Support / The app asks for Face ID or a code before showing the cameras, and it did not accept you
The app lock, and what happens when it will not open
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On a phone or tablet
The app lock is optional and off by default. When it is on, ViewTile asks for Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode on an iPhone — fingerprint, face unlock or the screen-lock PIN on Android — before showing the cameras, and it covers the wall before the app reaches the app switcher, so a glance over your shoulder shows nothing. The check is done by the phone itself; ViewTile never sees your face, fingerprint or passcode.
If Face ID or Touch ID does not accept you — a mask, gloves, a wet finger — the phone offers its passcode instead; that always works. If you changed the device passcode, the lock uses the new one from then on. If biometrics are switched off on the phone, the lock falls back to the passcode.
You can turn the lock off in ViewTile’s Settings, after unlocking once.
On a television
The television app has its own four-digit PIN, because a television has no Face ID and is watched by more people than a phone. The PIN is set on the television when you turn the lock on. If it is forgotten, there is no recovery question and no reset from the phone, on purpose: remove ViewTile’s data on the television (Settings › Apps › ViewTile › Clear data, or uninstall and reinstall), open it again, and hand the cameras over from the phone once more — that takes a minute.
What the lock does not do
It does not lock the cameras themselves. Anyone with the camera’s password and another app can still watch; the lock is about the phone in your hand, not the site.

