Safety Check on iPhone: what it does and how to use it
One place to see who you share with, and to stop it quickly if you need to.
In short
Safety Check, in Settings › Privacy & Security › Safety Check, lets you review and stop what your iPhone shares with people and apps. Emergency Reset stops all sharing at once and walks you through securing your Apple Account; Manage Sharing & Access lets you review people and apps one by one. It needs iOS 16 or later and an Apple Account with two-factor authentication.
Key takeaways
- Emergency Reset stops sharing with all people and apps at once.
- Manage Sharing & Access reviews people and apps one at a time.
- It can’t review non-Apple accounts or social media sharing.
What Safety Check can change
- Stop sharing your location with people in Find My.
- Remove other people’s access to shared content such as Photos — including a Shared Library and Shared Albums — Notes and Calendar.
- Reset system privacy permissions for apps, including Photos, Camera, Microphone and Location Services.
- Review devices signed in to your Apple Account and the phone numbers used to verify your identity.
- Change your Apple Account password, your iPhone passcode, and your Face ID or Touch ID.
- Restrict Messages and FaceTime to the iPhone in your hand.
Emergency Reset
Emergency Reset is for when everything needs to stop now. It immediately stops sharing with all people and apps, then guides you through your emergency contacts, the devices connected to your Apple Account, the phone numbers used to verify your identity, and your Apple Account password.
- Go to Settings › Privacy & Security › Safety Check.
- Tap Emergency Reset.
- Tap Start Emergency Reset, then follow the onscreen instructions. Your progress is saved as you go.
Manage Sharing & Access
This is the calmer option, useful as a periodic review. You go through what you share, either person by person or by type of information, then through what apps can access, and finally through account security: connected devices, trusted phone numbers, password, passcode and Face ID or Touch ID.
- Go to Settings › Privacy & Security › Safety Check.
- Tap Manage Sharing & Access, tap Continue, then follow the steps for people, apps and account security.
- When you have finished, go back through the screens to check that each change took effect.
Changes are saved as you go, including any you made before pressing Quick Exit. If you later want to share something again, open the app concerned and share it as you normally would.
What it can’t reach
- Accounts and passwords for services other than Apple.
- Social media sharing.
- Devices signed in to a different Apple Account.
- An iPad or Mac with sharing turned on for other apps.
For these, the Personal Safety User Guide has manual checklists. Some options may be unavailable if your iPhone has Screen Time restrictions or a device management profile, and Safety Check may work a little differently when Stolen Device Protection is on.
Apps with their own lock
Safety Check works on what your iPhone and Apple Account share. An app that keeps its own secret sits outside that: a Latent vault, for example, opens with its own pattern or password, so someone who knows your iPhone passcode still can’t open it, before or after a reset.