How to turn off StandBy mode on iPhone

The iPhone's StandBy feature is handy with its horizontal clock and calendar widgets, but it can also startle you when you're not expecting it. If you find yourself stuck in this automatic screensaver mode, there's an easy way to turn it off—as long as you know where to look.

What is this horizontal screensaver on iPhone?

It's late and you fall asleep watching the latest episode of The Traitors on your iPhone. Suddenly, a noise wakes you up and you're faced with an unexpected scare: A photo of your ex staring back at you from your phone screen. Panicking, you try to swipe the photo away - but are attacked by the clock, calendar, and other widgets. How do you escape this nightmare?

The purpose behind iOS 17's StandBy mode is to turn your phone into a nightstand clock or information screensaver. It only activates when your phone is charging and in landscape mode.

But StandBy isn’t for everyone. Since the feature has been turned on automatically since iOS 17, you may not even know it’s there. Unfortunately, this can make it difficult to turn off StandBy without knowing its name.

How to turn off StandBy on iPhone

After fiddling through the Display & Brightness settings trying to turn it off, you'll eventually find StandBy in its own separate settings category. Once you know where to look, you can easily turn off StandBy on your iPhone:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Standby .
3. Turn off the Standby Mode slider  at the top to turn this feature off completely.

If you want to keep StandBy mode but modify it to suit your preferences, you can also explore other available sliders, such as Night Mode . You can also customize how you receive notifications when your iPhone is in StandBy mode.

Note : Other modifications include customizing your StandBy widget, as there are some useful nighttime options like brown noise.

While it's understandable to use this feature as an alternative to a bedside clock, suddenly introducing random photos from the past isn't a great idea for many people.

Hopefully this guide will help you get rid of the annoyance of that mysterious (maybe even crazy) horizontal iOS screensaver.