Does iOS support tag locking and passwords?
Locking is part of the standard tag behaviour, while passwords live in chip specific configuration beneath the NDEF layer, which is exactly where platform access narrows. For a batch that depends on either of them, produce on Android and verify the result on both.
Two different operations
Locking makes a tag permanently read only. It is part of the standard behaviour of a Forum tag type rather than a feature of a particular chip.
Setting a password is different. It writes to a configuration area defined by the chip manufacturer, beneath the layer that holds records.
Platforms differ far more in access to that lower layer than in the standard operations above it, which is the useful distinction here.
Locking
Being a standard operation, locking is the more portable of the two, and it is also the more dangerous.
It is permanent. No tool, application, platform or manufacturer reverses it, so a batch locked by mistake is a batch lost.
Whatever platform you use, lock as a separate deliberate pass after writing and verifying, never as an option enabled during the write.
Passwords
Passwords are chip specific. Setting one means writing configuration bytes in a layout defined by the manufacturer, and enabling protection is a second step beyond storing a key.
Access to that layer is where the platforms genuinely diverge, and where an application's own capabilities matter as much as the platform's.
The practical consequence is that password work belongs on the platform and the tool you have verified it on, rather than on whichever phone is nearest.
Producing a batch
Where a deployment needs passwords, produce on Android. It is the more permissive platform for the layer beneath NDEF, and it removes the question.
Where it needs only locking, either platform serves, and the discipline matters more than the choice: write, verify, then lock.
Verify on both platforms regardless of where you produced. A tag locked and written on one is tapped by both.
And record the keys where the deployment records live. A password known only to the person who set it is a password the organisation does not have.
Frequently asked questions
Can an iPhone lock a tag?
Locking is a standard operation rather than a chip specific one, so it is the more portable of the two. Verify with your specific tool before a batch.
Can an iPhone set a tag password?
Passwords live in chip specific configuration beneath the record layer, which is where platform and tool access narrows. Produce on Android where a batch depends on it.
Is a locked tag locked on every platform?
Yes. Locking is enforced by the chip, so no platform reads it as anything other than read only.
Should I lock during writing?
No. Lock as a separate pass after writing and verifying, so a mistake is not made permanent at the moment it happens.