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How to Disable Installing Apps on Your iPhone or iPad

iPad iPhone iPod

This brief tutorial will show you how to stop people from being able to install Apps on their iPhones (or iPad/iPod Touch). Following the steps outlined below will allow you to control exactly which Apps are installed on an iPhone. Yes, this tutorial could also be called “how to stop my kids from installing Apps on their and/or my iPhone”.

    There are a number of circumstances where you may want to disable the ability for someone (your child perhaps?) from being able to download and install Apps on their iPhones. These steps will disable the App Store on an iPhone so that Apps cannot be purchased or even installed, even through iTunes.

  1. Start by tapping the Settings button.
  2. Scroll down to the General entry and tap it.
  3. Scroll down to the Restrictions entry and tap it.
  4. Tap Enable Restrictions.
  5. You’ll be prompted to set up a 4 digit PIN. Make this passcode hard to guess (ie. not 0000, the last 4 digits of your phone number etc). Also, make sure to remember the passcode. You won’t be able to revert any of these changes or recover the passcode if you forget it. After you’ve entered the PIN once, you’ll need to enter it a second time to confirm.
  6. Change the ’slider’ next to Installing Apps from ON to OFF.
  7. Confirm that Installing Apps is set to OFF.
  8. That’s it! The App Store on your iPhone (or iPad or iPod Touch) will now be disabled, and unless the above settings are changed back you won’t be able to install Apps on the iPhone.

Posted in iPad, iPhone, iPod.


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3 Responses

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  1. Vicki says

    How can you Disable Apps if I can find my pin number or remember it I have tried everything it is driving me mad

Continuing the Discussion

  1. How to delete apps from your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad – Simple Help linked to this post on February 21, 2012

    [...] like to disable the ability for Apps to be installed at all on an iPhone, see this tutorial on how to stop Apps from being installed on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. This can be particularly useful for parents who want to be able to control which Apps are [...]

  2. GrameenPhone MMS Settings for iPhone | Thinker linked to this post on February 21, 2012

    [...] How to Disable Installing Apps on Your iPhone or iPad (simplehelp.net) [...]



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