Password protect Mail on iPad

Thanks Married. Even though there is a bit involved, this will work for me until such time a straight-forward password or passcode is enabled for restricting access to the mail App. I agree with others, this is not too much to ask and I can't see how it would compromise Apple's vision for the product. I too have posted feedback to Apple requesting this functionality. Until I saw your post I hadn't set up mail on my iPad ... now I have, thanks to your solution! I will rarely use my iPad for mail so I will normally leave mail accounts inactive and then activate them when needed. Cheers.

PS ... part of the Apple vision for iPad as I understand it is for anyone to be able to pick up one and use it. I love watching my little ones play with my iPad and see them explore every nook and cranny of it. Its good to be able to give them open slather without being able to unintentionally compromise my "serious" stuff.

Enable 'Restrictions' and select a password. Go to 'allow changes'..select accounts and select 'don't allow changes'. You need to ensure that your email accounts are first set to 'off' mode. Everytime you need access to email, you will need to set it to 'on'. If done as described above, the feature to switch 'off and on' your email accounts will not be available. Everytime you need to access your email accounts on your iPad, go to restrictions, key in password, go to accounts, allow changes, go to email accounts, select 'on' for a particular account/s. All this takes is about 5 seconds.

In this way your email will be for your eyes only! Simple!!

Brilliant solution Married. Not ideal but changes what I can do with the Ipad. We leave the ipad on the table, just like a magazine or book, and people people that visit do pick it up to use for short periods of time. I found myself constantly unlocking for others so I just stopped using the password protection. The lack of being able to use a password limits the usefullness of the Ipad. My choice is to either lock the Ipad and hide it or buy a second Ipad that is just formy private use, maybe that is what Apple wants. This will serve my purpose for now until Apple acknowledges this as an issue to be resolved.

Dah.veed - Thanks for your input. You are right on the money and the original poster should have had enough sense to listen to you. But you just can't fix some people.

Not sure what planet BiigJiimand Moto 70 are from.

The orginal poster asked a specific question and is requesting an option which many, many others are looking for. Even though the option does not exist at this time this does not mean there will not be changes in the future. Even Facebook recognizes that multiple people might use a single Ipad device since they allow multiple user access and allow log on/log off options. Making personal comments about people just because you do not agree with them is not useful.

I'm from a planet where some people read the actual OP and don't just jump into a thread giving somebody who appears to love to disagree a virtual blowey.

Where is this advice that should be listened too that involves entering just one simple password?

******* trolls, that get everywhere...

fisticuts wrote:

Dah.veed - Thanks for your input. You are right on the money and the original poster should have had enough sense to listen to you. But you just can't fix some people.

Not sure what planet BiigJiimand Moto 70 are from.

Fisticuts, as this thread shows, I come from a planet where there are three types of people:

1. ones who love all things Apple and have their heads so far up their arses that they can't comprehend any sort of Apple criticism or even comprehend the possibility that any Apple product ever might in any small way be less than 100% perfect.

2. subset of (1) but who just post mindless insults on forums without having the intelligence to actually contribute anything (I think we all know where you fall here...)

3. Normal people. These are the ones who buy the best products for their needs, regardless of brand, and who are able to have a reasonable and balanced debate on the merits (or otherwise) of a given product.

The OP asked a very very reasonable question, one that has also been asked by a great many other people. Therefore it is clearly something people want and would benefit from. Therefore adding it as an optionwould make the iPad a BETTER product. Isn't Apple interested in that?

Another alternative would be to be able to access the iCloud mail etc on Safari on the iPad / iPhone, like you can on your laptop. That way you could have all your different email accounts forwarded to the iCloud mail and have the security of a password to be able to access it. Then of course you would need to disable all mail on the iPad etc.

Another alternative would be to be able to access the iCloud mail etc on Safari on the iPad / iPhone, like you can on your laptop.

You can access www.icloud.com with a 3rd party browser on iOS devices, such as the Atomic browser.

Hi Dah*veed,

Thanks for your reply, but I have tried that already, with about four or five different 3rd party browsers, and they all automatically take me to the "set up iCloud on this device" page (www.icloud.com/ipad_welcome/), with no option to login from the browser.

It seems nonsensical that you can't login online with the iOS devices when you can on the computer.

Thanks for your help anyway.

iCab Mobile using a non mobile browser ID (Forefox for Mac, for example) will allow you to log into iCloud. Not the most stable at times, but it does work. However, iCloud is designed to support iOS, not the other way around. From iOS, you access iCloud via any number of compatible app. Their really is little need to access it via a browser for the the vast majority of users.

Hi James,

Thank you thank you thank you!!! You have solved my problem!! The iCab Mobile is a little slow, but at least it allows me to login via the browser!

I do appreciate that the iCloud is designed to support iOS rather than the other way round, and for the most part it is absolutely fabulous, but, as per the discusion thread going on here, I needed a way to be able to access my iCloud mail on the iPad without it being available for all and sundry to see whenever they picked up my iPad (as quite often happens), ie to password protect it. Seeing as that option isn't (yet, hopefully) available in the Mail settings on the iPad/iPhone, I needed to find another solution. Why not set up a yahoo account (eg) you may well ask. Well, I have all my labelled mail folders with previous mail set up on my iCloud and I cannot transfer them to a yahoo account, so that is not really an option.

Thank you so much anyway, I'm thrilled to have found at least a fairly good solution!

Hi Dah*veed,

My mistake, sorry! However, even with the paid version it works only up to a point. Same problem with the iCab Mobile that James suggested. On the iPad I can get into the email, but, I suppose because I have asked it to behave llike a laptop browser, I can't see all the content on the screen, and there seems to be no way of scrolling across to read the hidden bits. Also, even though I can read (part of) the email, I cannot do anything else, as the reply, flag, delete, forward, move options are simply not there. On the iPhone it is totally unworkable as I can't even scroll across to the sign in box. So this option has very limited use unfortunately. A real shame though, as it would have been the perfect solution!

Thanks anyway, I appreciate the help.

Hi James,

I just thought I would update you on the feasibility of iCab Mobile for my purposes, in case anyone else was also interested. Like I just posted to Dah*veed, apart from the instability of it, I have also discovered that actually it isn't a workable solution. On the iPad I can get into the email, but, I suppose because I have asked it to behave llike a laptop browser, I can't see all the content on the screen, and there seems to be no way of scrolling across to read the hidden bits. Also, even though I can read (part of) the email, I cannot do anything else, as the reply, flag, delete, forward, move options are simply not there. On the iPhone it is totally unworkable as I can't even scroll across to the sign in box. So this option has very limited use unfortunately. A real shame though, as it would have been the perfect solution!

Thank you also to you for the suggection - they both (this and the one Dah*veed suggested) seem pretty good 3rd party browsers otherwise!

I haven't seen this mentioned in the thread yet, but Dennis at Cnet has a pretty good article about how to password protect your e-mail on an iPhone or iPad.

I just got an iPad myself and was wondering how to do the same thing, so I'm going to try this method the first chance I get.