Work around for rdar://problem/15115056 Bug description: If an iOS device has been rebooted and but not yet unlocked, [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] will return nil for any key you've stored. It continues to behave this way even after you unlock the device, until you force quit and relaunch the app.

gistfile1.txt

@interface NSUserDefaults (Fix15115056)

- (void)synchronizeAndSetAsUnprotected;

@end

@implementation NSUserDefaults (Fix15115056)

- (void)synchronizeAndSetAsUnprotected;
{
    [self synchronize];
    
    NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    NSString *libraryPath = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSLibraryDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
    NSString *prefsFilePath = [libraryPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Preferences/%@.plist",[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleIdentifier]]];
    if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:prefsFilePath]) {
        NSMutableDictionary *attr = [[fileManager attributesOfItemAtPath:prefsFilePath error:nil] mutableCopy];
        [attr setObject:NSFileProtectionNone forKey:NSFileProtectionKey];
        [fileManager setAttributes:attr ofItemAtPath:prefsFilePath error:nil];
    }
}


@end

In case it is not obvious: this will make contents of NSUserDefaults be stored WITHOUT DATA PROTECTION. The default as of iOS 7 is to store all files with data protection (hence the bug).

You shouldn't store anything that's sensitive in NSUserDefaults anyway.