Opening Instructions for Privacy Latches

Let's suppose you find yourself locked out of an interior room in your house or appartment, such as a bathroom, bedroom or powder room.  Usually, these rooms are equipped with privacy latches, and not keyed entry locksets.  A privacy latch is a knob or lever handleset that is designed to prevent someone from inadvertently opening a door.  It is not intended to keep an intruder out.

Most of these latches have a poke hole in the center of the knob, which may be depressed using a paperclip.  Other knobs use a slotted disc, which can be rotated with a screwdriver.

This bathroom privacy latch may be opened by simply inserting a screwdriver and rotating

Kwikset brand privacy latches have a hole in the center of the knob and typically necessitate inserting a thin slotted screwdriver and rotating (usually counterclockwise).  Also, the two mounting screws are usually on the outside of the door so another option would be to remove these mounting screws and then retract the latchbolt using the shaft of a screwdriver (use this option only as a last resort).

Weslock brand privacy latches can sometimes confuse and frustrate homeowners who find themselves locked out.  These latches feature a recessed slotted disc to the left or right side of the knob (depending on the handing of the door).  Opening may be accomplished by inserting a slotted screwdriver and rotating in either direction.  Upon rotation, you should hear a click.  This click is the button on the inside of the door popping out and into the unlocked position.  Below are two photos of a Weslock keyed entry knob.  The first photo (inside of door) shows the locking button on the inside of the door.  In the second photo (outside of door), I am pointing to where the recessed disc would be located on a privacy latch version of this knobset (the one in the photo is a Weslock Key-In-Knob lock, which is why there is a cylinder on the outside instead of the recessed disc).

The screwdriver in this picture is used to indicate the location of the unlocking disc on Weslock privacy latches (which share the same internal mechanism as the key-in-knob lock pictured)

On the inside of the door is this button.  When the inside handle is rotated, the button pops out, unlocking the door