iOS 4: Understanding data protection
Summary
Data protection is a feature available for iOS 4 devices that offer hardware encryption: iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (3rd generation or later), and all iPad models. This article outlines how to enable and verify data protection.
Products Affected
iPad, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), iPhone 3GS
Data protection enhances the built-in hardware encryption by protecting the hardware encryption keys with your passcode. This provides an additional layer of protection for your email messages and attachments. Third-party applications can use the data protection APIs in iOS 4 to further protect application data.
Enable data protection by configuring a passcode for your device:
- Tap Settings > General > Passcode.
- Follow the prompts to create a passcode.
- After the passcode is set, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and verify that the text "Data protection is enabled" is visible.
Passcode Tips
Use these passcode settings to maximize passcode security:
- Set Require Passcode to Immediately.
- Disable Simple Passcode to allow the use of longer, alphanumeric, passcodes.
- Enable Erase Data to automatically erase the device after ten failed passcode attempts.
Additional Information
Enabling data protection on iOS devices that shipped with iOS 3
If you upgraded your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (3rd generation), or iPad to iOS 4, you will need to restore your device to make this feature available. Restoring will erase all user content from the device (your data will then be restored from backup).
Use the following steps to back up your data, restore the device, and then restore your data from the backup:
- Connect your device to iTunes and back up your data.
- Locate and right-click the device in the left-hand column of iTunes, and then select backup.
- When the backup is complete, locate and click Restore in the Summary pane.
- When the restore is complete, select the option to "Restore from a backup" in iTunes and pick the backup you created earlier.
- Note: iTunes automatically selects the most recent backup; you can verify this by checking the date and time the backup was made.
- Follow the directions to restore the backup. When the restore process is complete, set a passcode to enable data protection.
iTunes will download and reinstall iOS 4 on your device.