How To Create an AlphaNumeric Passcode on your iPhone or iPod Touch

[Nick Hesson]

One feature that is severely lacking on the iPhone's security is the ability to create better passcodes. In this day and age, it is highly suggested to include letters and numbers in your passwords to make them more secure. If your not using a alphanumeric password for your accounts already, go and change them now.

Well thanks to the folks over at 9to5mac, they have compiled a mobileconfig that you can load directly from Safari on your iDevice, and you will simply be prompted to enter a new passcode and you'll see that you have the option to use numbers and letters in your new passcode. It really doesn't get any easier than this. Simply open this link, a mobile config installtion will appear. Choose Install and afterwards you can enter your new password

Now let's say you want to remove it. That's simple too. Go into your Settings then over to General > Profiles >9to5mac, then click remove and confirm. You can then change your password back to whatever you had before.

Just do yourself a favor and if you decide to use this, REMEMBER your password.

Alternatively, iClarified hosts a guide that allows you to do this manually, but we don't recommend it.

MobileConfig Link (Open on iDevice)
Source: 9to5

[xxtkevinxxte]

when did they add this in..?
3.1.3?

[kabamodern]

One feature that is severely lacking on the iPhone's security is the ability to create better passcodes. Currently, you are limited to alpha characters, meaning you can only use letters. In this day and age, it is highly suggested to include numbers in your passwords to make them more secure. If your not using a alphanumeric password for your accounts already, go and change them now.

Well thanks to the folks over at 9to5mac, they have compiled a mobileconfig that you can load directly from Safari on your iDevice, and you will simply be prompted to enter a new passcode and you'll see that you have the option to use numbers in your new passcode. It really doesn't get any easier than this. Simply open this link, a mobile config installtion will appear. Choose Install and afterwards you can enter your new password

Now let's say you want to remove it. That's simple too. Go into your Settings then over to General > Profiles >9to5mac, then click remove and confirm. You can then change your password back to whatever you had before.

Just do yourself a favor and if you decide to use this, REMEMBER your password.

Alternatively, iClarified hosts a guide that allows you to do this manually, but we don't recommend it.

MobileConfig Link (Open on iDevice)
Source: 9to5

I think this information is a little incorrect. You can only do NUMERIC passcodes on the iPhone by default... Unless they switched to only letters in 3.1.3...

[computid]

I did this on 3.0, you can do it with the iphone config tool.

[Nick Hesson]

I think this information is a little incorrect. You can only do NUMERIC passcodes on the iPhone by default... Unless they switched to only letters in 3.1.3...

Yes my bad. Thanks! I never use passcodes. lol

[iZoom]

actually this has been around for a while, i've had an alphanumeric passcode for several months now, it's an enterprise function in the iphone, just google iphone configuration utility and you can make your own mobileconfig setup that you email to yourself. not sure if it was implemented in 3.0 or before but i would guess it's been around since the 2.2.1 days.

edit: here's the link

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/

[ischol-ar]

AlphaNumeric was able from last year. iZoom, you're right. I got mine at that link too.

[billchase2]

A friend of mine somehow got an alphanumeric passcode accidentally a few months back. She didn't do any mobile config installations or anything. Since she didn't want it (too easy to screw up), we had to reset a number of her settings and finally got it back to the numeric passcode.

[iLaw-One]

This works perfectly...I've got it installed on my iphone and I'm currently using it.
@ nickhesson - any prizes for sending in a news article? Better still, How do you get to write posts?

[lolcats1]

what a useless idea. if you've gotten your hands on a 200 dollar phone, no passcode, no matter its length, is going to stop you. just wipe it from a comp.

and even if the thief can't use it, he'll just trash it out of spite

[TheDude42]

what a useless idea. if you've gotten your hands on a 200 dollar phone, no passcode, no matter its length, is going to stop you. just wipe it from a comp.

and even if the thief can't use it, he'll just trash it out of spite

But your data, accounts, etc will be safer, which is the whole point of a passcode, and what I'd certainly be most concerned about if my phone got lost or stolen.

[iLaw-One]

what a useless idea. if you've gotten your hands on a 200 dollar phone, no passcode, no matter its length, is going to stop you. just wipe it from a comp.

and even if the thief can't use it, he'll just trash it out of spite

I think you should give credit where due ....at least these guys are spending their time to do something certain others will find useful one way or the other...

Besides, if Apple thought it was such a useless idea, they wouldn't have put a passcode lock in the first place (even a four digit one)

[Sticky111]

this is so old, ive had this for months, someone created this a long time ago. i had to dload a file and send it through email and open and install. was able to do this with or without jailbreak.

[Dorkenstein909]

wack

[Andis Jackson]

I tried this and it downloads the file and puts it into var/mobile/library/downloads. What do I need to do to make this work?

[iLaw-One]

this is so old, ive had this for months, someone created this a long time ago. i had to dload a file and send it through email and open and install. was able to do this with or without jailbreak.

Thanks for sharing the knowledge....just in case you forgot, that's what this forum is all about!

[Cal3b]

what a useless idea. if you've gotten your hands on a 200 dollar phone, no passcode, no matter its length, is going to stop you. just wipe it from a comp.

and even if the thief can't use it, he'll just trash it out of spite

actually you can remove the launch daemon that lets the computer connect to the phone. i did, and no one can wipe my phone from anything. that paired with a program so the phone sends its location every 90 minutes. so its really not a useless idea!!

[andes1_fall2005]

do you know how i can do that, i would like to try it... if not ill go to the link and try that way out first

[iLaw-One]

actually you can remove the launch daemon that lets the computer connect to the phone. i did, and no one can wipe my phone from anything. that paired with a program so the phone sends its location every 90 minutes. so its really not a useless idea!!

So you're saying you can't connect your phone to any comp? How then do you install apps or sync your data?

[mavrik101]

Works great. Only thing it should have is the ability to turn it off. You have to remove the profile to make it inactive. I would not normally need this much security, but its good to have just in case.
And yes, you could always bypass this by restoring.