Can iPhone Get Viruses? And How to Remove It?

I've seen a lot of iPhone users worrying that their iPhone is or will be infected by viruses. This is a common and reasonable thought, as it works just like other computing devices such as a computer, and they have lots of important data on their iPhone they don't want to lose...

So, can an iPhone get viruses? And what should you do if you think your iPhone is infected? Here I'll give you detailed answer to these questions, so take a look!

Can an iPhone get viruses?

The answer is it's difficult. At least it's more difficult for iPhone to get viruses than Android cellphones or computers. Why? Well that's because the operating system of iPhone, iOS, works a bit differently from the others.

Virus spreads among devices usually by the transfer of the infected applications or documents. It then tries to reproduce and inject itself from the application or document to the operating system to start its attack. So for a virus to work, the free communication between the system and its applications is necessary.

As for your iPhone, you can think iOS as a big box. And it contains a lot of small boxes for each app, in which the app works independently. There are two things here that ensure the safety: first, the apps are separate from the system, so in most cases they can't change anything of the system without permission; second, the apps are independent from each other, and they can't communicate with each other without permissions either. So these significantly restrict the spread of the viruses.

Also, in normal situations, the apps you can install on your iPhone are all from App Store. Apple has set very strict security guidelines for the app developers, so the malicious software or apps with viruses can't get on there. That makes your iPhone more secure.

So if you use your iPhone in the normal ways, the risk of virus infection is very low.

How to protect my iPhone from viruses?

Although it's not easy for your iPhone to get viruses, there are still a few things you can do to protect your iPhone:

• Don't jailbreak it. Jailbreaking your iPhone escalate your privileges so you can remove the restrictions of your iPhone. You can do more with that, but so do the malicious software. After all, with greater power comes greater responsibility, and greater risk.
• Watch out for any app that is not from App Store. There is usually risk installing these apps, as they may not meet the requirements of App Store. When you are trying to install one, be extra careful about whether it's from a credible source or what it is going to do on your iPhone. If you're not sure, just don't install it.
• Monitor your data and power usage regularly. If your iPhone really has malicious software, it usually runs all the time in the background, trying to transfer data from your iPhone somewhere outside. And this can be easily shown in the data and power usage. So you can monitor your iPhone status by looking at the data and power usage.
• Keep your system and app updated. The developers of iOS and the apps offer security patches in the updates. So it a good idea to make sure they are always updated.

What to do if I suspect my iPhone is infected?

If you think your iPhone is not working properly, here are some things you can do:

• Delete any problem apps. These include apps that are not from App Store, apps crash frequently, apps you don't recognize, apps you installed right before the problem occurred, and so on.
• Restart your iPhone. The issue you're experiencing may be temporary, and it may be fixed by a simple restart. So just turn off your iPhone and turn it back on again to see if your iPhone problem is gone.
• Reset your iPhone. You can do a factory reset to erase everything, including the malicious software, on your iPhone. To do so, go to your iPhone settings and head to General > Reset > Erase all Content and Settings. Note that you may need to back up your data. Usually you do this using iCloud, and you can see how long does it take to back up iPhone with it. Or you can transfer your iPhone data to your computer before the reset. If you experience data loss during the process, you can try this iOS data recovery software to recover your iPhone data.
• Contact the Apple Support. If you have any problem with your iPhone that you can't resolve yourself, you should always contact the support team of Apple. Tell them what you're experiencing in details, and they can give you instructions on what you need to do next.

Hopefully this post can give you what you need about iPhone and viruses. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below!