Pattern lock: from 3 × 3 to 6 × 6 dots

Why a pattern

Some people remember a shape more easily than a row of digits. The phone itself takes a passcode, but an app can offer its own way in.

You can open Sealed with Face ID or Touch ID, a 4-, 6- or 9-digit passcode, a password or a pattern.

How to set one

1. Open Settings in Sealed, then Passcode & Unlock.
2. Tap Set Pattern Lock. Set Pattern Lock is in Settings, under Passcode & Unlock, and on the lock screen Use Pattern switches to the pad.
3. Pick a pad size. You choose the pattern pad’s size, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 5 × 5 or 6 × 6, when you set your pattern, and you draw it twice to confirm.
4. Draw your pattern, then draw it again.

A Sealed pattern is drawn on a grid of 3 by 3 up to 6 by 6 dots and has to connect at least 4 of them, and a drawing that is too short is told so and isn’t counted as a wrong try.

To unlock, tap Use Pattern on the lock screen and draw it. A wrong pattern on the lock screen is answered with Wrong pattern. Try again.

How strong each size is

A pattern has fewer possible answers than you might think, because many shapes follow the same few lines. Here is what Sealed counts for the shortest and a longer pattern.

A pattern of exactly 4 dots is one of 1,624 on a 3 × 3 pad, 8,768 on 4 × 4, 24,312 on 5 × 5 and 48,480 on 6 × 6, and one of 6 dots is one of 26,016, 475,912, 2,285,116 and 6,140,956.

Two things stand out. A bigger pad helps most when the pattern is longer. And the shortest pattern, on any pad, has far fewer options than the default passcode. Sealed’s default passcode is 6 digits, and you can choose 4 or 9 digits or a password instead. If you want a pattern to hold its own, draw a long one on a bigger pad.

Wrong tries are slowed down the same way as passcodes. By default, after three wrong passcodes in a row Sealed locks entry for 30 seconds, then for 1, 5, 15 and finally 60 minutes after each further wrong try. The passcode guessing guide shows what that wait does to a guesser.

The weak spot: your screen

A pattern is drawn in plain view, and a finger leaves a trail. Someone across a table can often copy a shape after one look, more easily than six digits typed fast. Draw it with the phone tilted toward you, and wipe the screen now and then.

Decoy and duress patterns

Besides a decoy passcode, you can set a decoy pattern that opens the decoy vault, once you have a pattern of your own. Once the decoy vault is on, Settings, under Decoy Vault, has a Duress Passcode row, and a Duress Pattern row if you use a pattern.

Those patterns live on the same pad as your real one. While a decoy or duress pattern exists, the pad’s size can’t change, because those patterns were drawn on it.

Patterns with other locks

• Your face or fingerprint still works alongside a pattern. Face ID and Touch ID always open your real vault: the decoy vault opens only with its own decoy passcode or decoy pattern.
• Dual Lock asks for your face after the pattern too. Dual Lock applies to a pattern as well as a passcode: after either, Sealed asks for your face.
• Removing it is one tap. In Settings, under Passcode & Unlock, you can turn Face ID or Touch ID Unlock off, and set, change or remove a pattern.

The guide to choosing how to unlock compares the three ways in more broadly.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if a shape is easier for you to remember than digits, with a pad big enough for a long pattern. A Sealed pattern is drawn on a grid of 3 by 3 up to 6 by 6 dots and has to connect at least 4 of them, and a drawing that is too short is told so and isn’t counted as a wrong try.

It doesn’t do these things:

• Unlock your iPhone itself. Sealed has a passcode of its own, a gate inside the app that is separate from your iPhone passcode.
• Make a short pattern strong. A pattern of exactly 4 dots is one of 1,624 on a 3 × 3 pad, 8,768 on 4 × 4, 24,312 on 5 × 5 and 48,480 on 6 × 6, and one of 6 dots is one of 26,016, 475,912, 2,285,116 and 6,140,956.
• Change the pad’s size while a decoy or duress pattern exists. While a decoy or duress pattern exists, the pad’s size can’t change, because those patterns were drawn on it.