Bought a new iPad Air and it’s terrific! I also bought a so-called iPad Smart Cover from Apple while I was in the store and it’s not so smart: I thought the iPad was supposed to go to sleep when I closed it and wake up again when I opened it?
Don’t worry, you didn’t get the one Smart Cover in the iPad world that turns out to have had a quick factory lobotomy prior to shipping! Turns out that there’s a preference you need to tweak for it to work properly, otherwise it’s just a fancy screen protector without any smarts at all.
Now you have experimented with folding it different ways to make it a stand in various positions too, right? I quite commonly fold mine into a big triangle and have my tablet about 30-degrees off the table surface, perfect for reading or catching up on the news while I’m having a bite to eat. Flip it around, of course, and it’s just a tiny bit less than 90-degrees off the surface, perfect for a movie.
The fix you seek for smartening up your Apple smart cover, however, is quick and easy and you’ll like the cover a lot more once it’s fixed!
Go to “Settings” > “General”. It looks like this:
“Where’s the setting?”
And well you may ask! You need to swipe downward on the “General” settings because a bit further down you’ll find…
There it is, smack-dab in the middle: “Lock / Unlock”.
Tap on the slider switch so you see green on the icon, and you’re good to go.
In fact, if you read the small print, under that setting it says “Automatically lock and unlock your iPad when you close and open the iPad cover.”
Done. Now, all due kudos to the smarts in your Smart Cover. 🙂
The lock/unlock setting is now in Display & Brightness, not in General anymore.
I have been looking everywhere for this. You saved me!!! Thanks so much.Mine located in display & Brightness!
Thank you, thank you! You saved my sanity.
Thank you so much. I bought 2 covers from Amazon and I thought they were defective until I asked this question and wow it is perfect!
the settings general lock/unlock is no longer available on ios 10 !
anybody know why apple removed it.
i used it all the time when downloading.
Hi Dave. I turned my iPad mini totally off…, now I can’t turn it on to swipe the screen to put in my password???
Please help
Push and hold the power button (on the top edge) for 2-3 seconds. Should boot up. If not, try the same operation when it’s plugged in to the charger.
Thanks a lot. It works for me.
Thanks man, you it worked for me?
Tnx again
Mine has that feature turned on but it no longer works. The cover no longer locks or unlocks the iPad. 🙁
Mine to. It won’t lock or go to sleep when the cover is closed. It started to misbehave about 2weeks ago and I bought it 11 months ago so it shouldn’t be worn out! Any ideas ?
Did you update iOS in the last few weeks? That could perhaps have changed a default setting?
Your solution worked for me. But I am disappointed that the setting would be changed in an upgrade, especially just a dot release.
Thanks for the guidance!
I noticed my battery draining while my iPad 2 remained inactive (with smartcover installed) for a while. I just realized my Otterbox cover isn’t putting it to sleep any more when I put it on. I accepted the updated the iOS a week or so ago, so I’m wondering if that has something to do with it. The Autolock/sleep function referred to in this thread is on. If turned it off and on – no change, and also turned it off and shut the iPad off, restarted, and re-enabled autolock/sleep, and still no dice. Any ideas?
My Smart Cover locks the iPad but when opening, it requires me to swipe the slider to display the passcode screen. Before my iOS upgrade it would automatically display the passcode screen without requiring a slider swipe. Extremely annoying. The iOS upgrade has also messed up calendar second alert functionality. Apple, I’m losing faith in you.
Interesting. Sounds like iOS 9.0.1 is going to be a win. #EternalOptimist
I have an iPad air 2 and the lock/unlock setting is not there.
Thank you indeed. Most helpful for my problem. TAKECARE.
I have an iPad mini md529ll/a. I do not have the “Lock/Unlock” tab under General Settings. Is this generation iPad mini not capable of using smart covers/cases?
Pretty sure all iPad Mini units work with the smart cover, Tony. Not sure what’s going on. What version of iOS are you running?
It is currently running version 8.2 (12D508) And says I am up to date
10.1.1 i do not have lock/unlock at my ipad pro
Thank you for this tip. I, too, was changing a setting, and without realizing it I moved the lock/unlock button. Thank you for posting this!
Thank u so much. I was wondering like why is it not working when I open my smart case and then I found out that it turned off for a sec cuz I we t to settings and by accident touched the button. Btw thanks!