Australian PM Anthony Albanese recently issued advice to turn smartphones off and on once per day to thwart cyber attacks.
I’ve heard this recommendation before, and it’s a good one. Persistence is difficult on iOS, and restarting it will clean up running processes. Doing this once per day is fantastic. But, I’m a forgetful person, and can barely remember the things I have to do let alone restarting the phone.
Can we automate this? Yes.
We could use Reminders app to set a reminder and then go through the process of holding the buttons, swiping, etc. But, there’s a better way. Shortcuts app! We still get a pop-up prompt and still need to be there to hit “Ok.” Apple probably doesn’t want to allow scheduled restarts because of the risk of a phone turning off in the middle of an emergency. But I’m pretty happy with this one-click approach.
How?
On your iPhone, open the Shortcuts App which should be installed by default. Then,
- Tap on the Automation tab
- Create Personal Automation (or click the plus if you have some)
- Time of Day (or use another trigger)
- set your schedule & tap Next
- tap Add action
- search for shutdown and tap add
- Tap the word “Shutdown” and change it to “Restart”
- Next
- Done
Now you have a timer that will prompt you to restart your device every day.
Happy restarting.
