iPadOS kiosk mode
This FAQ item will help you enable Kiosk Mode on your iPad. The steps and screenshots are from a current iPad on iPadOS 18; the same rows exist on iPadOS 17 and 26, and Accessibility has its own row in the main Settings list on every iPad that can run the Vizito app.
This guide assumes the Vizito app is already installed on the iPad. If it is not, get it from the App Store first:
Keep the screen on
Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and set “Auto-Lock” to “Never”.
Enable Guided Access
Go to Settings > Accessibility, scroll down to the “General” section and tap “Guided Access”.
Turn it on and set a passcode under “Passcode Settings”.
On the same screen, open “Display Auto-Lock” and set it to “Never”. This is a list, not a switch: it runs from “Default”, through durations from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, to “Never”. “Default” means the iPad follows the “Auto-Lock” you just set in Display & Brightness, so anything other than “Never” still lets the screen lock while Guided Access is running.
There is no setting called “Mirror Display Auto-Lock” on a current iPad. Older guides on the web still mention that switch; it was replaced by the “Display Auto-Lock” list above years ago, so if you are looking for it, this is the row you want.
The “Accessibility Shortcut” switch on the same screen makes the triple-click open Guided Access. Switch it on. It does the same as going back to Settings > Accessibility, scrolling to the bottom, tapping “Accessibility Shortcut” and ticking “Guided Access” there, which is what the screenshot below shows.
Now, boot up the Vizito app and triple-click the Home button to go to the Guided Access menu. If you use an iPad with no home button, you can activate Guided Access by triple-clicking the top button.
Tap “Session Settings” and switch off “Top Button”, “Volume Buttons” and “Motion”, so a visitor cannot put the iPad to sleep, change the volume or set anything off by shaking it. Leave “Touch” on, or nobody can sign in. The other rows, “Software Keyboards” and “Time Limit”, stay as they are: the keyboard is needed for the form, and a time limit would end the session.
Tap “Start” and Guided Access takes over the screen. The button reads “Resume” instead when a session is already configured for that app.
Disable Guided Access
To stop Guided Access, triple-click the home button or the top button again, enter the passcode, and tap “End” in the top left corner.
What Guided Access does and does not do
Guided Access keeps visitors inside the Vizito app: they cannot leave it, open Settings or put the iPad to sleep. That is all it does. It does not keep the iPad on Wi-Fi, it does not stop the network from dropping, and it does not make the app work offline. A tablet that keeps losing its connection has a network or power-saving problem, and Guided Access changes nothing about it: see Tablet connectivity.
The screen never turns off and you want it to
Everything above is meant to keep the kiosk awake. If your problem is the opposite one, that the iPad refuses to sleep, check these three in this order:
- “Keep tablet awake” in Vizito. In the backoffice, “Account settings” > “General” > “Advanced settings” holds a “Keep tablet awake” switch. While it is on, the app itself holds the display on and no iPadOS setting will let the screen sleep. See Advanced settings.
- “Display Auto-Lock” in Guided Access, under Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access. Set it to “Default” or to a duration instead of “Never”.
- “Auto-Lock” in Settings > Display & Brightness. Set it to a duration instead of “Never”.
A tablet that has not been activated yet keeps its screen on whatever you set, because it has no account settings to read. The same goes for the screen showing the contactless sign-in QR code.
To save power without letting the tablet sleep, dim the screen outside your opening hours instead: see Energy saving.