How to Disable Password and Auto-Lock in Android?

Using strong password is the first step to protect the privacy and security of your smartphone. However, sometimes you may not need to enter the password each time for unlocking the phone. Especially, password is unnecessary when you do not have any private or confidential data. For example, your kid might be using your old phone for attending online classes or playing games. Since the phone will automatically lock the screen, it will be annoying to unlock every time. In such cases, you can disable password lock or increase the automatic lock duration to make things easier for you.

Managing Password and Screen Lock in Android Phone

Though some Android phone models use face recognition for unlocking screen, most of the phones uses pattern, PIN or password. Even you have Face ID or touch recognition, most phones still need a password (or passcode) for setting up initially. Depending upon the situation, you can either disable the password or increase the screen lock duration. In addition, there is also a Smart Lock function that can use for disabling password based on certain conditions.

1. Disable Password in Android

This is the first option to completely get rid of password lock in your Android phone. Follow the below instructions to disable password:

• Go to “Settings” and then navigate to “Security > Screen lock” section.
• It will ask you to re-enter your PIN or lock code, whatever you have setup on your phone.
• You can choose a new screen lock on the next screen.
• Select “None” from the list and disable your phone password or security lock.
• You will see a warning showing, this will also delete any other options like the fingerprint stored on your device.
• Press “Delete” on the message box, and your phone will not have any password now.

2. Increase Auto Screen Lock Time in Android

By default, Android phones will lock the screen after certain time of inactivity. This is to protect your phone from unauthorized access that someone should not tap on the screen and check your notifications. However, frequently unlocking the screen will be tiresome especially when you are doing multitasking with multiple devices. In such a case, you can simply increase the automatic screen lock duration instead of completely disabling the password. In this way, you can still have a password for first time unlocking the screen and avoid the screen getting locked frequently. Note that Android does not offer an option to disable the screen lock, you can only set the maximum duration time available from the settings.

• Go to “Settings > Security > Screen lock” section.
• There is a gear icon in front of the “Screen lock.” Press it to open the screen lock settings.
• Tap the “Lock after screen timeout” to open a list of timeouts to lock the screen.
• You can choose the preferred value like Immediately, 5 seconds, 15 seconds, and so on, up to 30 minutes.

Unlike iPhone, the latest version of Android does not give an option to disable the screen lock. You only can set the timeout to a maximum value of 30 minutes. If you need to keep the screen on for longer time, there are third party apps to keep the screen on until you press the button. For example, you can use “Screen On” app which offers a button to keep the screen on or put it off.

3. Using Smart Lock in Android

There is also an addition feature in Android called “Smart Lock”. It helps to keep your phone unlocked while it is on your body and near trusted places or devices. For example, you can keep the phone unlocked all the time when you are in home by adding the home location as a trusted place in the settings.

• Go to “Settings > Security” section and tap on “Smart Lock” option.
• You will see three options – On-body detection, Trusted places and Trusted devices.
• Tap on the option you prefer and set the parameters to enable it.
• After you finish the settings, your phone will remain unlocked as per your Smart Lock settings.

Final Words

As you can see, Android offers multiple options to handle the password and screen lock as per your convenient. At any point of time, you can change the settings to reset your password or adjust the screen lock time. Smart Lock is also very useful to keep the phone unlocked where you do not need the security.