Mar 26, 2011 12:08 AM in response to JDLee

JDLee wrote:
I've found this same thing to be a problem. You are right, if you are on a call and you are using the speakerphone, or a bluetooth or wired headset, and you hit the on/off sleep/wake button, the screen locks and your call is not ended.

However, if you are on a call the regular way (using the earpiece), and you hit ht sleep/wake on/off button, it ends your call.

I spoke to someone at the Apple Store who told me this didn't used to be the case. But, now, in their infinite wisdom, Apple has decided that the proximity sensor is all you need. With the phone against your head, the screen is off. The problem is that if you pull the phone away from your head (say to change ears), the screen comes on instantly, and, if you happen to touch that huge red "end" button, you hang up your call.

This is another example of not giving people basic options. If I am on a call, I want to lock the screen so that I cannot hang up on it mistakenly. But, this appears to not be an option unless someone can tell me something I don't know.

100% accurate in everything you said. You are correct there is no intuitive option to lock it, but if the call is extremely deathly important and I simply cannot afford for it to be hung up on, I have my own methods if I can not muster up a hands free method quickly (like the ones you listed above). Going into the Notes app or another simple app is usually sufficient protection - the prox sensor state is still utilized so the screen is off but if it were to turn on accidentally, the chances of you ending the call are very slim since there is so much less real estate with the small green bar on top versus a large red prominent button. I have also found sending a push notification to myself to be extremely effective as well.

However, if you find yourself using these on a regular basis and not for "assurance" purposes, then your proximity sensor is certainly faulty.

-SM

Mar 7, 2014 7:56 AM in response to Sam M.

Running iOS 7.0.6 (11B651).


  • headset plugged in: the sleep/wake button does not hangup the call anymore.
  • handset only:
    1. phone not yet locked: the sleep/wake button ends the call.
    2. phone has locked: the sleep/wake button turns on the display; enter unlock code to unlock or use fingerprint sensor; (click top green bar to get back to the call in case you're in an app or on the home screen) click "end call"


clearly an iPhone is not a phone, or not really meant to be used as one. for all the hype around the great design gods at Apple I was disappointed. I want to make calls and I want to be able to hang up.

  • speed dialing requires more clicks (get to home screen, click phone, select favorites, click number) compared to other OSes (get to home screen, click shortcut icon (Android); long-press key (BB))
  • once the phone locks I have to enter my passcode to unlock the phone and hang up. I understand the security aspects of this, probably helpful in corner cases. But it also means for me to "prepare to say good by" ahead of time. I would rather like to pay full attention to my other party, though, and not start fiddling around with my phone.


Since I am using an iPhone as many of my counterparts do, too, I now understand the awkward 5 second silence after "hanging up" -- which you didn't yet! -- to fiddle around with the lock screen. And oh woe if you try and unlock it with your fingerprint, then good luck and make that 15 seconds.


[EDITED]: btw, there is not even a section in the manual how to simply end a call. There is a section on how to deal with a second incoming call, but nothing like the list above.


Message was edited by: thinkstorm

Aug 4, 2016 12:08 PM in response to thinkstorm

Thinkstorm,


"The awkward silence" is something that I've been more and more curious about myself.


I have a passcode on my iPhone. I lock my phone during most calls (because I don't want to hang up). If any of you have small kids that like to play with the phone while we're talking on speakerphone to family ("say, 'hi,' to Grandma"), you'll lock the phone, too. (Kids LOVE the big red button and can't avoid pushing it.)


My normal MO is to use my Bluetooth headset and leave my phone plugged in on the desk. I accept incoming calls through the Bluetooth headset. Even if I do not manually lock the phone during a call, my phone will dim and shut down the screen per my set preferences (60 seconds). Of course, the passcode will cause the "slide to unlock" screen to come up when I activate the phone via either the lock or home buttons during the call.


It seems like 50% of the time, the phone controls will come up when I slide. This is desirable (especially when I want to hit the mute button - again, see "kids"). The other 50%, the passcode screen will come up. Of course, this adds time to get to the function I really want to get to ("Daddy, Daddy, Daddy..." happening during this delay for the amusement of everyone on my conference call - lol).


This is where my frustration with iOS really comes up. When I enter the passcode, it will just take me to the home screen. I have an iPhone 5 (now ancient technology complete with its tactile home button), so it takes a little longer (i.e. delay) for the green banner to appear at the top of the screen after the unlock as well. Click the banner, and I, finally, get to access the controls... unless I the last thing I had on the call was the keypad (frequent when I'm navigating through DTMF menus with customer service or something). Being a common occurrence, I know that I have to hit the TINY "hide" link (not even really a button) for the keypad to go away before I can reach the holy grail of the mute button.


This, of course, works both ways for activating and de-activating the mute. I can't be the only one that's lost my place in the queue because of this (when the customer service agent can't hear me and quickly decides it's a bad connection and ends the call). Gawd forbid that you mis-type your passcode or can't hit the tiny "hide" link in a timely manner.


I realize these are all first-world problems, but Apple is supposed to be all about workflow that "just works." There's clearly some room for improvement on the scenarios I described. The bottom line (to bring it back to this thread) is that locking the phone during a call is something everyone should be able to use as a feature. I know my wife's Nexus 7 (Android) allows you to bring the big red button back up with any click even if you lock the phone, so Apple is way ahead on preventing accidental hang-ups. But, locking the phone during the call (especially the important ones) is a feature that a heck of a lot of users use, so I think some focus should be put back on that "phone app" (as we call it in the iOS parlance).


Thanks for putting up with my 2¢. 🙂


- Dave

Nov 15, 2016 9:04 PM in response to djm027

All of these solutions are find and dandy for the main phone app but what about third party apps such as WhatsApp? I still have not found a solution to be able to lock the phone while talking on WhatsApp and unfortunately even being on speaker phone does not work? If there is anyone else with this problem and knows a solution that would be great because getting my call cut out when locking the phone is getting annoying at this point.

Nov 21, 2016 8:29 AM in response to MetalDave

I would love to know if anyone has ever found a solution to this. It's stunningly nonfunctional. And by the way, to the people who can't understand why you'd lock your phone during a phone call, even if you don't lock your phone, depending on how long you have Auto-Lock set for (I do 5 minutes), any phone call of any length will time you out into a locked screen.

Locking phone while on call

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