Auto-lock changes from 30 s to never

[Psyko]

Why does my phone take different amounts of time to lock itself? It's set to 1 minute but sometimes does it in 30 seconds, sometimes a minute. This is a behaviour I've observed both in my old 7 and in my new 12 mini.

What's new with the 12 mini is that if I leave it in my cars cup holder, it wont lock at all. I thought face ID perhaps was reading my face as looking at it (which I wasn't), so I disabled this "attention" toggle, but still doesn't lock in this scenario.

Does anyone know if there are parameters that changes how fast it locks? E.g leaving it flat on a table? Screen up or down? Is it refusing to lock in my car because it's kept upright? I haven't been able to reliable reproduce that though. Then tried keeping it screen up flat on a table. Locked in 30 s the first time and 60 s the second time.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Are you using a case and screen protector? If so, it is possible that the case is somehow causing the phone to engage. If you do use a case, test the phone without it for several hours and see what happens.

 

[Psyko]

No case. Never had screen protectors on the 7 but have one on the 12 mini now so I don't think that's it.

 

[7thson]

I suspect it’s a Face ID thing. At the bottom of the Autolock screen it says: Attention is detected when you are looking at the screen. When attention is detected, iPhone does not dim the display.

 

[Psyko]

Under face ID settings there are two attention toggles: One is to require attention for face ID to identify you (if you don't look at the phone, it wont unlock). The second is the one I've disabled is the one that tones down the ringtone or before dimming the screen.

Since I experienced the same on my 7 with the phone dimming in 30 s I suspect it may not be face ID related.

 

[7thson]

Good point. Misread the OP.