AutoLock

by Android Tapp Mar 26, 2009 11:22 AM – 17 Comments

Install

Annoyed by the need to constantly draw your lock pattern when the screen turns off? With AutoLock, your phone will only lock after you leave it alone for some time.

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

AutoLock Android App is a nifty little utility for extending the timeout of the “Screen Unlock” feature for the G1 or Android powered phone. By default, when you enable Screen Unlock it locks the screen when the phone falls asleep. Therefore, every time you need to access your phone it requests the password/pattern, which can be annoying with a short screen timeout (usually kept under 30 seconds to conserve battery life).

AutoLock Android App alleviates some of that nuscince by allowing you to customize the timeout at user defined intervals based on phone inactivity.

Gripe Alert: We’ve found AutoLock Android App can be conflicting though. For example, if you want to disable Screen Unlock altogether… whether you Paused AutoLock or unchecked “Require screen unlock pattern” in the settings menu… it still loads regardless. Just frustrating that you can’t effectively disable Screen Unlock with AutoLock installed.

You can choose from predefined intervals or your own interval. Gripe Alert: to customize your own interval, choose “Other” then tapp OK in the Settings menu. You will be prompted to enter the interval in seconds only (yeah… you gotta doing some quick math).

AndroidTapp.com Rating

AndroidTapp.com Rating! (3.8 out of 5)

Should you Download AutoLock? Yes! There seems to be some inconsistencies when auto locking but overall very useful!

Developer: mooapps

Tags: Android Apps, Android Screen Unlock, AndroidTapp.com App Review, AutoLock, Screen Timeout

Categorised in: Tools, Utilities

17 Comments

By Purple Penguin on March 26, 2009 at 12:28 pm:

Autolock has been updated and it seems to have fixed the inconsistencies on when it turns on the lock.

Also, now when setting up a custom time you choose in minutes instead of seconds.

This app is a lot more stable and usable after the update.

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- By Android Tapp on March 26, 2009 at 12:32 pm:
  
  @Purple Penguin
  
  Thanks for that. Definitely worth a second look and evaluation!
  
  Reply
By DarkFox on March 26, 2009 at 4:01 pm:

Last I tried AutoLock, I was able to circumvent the lock by turning the phone on, pressing menu, then turn it off again and turn it back on.

(by turning on/off I of course mean putting it to sleep/waking it..)

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By Purple Penguin on March 26, 2009 at 4:14 pm:

Try it again, I’m pretty sure that issue was fixed too. I haven’t been able to reproduce it. I never tried it before the update though so I may be doing it wrong.

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By morgan on April 20, 2009 at 12:39 pm:

i have forgot my pattern/password for autolock and it is asking me for my google acount & i dont know what that is, what will i do?

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- By Android Tapp on April 20, 2009 at 12:54 pm:
  
  @morgan
  
  I would suggest going to Google’s “I cannot access my account” webpage from your computer to retreive your password. Then enter that in your phone.
  
  Reply
By morgan on April 20, 2009 at 1:31 pm:

i tryed that but it says enter a secondry address and i dont have one or cant remember wha it is?

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- By Android Tapp on April 20, 2009 at 2:30 pm:
  
  @morgan
  
  Is there any way you can guess at what 2nd email you listed??? Even if I recommended a hard factory reset as a last resort, which would essentially put your phone back to when it was new… you’ll still need to login.
  
  Reply
By mandingo on May 23, 2009 at 7:32 pm:

I have managed to lock my phone using this app and it will not accept my email and password. Any ideas??

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By Clouseau on October 2, 2009 at 2:11 am:

Hi,

nice program, but on my HTC Hero it disabled the vibration notification with gmail. After an uninstall I got the vibration notification again.

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By Dadical on October 8, 2009 at 11:35 am:

I love this app! The idea behind it is really innovative, and it’s done way better than some of the similar utilities on the market.

I’ve solved a related problem with my own application, Screebl, which is available on the Android Market. It keeps the screen on when your phone is held within certain orientations.

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By PPC on April 6, 2010 at 2:52 am:

I’ve installed it and set it to autolock after 10 sec BUT nothing happen!!

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- By Android Tapp on April 6, 2010 at 6:38 am:
  
  Strange… However I wouldn’t recommend setting at 10 seconds as you it is intended for typically longer extended periods like 30 second to 1 minute is good. Let us know if that works for you.
  
  Reply
By Lars on April 6, 2010 at 1:35 pm:

There is also a new alternative on the market now.
It is called PatternControl and is also free.

The cool thing about PatternControl is that it can automatically increase the lock delay based on events like “Music is playing” or “Power plug is connected”.

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By Mark on August 8, 2010 at 6:59 pm:

Nothing seems to happen on my Incredible. I do have Locale and thinks it’s coordinated with that app, but can’t seem to get this to do anything regardless of the settings that i change. Is there a complete set of instructions for correct setup? Does this work with the Incredible – no Froyo?

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By Chip on April 22, 2011 at 10:12 am:

I use Tasker for this. I made a Profile that looks for My home network, and if it sees it, it turns off the Keyguard. So, if I’m home, and un sleep my phone it goes to my home page, if I’m at Mal*Wart, or wherever, not near my home, the Keyguard engages and the phone’s locked, and it’s harder to “butt-dial” someone.

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By ocacia on April 29, 2011 at 2:24 am:

Auto lock doesnt seem to work on my Galaxy Tablet. And it only operates with pattern lock installed. But still doesnt actually do anything

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