iPhones Running iOS 18.1 Automatically Reboot and Lock Down After Being Idle for 96 Hours

This is an interesting new iPhone feature that causes an iPhone to automatically reboot if it's turned on but hasn’t been unlocked for 96 hours.

The thinking is that if your phone is taken from you then it’s harder to hack after it reboots, which is completely true.

Law enforcement has recently encountered this new feature from iPhones they’ve confiscated. The phones that law enforcement have been storing were inexplicably rebooting after 96 hours.

How It Works

When you turn on your iPhone, after it’s been completely powered down, or reboot it, your keys are still encrypted. Entering your six digit PIN unlocks the keys.

This is why, after you turn a phone on, but don’t unlock it, phone calls or text messages don’t display the names of who they’re from on the Lock Screen - rather the notifications simply show the phone number of the sender. The iPhone can’t decrypt a lot of things, like your address book, until you enter your PIN after turning it on or rebooting.

Once you unlock your iPhone for the first time, all the keys are decrypted and kept in memory until the next time you reboot the phone.