How to Use the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR

How to Keep Your iPhone XR or XS Screen From Turning Off

The latest full-screen iPhones have TrueDepth front-facing cameras which power Face ID, augmented reality features, Animoji, Memoji and selfies in Portrait Mode. That camera also holds the key to keeping your display from going black. It recognizes when you’re looking at it, and won’t dim unless you look away.

But if you want to keep your screen on longer without giving it constant attention, you can do that, too, with simple adjustments to your iPhone's settings. Here are two ways to keep the screen from turning off. —Caitlin McGarry

Turn on Attention Aware Features

1. Open Settings.

2. Select Face ID & Passcode.

3. Toggle on Attention Aware Features.

That setting will enable the front-facing camera to sense whether you’re looking at the display. If you’re not, the phone screen will start to dim.

MORE: Top 10 Features in Apple's New iPhones

Change the Display & Brightness Settings

You can keep the iPhone screen on forever if you want to by adjusting the display settings, though we wouldn’t recommend doing that if you want to conserve battery life. The default auto-lock setting is 30 seconds, but if that’s too brief for you, you can change it.

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Select Display & Brightness.

3. Tap Auto-Lock. That’s where you can change how long your screen will remain on and idle when you are not looking at it or using it.

4. Change the length of time from 30 seconds to any other increment between 1 and 5 minutes. You can also choose never auto-lock (though, again, that’s probably not the best idea if you want your phone to last throughout the day).

Tom's Guide Staff

Tom's Guide upgrades your life by helping you decide what products to buy, finding the best deals and showing you how to get the most out of them and solving problems as they arise. Tom's Guide is here to help you accomplish your goals, find great products without the hassle, get the best deals, discover things others don’t want you to know and save time when problems arise. Visit the About Tom's Guide page for more information and to find out how we test products.

  • spal26558
    It's good I understand n I will tell my friend also
    Reply
  • doduyvuong
    If i switch the Control USB Restricted Mode on iPhone XS and i forget it for so longtime, untill the batterie is running out, can i still be able to recharge it to use t again?
    Reply
  • webgtlnbrgrs
    Gee, it asked me if I wanted to up load all the info from my iPhone 7 , I clicked yes, and it said put both phones close together and it did it all on it's own, I don't understand why you even wrote this article ..
    Reply
  • dittodan
    I tried several times and this only brings up a screen to let you "slide" to make it go off. What am I doing wrong?
    Reply
  • dittodan
    Tried adding an Amazon and and PayPal CC and it denied me. Before I got this phone, both of the cards were signed up and working fine.
    Reply
  • dittodan
    Is this higher capacity charger the same one used for an iPad?
    Reply
  • powerharp
    After years of using Android, I changed to an iPhone ONLY because iPhone can stream audio to my hearing aids. After 2 weeks with the iPhone there are several clearly inferior characteristics. Most annoying is that you cannot close all open apps at once. The requirement to swipe each open app up or possibly do three at once is garbage. it is extremely difficult to switch between apps as will, something I did frequently on my clearly superior Android phones. Also, Android has apps that allow you to record phone calls but Apple doesn't, claiming that it is illegal in a lot of places. It's also legal in a lot of places. The iPhone function to swipe to get to the open apps is a joke (Android just requires a touch) and the procedure to get to the previous screen when browsing is also laughable compared to Android.
    Reply