Stuck in Guided Access with iOS 6? Here’s How to Escape
Guided Access, or what we to call “Kid Mode”, is a fantastic addition to iOS that lets you lock an iPhone or iPad into a single app. Well, great when it works as it’s intended, but it appears there’s a pretty frustrating bug that makes the feature work a little too well once it’s enabled in iOS 6 with some apps: triple-clicking the Home button doesn’t summon anything and you’re stuck in an app! This leaves you unable to leave Guided Access mode, but here’s a workaround to get out of it until the bug is resolved:
- Hold the Home and Power button together for 15 seconds until a reboot is forced on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch
- With the device rebooted, go back to Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access > and turn OFF as necessary
Because just about everything is disabled when the feature is on, even Force Quit won’t work. Yes that means you’ll have to reboot to escape from Guided Access in certain apps for the time being.
The stuck app bug doesn’t appear to impact any native Apple apps, but it does affect many popular third party apps. Expect a resolution soon that doesn’t involve rebooting with iOS 6.0.1 or a similar incremental update.
My IPad is stuck in guided access mode in the camera screen and I can’t get out of it
I have this issue and the home/power button hold isn’t working! I’ve held them down for as long as 30 seconds and it just won’t power down. It’s stuck in safari…
Find my iphone — lock mode — then press the home button — > made my home screen to come up and was able to use the phone normally. First thing I did was to disable guided access 😄
Worked for me like a wonder trick. Thank u so much. Was about to bang the phone with the wall!
How do I get out of Guided Access If my power button is jammed??
Press the home button 3 times
Omg thanks so much I was gonna cry cos I do not wanna lose my iPod. Well it’s only a iPod but I have a iPhone 4 now not bragging just saying! Sorry but thank you!!
I need help im at the home screen and that im typing my passcode and it taking me back to the passcode after each freeze. im putting it in and it wont take me to the home screen.
I forced my iPhone to reboot but when it came on its still frozen on screen lock what should I do
Didnt wrk fr me at all
Thank you so much for your helpful site , I am really appreciated.
Brilliant! Just did this on my iPhone when it only gave me half a keypad to type my passcode in! Surprisingly most of my numbers were on the half missing! Now changed it so if it does it again numbers should still be visible.
I cant reboot because my home button is jammed what can i do?
Thank you! My sons iPod glitched and when trying to exit GA and typing in the passcode, the numbers 3,6 and 9 were not appearing on the screen. Tried locking it using the find my iPhone app from my phone, but that didn’t work.
HELP! i’m trying to reboot but my power button is jammed;( what can i do?
I am rebooting my iPhone but it isn’t working I am still trapped in it. It directly goes to the photos. Please help me!!!
I have a ipod touch fifth generation I forgot my password to guided access an now it’s stuck an I cant get on I tunes I dont have a laptop
thank you sooooooooooo much I was bout to throw my phone at the wall I was so mad at it
Well I got stuck on this piece of bunk and I tried to enter my passcode several times. DOES ANYONE HOW TO DISABLE GUIDED ACCESS WITHOUT A flipping PASSCODE?!
Enter your iPhone unlock passcode when it requests the passcode, it’s the same you use to unlock the screen. Or if you set a passcode for Parental Controls, use that passcode to exit out of of Guided Access.
I have been trying this and it is not working for me. I also do not know my password could somebody please help me.
okay right before I entered blindly into this guided access feature I removed my pass code for having to enter one at all and now I’m stuck in guided access and triple home takes me to the enter pass code popup screen. I don’t know what to enter since I removed and that one didn’t work either! I can’t hit any button on the number pad to proceed without having to enter numbers or the cancel button. soft reset did not work…HELP? PLEASE?!
Thank You Very Much .. :)
Help! The reboot won’t work, the area blanked out by guided access doesn’t allow me to select the cancel button to put in my password or select anything!
thank you man,you save my ipad
Thanks for your help with getting me out of “guided access”.
I went through the TSA check at the airport, and thought their xray machines did something to my iPad because it was working perfectly fine a minute before I went through their scanning machines. The iPad was on lockdown the entire flight.
Thank God I found you. How frustrating the whole experience was for me………….No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get back to the home page, or even shut it off.
It was such a simple fix. I’m feeling pretty stupid right now, but will know how to fix this if it happens again.
Thank You – Thank You – Thank You………….:)
Thank you so much, my younger daughter some how turned on the guided access on my son’s iPod, and we had no idea the code or how to turn it off :)
Thank you so so so mmmmmmmuuuuuucccchhhh i’ve been trying to get off the guided access enabled for over half an hour
Bless you!
This happened for the first time on the day that I was to travel with my toddler. I could not get it out of guided access and I would needit to alert family of my arrival and such. Thank goodness I found this tip!!!! I really needed to have my IPhone working before I got on the airplane! Thanks so much!!!!!!!
My appreciation knows no bounds!!!!
omg, i thought i’ll stuck here forever! thx so much!
guided access locked up in safari. tried reboot but puts me back to safari, and locked in guided access. other ideas?
Yes, if you are locked into Guided Access mode, follow the instructions outlined above to forcibly reboot the iPad. If the force reboot is done successfully, you will restart back into the normal Home Screen and not into Safari.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much!! This has helped me SOO much!!
I have been trying to reboot it but it continues to reopen the app and keep me out. What do I do?
OMGoodness! Googled this problem and find your post. Thanks for the fix. My iPhone was locked in YouTube, I could triple click and get the password screen to come up, but it would not let me type in any numbers. Meanwhile I had set an alarm so it was just sounding continuously! BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep. Aaah!
My sister was blaming me for it and it was so funny because I was winding her up about thanks soooo much this helped me and my sister.
Thank you so much. They had me on hold forever at apple then wanted to charge me $19.
I have the same problem when I got into a app that I just downloaded my iPad got stuck I tryed holding the power button but it still won’t work I tryed using four fingers to go to another app but till won’t work can some one please help me I’ve been wait for 1 hour and it’s still stuck I’m crying right now please please help
Thank you guys so much!
I went onto the apple site and they said find your other device and use find my iphone, but i don’t have another apple device and i was freaking out thinking that im going to be stuck in settings forever. I only just recently got my iphone and still trying to figure out things so i decided i would explore the settings and it all went wrong. I tried turning it off, clicking out, taking out my sim and actually anything else you could think of…
You do not believe how helpful you were! Thank you so much!
Thank you a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was stuck in settings just wondering what guided access was so i turned it on and went to go to my normal screen but it wouldn’t let me. I tried to turn it off but i didn’t work.
Thanks A LOT!!!!!!
Jacob
THANK UUUUUUUUUUUUUU SO MUCH. I JUST GOT MY PHONE & I WAS BEING NOSEY PRESSING ALL SORTS OF BUTTON. I WAS SO SCARED OMG THNKS ♥
Exactly what i did this morning – being nosey! I was freaking out thinking that i was going to be stuck in settings forever!!
I rebooted mine but right after it turns back on it goes to the sane app and its telling me that the password isn’t correct when it is!! Can’t get out of it. Please help!!!! I rebooted like 10 times and each time it goes back to the app
Follow the instructions here to reboot and turn off Guided Access
https://osxdaily.com/2012/09/26/stuck-in-guided-access-with-ios-6-heres-how-to-escape/
Thank you so much!!! I use mine with my students with disabilities and it got stuck today. Luckily it was in an app that was useful to multiple students. I thought my home button was broken. SOOOOO relieved!
Thank you for this I was so scared and thought my ipad is broken or something… I knew the pw but even if i triple click the home button it wouldn’t give an option to disable guided access. I’m glad this to find this info. God bless you!
1. triple click home button
2. if triple clicking doesn’t work: hold the power and home buttons in for 15 seconds to force shut down
3. if lock button is jammed and you have Find My iPhone, use another device to lock the iPhone
4. if none of the above work, further consult Google or wait patiently for the phone to die
Thank You very much very much …this situation made me panic.. ive just experience just now and just found a way to escape … thanks a lot ..
Thanks a ton for this. I left Guided Access on so mu kids can’t go out of playing games on the iPad. I left it overnight and got up this morning and it wouldn’t go out of Guided Access. I went on line hoping and found this. So Thanks again!
Thank you so much- I didn’t even know what Guided Access was, I was just playing around with it, and then I accidentally got stuck in Settings with it when it said incorrect password when I tried to turn it off, even though I’m sure I made the password “1234”. Oh Apple.
Exactly what i did! I went in it not knowing what it was and just started drawing these squares and then i got stuck in settings! And im pretty sure i put the passcode as ‘2222’ as it was something easy and it obviously wasn’t going to stay on for long!
I am so technically illiterate. Good at Google though :) Thank you so much! My daughter was laughing too hard to help.
Thanks! Really thanks! haha
Thank you SO much! Apple tech support didn’t help…glad I found this
Thanks alot, saved my butt
Thank you soo much !
Thanks man!
My iPhone stuck in Google Translate Web App and you fixed it! :p
thank you for your help!!!!
Plus, mine was stuck in notes. I was joking with somebody, as I would do that and hand them the IPhone. But with this, it is fixed. Thanks!!
Mine is a 4S-
I put my phone on Guided Access, forgot the order of the digits, and I have been on here ever since. This worked- Thank you so so so much!!
It was a new phone, and I am glad I found this, or I would have lost it. And you know, it should be called “Toddler Mode.” And lastly, for anyone who doesn’t have a reason for this, maybe you wanna show somebody a picture, and they like to go threw all your stuff. Not anymore!!
This page was a huge help! Thank you for posting it.
THANK YOU! Scariest fifteen minutes of my life. That’s what I get for screwing around in my settings.
Holding down the home button does not work!!!!
My Ipad does not have a power button, just a home button. Holding it for 15 seconds does not work
thanks bunches! pressing Home button did nothing for me, but pressing Home and Power for a lil made it reboot. just tried Guided Access for the first time, reading about the potential to kid proof somewhat, and got stuck in Angry Birds.
Thanks so much
I got stuck in kingly games Eden and had to force reboot
Thanks a million for this page. Apparantly, i got stuck in notes, so there is a bug even with the native apps. I would have destroyed my home button if not for this.
I was in zoom AND guided acsses so it took me fifteen minutes to find this, THANK YOU
Got stuck with this setting either, from the Safari app. I had to share how to solve my issue as it was more complicated than the one in this post.
1/ Reebooted as well as mentionned but after a few seconds was sent back to Safari and locked again, with the GA still active..
2/ So I rebooted again and rushed to the Settings BEFORE it goes to Safari then got locked again even if I turn Guided Access off.
3/ I let it GA ON, but also making sure that the trip-click default action is set to “Guided Access”. (option also in accessibility settings)
4/ Then the triple-click back to GA worked again so I could just disable it. Until I realised it required a password, that I never created !
5/ So I had to go back to GA settings and define a password, then disable it.
What a mess !
Thanks for this comment. I had the same problem and this helped me!!!
Worked Perfectly!
i was stuck on settings, playing around with guided access and the triple home wasnt working, i couldnt hit the turn off guided access button in settings because i had conveniently blocked off that part :)
this happened to me i the settings menu.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! My phone was frozen on my baby’s app and I thought my phone was a gonner! You’re a life saver :) Thanx again!
My 4S got stuck in Wifi-settings. So it does affect native Apple Apps.
Stuck in iBook, and this helped thank you so much i totally forgot about reboot!!!!!
Got stuck in mail, not fun
Thank you! I had an alarm set that went off while my phone was in guided access. I couldn’t turn off the alarm because of the guided access, and I couldn’t turn off the guided access because the alarm needed to be turned off before anything else could be pushed. I would triple click the home button, and the passcode screen would come up, but the phone wouldn’t allow me to enter anything until the alarm was off. It was so frustrating! This reboot trick worked. Many thanks.
Happened to me in native iphone photo app.
So it’s not just 3rd party apps that are affected.
For me too it happened to be, it was very scary…and thnks a lott for sorting it out..Hope they fix the bug soon..
Even using the power and home button to reset didn’t help mine BUT I was able to enable lock mode from my “Find my iPhone” app from my iphone to iPad and apply a lock code then it went to my home screen and asked for the password and closed out the app that was stuck..Hope they get a bug fix SOON!
When the “Find my iPhone” found your iPad, was the iPad “offline” or “online”? I ask because despite my iPad being connected to the internet, it showed up as “offline” in the “find my iPhone” app.
thank god i found this, i got stuck in the guided access page so i couldn’t do anything
My home button is jammed so I have to use assited touch. I accidently put on Guided Acess and now I cannot get out of it and the home button function is pretty much out of the question. This is for my iPod touch and it is stuck on the settings page for my kik messanger. Help anyone?
I had the same home button problem for a while. I got the button fixed at an AWESOME store, which we go to quite a lot for repairs.
All you can do is wait for the battery to run out.
The bug still exists in IOS7
locked myself into the guided access part of settings… ironic… Thanks for the help!
i have updated ios 6.0 but i can’t access my sim with this ios 6.0.how should i can access my phone
As the most technically illiterate person I know, this site is a God send! THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much!!! I thought I was stuck for good or worse that I was going to have to restore my Iphone to factory settings. THANK YOU!!!
Great. Better support than with Apple. This solved my problem. Bookmarked your site. Thank you so much!
You should name it Apple support for Dummies.
THANK YOU!!! Better job than apple support! Its been a LONG day but happy all around thanks to your post here. My 11 year old autistic son lost his voice… and we lost our access to the whole ipad2. So your post here saved me tonight, thanks so much…. Bob, Vancouver, WA
thank you, i was afraid that i was stuck
Thank you so much!!!!!
Haha I thought this was the best feature for the first two times I used it, then my phone got stuck in ‘phone for kids’ and for several hours I was alarmed as my phone was reduced to a phone for kids! As I was out I asked a friend to call – straight to voicemail – so I popped into the nearest phone shop and they showed me this reboot. it is a bit scary when it happens!
Thank you so much
Thank you so much! I didn’t know what to do.
Thank you for the tip, I got stuck and as I didn’t knew about the 15 second press, I reseted the iPad :D
Actually, I got stuck in Garage Band, so yes, it also affect Apple apps.
Thank you!!
i got stuck in music… so much for not affecting native apps. this feature could be so good if only it wasn’t for this bug.
That was scary – I just found out about the guided access, and thought it was amazing – until I couldn’t get out of the app! I did the hard shut off and then when it started back up it was automatically in the app I had been stuck in… but then when I tried the triple click it asked for my password and then I was able to get out of it. PHEW.
Very cool function once the bugs are out :o)
I got stuc k on iPad with the Guided access in Settings. Restored. But, again, I got stuck in iMessage, for error. So, it DOES affect a few native apps.
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! im on it right now and my lock/power button is jammed i have no clue what to do!
I’m having the same issue. My lock button doesn’t work so I can’t reboot and the guided access option to make part of the screen unresponsive makes it so that I can’t reset my settings (can’t type in my passcode) or even change my passcode. What did you do?
if you have find my iphone, you can put it in lost mode and therefore lock it from another device
This happened to me in a Fisher Price colours/shapes app. Thank god there’s a solution!
That is were mine froze! OH well, at least it’s a thirty second fix… I can deal with that if it means I don’t have to take my phone from my daughter every ten seconds to put her back in her apps lol!
Got stuck in Pages..trying to find out how guided access worked.
happend to me in appstore app..sigh!!
I got stuck in temple run and when I rebooted I went back to it but I could triple click :)
Happened to me in “Photos.” I’ve used guided access a lot for my kid in the past weeks, but only had this problem once so far.
Happened to me in Photos too
It happened for me three
Me four.
me five
This happened to me in Safari
The bug just turned up for me today while watching a video. i had used it in the app before with no problem but it got stuck on today
THANK YOU FOR THIS PAGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was stuck in it and forgot my password and then I found this, thank you guys SOOOOO Much I was soo scared I’d never use my phone again lol
Well im stuck on this right now and my power button is jammed please anybody HELP ME!!!!
Just hold down the home and power button.
Many thanks- holding the home button and power button worked- THANKYOU
Thanks!!! I was waiting until my battery get empty, but with your help I got out of the problem in a few seconds! This bug is killing me!! they should fix it soon!!!
thankyou so much ####
my iphone is now working…………
it didn’t work for me, its stil frozen after holding the home and power button
hey i just struck my phone in guided lock
there is some area
i don know what to do ??
I’m in the same position…. I just kept turning the screen on and off until my iPod died but I can’t charge it to see if that worked. Also if you try backing up your device on a computer then resetting everything and so basically starting over it might work. I don’t know if it will because my charger cord is broke right now
thank you so much, so saved me!
IKR, i was stuck in it and I didn’t know the password, thx so much!!!
OMG thank God for this site!!!!!!! I literally thought I would never be able to get back to home!!!!!!!