Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Aren't Fully Disabled When Toggled Off in Control Center on iOS 11

[strategicthinke]

Really? Why would you want to toggle Bluetooth and WiFi off? If you turn off your Bluetooth and WiFi you won’t be able to use continuity, to connect your headphones to Apple’s W1 chips, you won’t be able to use AirPlay, you won’t be able to send files through AirDrop, you won’t be prompted to use your iPhone or iPad as a remote control for the Apple TV, and so forth. If your WiFi is off your location services will be imprecise and you’ll lose more battery using GPS which is much more taxing on the battery.

Also, in regards to keeping Bluetooth and WiFi on while just disconnecting them from their current WiFi and Bluetooth connections, newer versions of Bluetooth use very little energy, the energy savings shouldn’t be more than 1% to 2% out of the total battery life. WiFi also uses very little energy nowadays.

Do you know how annoying it was when I turned airplane mode on and off to search for cellular connection (or inside a plane) only to find that my AirPods stopped playing? Now THAT’S bad design.

Apple is just teaching us how to use things correctly, and taking us away from the myths of the past (such as WiFi and Bluetooth influencing airplanes lol, or that Bluetooth draaaaains your battery life).

We should thank Apple for encouraging the right use of their devices.

no, it's super-annoying. The worst thing is that they literally say, you plebs don't know what you are doing and what you really want, so we rather "help" you a bit on these decisions. I still can't believe that this is happening.. I would have to be really rude to comment on their BS explanation: "Apple says users should try to keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on for the best experience on an iOS device."

 

[spacemnspiff]

So majority of people toggle wifi and bluetooth off just for fun? I turn them off in situations where I 1) absolutely need the battery life to be at it's best and/or 2) when I'm in a location where WIFI and/or bluetooth devices are absolutely forbidden.

Thanks, Apple, for making the control center useless. Now I have to dive into settings every single time I need to turn those off. What next? A power button that doesn't actually turn the device on/off? Volume buttons that have no affect whatsoever on the volume? Decorative brightness slider "because it's ooh so thin!"?

I have resorted to using Siri as others have noted, but that's not always possible when you don't want to be conversing with Siri.

 

[strategicthinke]

I think Apple should take this design one step further: power button that does nothing. If you really want to turn off your phone, you need to go to nearest apple store. That would be very handy and provide functionality what users really want

That’s a terrible comparison. You gain nothing from turning WiFi and Bluetooth off. And you lose a lot; namely: you lose hands off, AirPlay, Airdrop, Continuity, less battery draining location services, AirPods and W1 connection, Apple TV remote control, Apple Watch ⌚️ connection. How come you disagree that the best iOS experience is based on keeping both Bluetooth and WiFi on? And all you get for giving up on ALL those advantages of iOS is 1-2% battery life.

Turning off the phone is something that won’t change your experience with iOS, you’re not enhancing it by preventing people from turning it off.

 

[spacemnspiff]

Really? Why would you want to toggle Bluetooth and WiFi off? If you turn off your Bluetooth and WiFi you won’t be able to use continuity, to connect your headphones to Apple’s W1 chips, you won’t be able to use AirPlay, you won’t be able to send files through AirDrop, you won’t be prompted to use your iPhone or iPad as a remote control for the Apple TV, and so forth. If your WiFi is off your location services will be imprecise and you’ll lose more battery using GPS which is much more taxing on the battery.

Also, in regards to keeping Bluetooth and WiFi on while just disconnecting them from their current WiFi and Bluetooth connections, newer versions of Bluetooth use very little energy, the energy savings shouldn’t be more than 1% to 2% out of the total battery life. WiFi also uses very little energy nowadays.

Do you know how annoying it was when I turned airplane mode on and off to search for cellular connection (or inside a plane) only to find that my AirPods stopped playing? Now THAT’S bad design.

Apple is just teaching us how to use things correctly, and taking us away from the myths of the past (such as WiFi and Bluetooth influencing airplanes lol, or that Bluetooth draaaaains your battery life).

We should thank Apple for encouraging the right use of their devices.

For most of my weekday, I don't have any other devices connected to my iPhone, so I don't need any connections to WiFi or BT, I would like them turned off. I don't want to walk into a store and have them track me throughout the store using my phone's MAC address.

Why can't the CC have three states for the button press for WiFi and BT - On, Disconnected and Off? The buttons already have icons for all three states, all they need now is an action for the 2nd button touch.

 

[strategicthinke]

I agree that they should have let you 3D Touch it to turn it off. What I get disappointed is when people pretend that we don’t lose anything by turning those radios off. Turning off Bluetooth and not being able to connect my Bluetooth headphones anymore is infuriating. Most times we just want to disable a single device, not to cancel my Apple Watch connection.

For most of my weekday, I don't have any other devices connected to my iPhone, so I don't need any connections to WiFi or BT, I would like them turned off. I don't want to walk into a store and have them track me throughout the store using my phone's MAC address.

Why can't the CC has three states for the button press for WiFi and BT - On, Disconnected and Off. The buttons already have icons for all three states, all they need now is a action for the 2nd button touch.

 

[jhfenton]

So majority of people toggle wifi and bluetooth off just for fun? I turn them off in situations where I 1) absolutely need the battery life to be at it's best and/or 2) when I'm in a location where WIFI and/or bluetooth devices are absolutely forbidden.

Thanks, Apple, for making the control center useless. Now I have to dive into settings every single time I need to turn those off. What next? A power button that doesn't actually turn the device on/off? Volume buttons that have no affect whatsoever on the volume? Decorative brightness slider "because it's ooh so thin!"?

(1) Not for fun, but to disconnect from current devices. And the radios, when disconnected, have minimal impact on battery life. (2) I don't believe I have ever in my life been in a location (other than an airplane before they relaxed the rules) where wifi and/or bluetooth devices are absolutely forbidden but where they let smartphones in anyway. And besides that is exactly what Airplane mode is for.

 

[Narg]

The original iPhone famously came without a manual as everything was so obvious. That time is over.

Hmmm.. Seems super simple to me. Not sure why it wouldn't be.

 

[trusso]

If Bluetooth is turned off, the iOS device can't be connected to any Bluetooth accessories until one of these conditions is met:

You turn on Bluetooth in Control Center.
You connect to a Bluetooth accessory in Settings > Bluetooth.
It's 5 a.m. local time.
You restart your device.

While Wi-Fi is disabled, auto-join for any nearby Wi-Fi networks will also be disabled until one of these conditions is met:

You turn on Wi-Fi in Control Center.
You connect to a Wi-Fi network in Settings > Wi-Fi.
You walk or drive to a new location.
It's 5 a.m. local time.
You restart your device.

It's 5 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is up to now?

 

[C DM]

No we shouldn't go through this step. I shut off wi-fi when I go to bed, I don't have to go through settings to switch it off. Just a swipe up, tap and lock the phone should suffice.

This is just utter bullsh*t. It's pure logic to press a switch to toggle something on or off.

If you find it useful, fine by me, but you're one of those 1% of people. Apple should make an option in settings that changes the behaviour of this button to what it was and what it now is, so that we can choose.

Or make it a button that has 3 states. One for on, one for off, and one for that weird thing they're doing now.

Seems like various other things, Apple believes that at this point in time disabling and re-enabling WiFi or Bluetooth often isn’t all that useful. Similar to how Apple doesn’t provide a “close all” option to close all running apps as they don’t believe it’s something that users should be doing and worrying about.

 

[VulchR]

Haven't read all 333+ posts, but I can imagine somebody in the NSA stoking a white Persian cat with a grin on their face. This arrangement is a horrible idea that creates the illusion of user control. Bad . Off means off.

 

[SeaFox]

...and why the 5 am situation?!??

Judged to be the time people are least-likely to be paying attention. It means the controls on the Control Center are really a wifi and bluetooth "pause" function, not "on and off". If you take no action after turning them "off" they will turn themselves back on at 5am regardless of your wishes. Gotta make sure you stay connected to the mothership.

Not a fan of this at all. I don't want Wifi on all the time, so this means I'll have to go into settings like before control centre existed? Annoying.

Maybe someone will release an app that restores the function you want in an easy-to-access way.


...as though Apple would approve that for the App Store.

 

[jakob.bohem]

"Apple says users should try to keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on for the best experience on an iOS device".

In an area with wifi networks that you cannot join, the phone will continue trying to join ad infinitum. Seems to prevent downloading emails via cellular on my phone. Once I completely disable wifi, I get a bolus of emails.

This is super annoying, but I solved it in iOS 6 by forgetting all old networks that I lost credentials access to and toggling the "ask to join networks" button under settings-wi-fi OFF.
This is really the most useful configuration anyway.
best of luck!

 

[FlunkedFlank]

That's it, this is the straw that broke the camels back, I'm switching to Android.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but in case not it was pointed out that Android already has the same behavior for wifi, essentially. Even when you turn off wifi it still constantly scans for ssids for location services, by default. See:

https://www.howtogeek.com/211186/how-to-disable-google-location-wi-fi-scanning-on-android/
[doublepost=1506028400][/doublepost]

and toggling the "ask to join networks" button under settings-wi-fi OFF

I honestly can't imagine anyone in their right mind keeping "ask to join networks" on in this day and age. It was annoying enough before there were 20+ wifi networks anywhere you went. Now it would be insane.

 

[elkhound]

Really? Why would you want to toggle Bluetooth and WiFi off? If you turn off your Bluetooth and WiFi you won’t be able to use continuity, to connect your headphones to Apple’s W1 chips, you won’t be able to use AirPlay, you won’t be able to send files through AirDrop, you won’t be prompted to use your iPhone or iPad as a remote control for the Apple TV, and so forth. If your WiFi is off your location services will be imprecise and you’ll lose more battery using GPS which is much more taxing on the battery.

Also, in regards to keeping Bluetooth and WiFi on while just disconnecting them from their current WiFi and Bluetooth connections, newer versions of Bluetooth use very little energy, the energy savings shouldn’t be more than 1% to 2% out of the total battery life. WiFi also uses very little energy nowadays.

Do you know how annoying it was when I turned airplane mode on and off to search for cellular connection (or inside a plane) only to find that my AirPods stopped playing? Now THAT’S bad design.

Apple is just teaching us how to use things correctly, and taking us away from the myths of the past (such as WiFi and Bluetooth influencing airplanes lol, or that Bluetooth draaaaains your battery life).

We should thank Apple for encouraging the right use of their devices.

I have good reasons for turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and when they’re off I have no further need for them. I, like most iPhone users, have never used my phone to do any of the things on your list.

 

[C DM]

I have good reasons for turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and when they’re off I have no further need for them. I, like most iPhone users, have never used my phone to do any of the things on your list.

In which case you can just turn it all off in Serttings as usual and be done with it.

 

[elkhound]

In which case you can just turn it all off in Serttings as usual and be done with it.

The reason this has become a small controversy is because the “as usual” behavior of these switches has changed. Apple now wants to have three modes for these radios. They need a three-position switch in the Control Center.

 

[C DM]

The reason this has become a small controversy is because the “as usual” behavior of these switches has changed. Apple now wants to have three modes for these radios. They need a three-position switch in the Control Center.

Understood. Seems like Apple thinks that for those that do make use of WiFi and/or Bluetooth it’s best to keep it on and just have quick ability to disconnect if/when needed (rather than fully turn it off, which is still there in settings if needed).

 

[strategicthinke]

I have good reasons for turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and when they’re off I have no further need for them. I, like most iPhone users, have never used my phone to do any of the things on your list.

That’s precisely why Apple wants you to keep it on - to use its ecosystem efficiently. You’ll never use these features if they are never available to you. Have you, by any chance, got an Apple TV? Too bad you’re not promoted to use your iPhone as a keyboard (which is very convenient) due to your insistence in keeping Bluetooth and WiFi off. I’m glad Apple is pushing its ecosystem as a priority.
Also, don’t tell me you don’t use ANY of the things I mentioned because I DOUBT you haven’t used Google Maps on your phone. Turns out you’re WASTING battery life by keeping WiFi off - instead of having the precise location of the WiFi chip you’re forcing your iPhone to use GPS which is much worse for battery life - not to say less accurate.

To each their own, I guess...

 

[Rogifan]

I noticed when I tap the WiFi button in control center it says af the top of the screen what it’s disconnecting. Same thing with Bluetooth. If you turn on airplane mode then both icons go gray and have a line through them indicating they’re completely shut off. I guess one thing Apple could do is enable #D Touch on these icons to give you the option to disconnect or shut off.

 

[spacemnspiff]

I agree that they should have let you 3D Touch it to turn it off. What I get disappointed is when people pretend that we don’t lose anything by turning those radios off. Turning off Bluetooth and not being able to connect my Bluetooth headphones anymore is infuriating. Most times we just want to disable a single device, not to cancel my Apple Watch connection.

Another issue with leaving BT on all the time is security. I prefer it to be off when I don't need it.

https://www.wired.com/story/turn-off-bluetooth-security/

Have you, by any chance, got an Apple TV? Too bad you’re not promoted to use your iPhone as a keyboard (which is very convenient) due to your insistence in keeping Bluetooth and WiFi off.

Turns out you’re WASTING battery life by keeping WiFi off - instead of having the precise location of the WiFi chip you’re forcing your iPhone to use GPS which is much worse for battery life - not to say less accurate.

I have couple of Apple TVs at home, and I am connected to WiFi, so I totally understand the use case for Apple TV and WiFi.

I am sorry about being dense here, how does turning WiFi on and not connecting to any network help with location accuracy, in other words when I leave home and have WiFi turned on, do I get a better lock on GPS because of WiFi, but that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[elkhound]

That’s precisely why Apple wants you to keep it on - to use its ecosystem efficiently. You’ll never use these features if they are never available to you. Have you, by any chance, got an Apple TV? Too bad you’re not promoted to use your iPhone as a keyboard (which is very convenient) due to your insistence in keeping Bluetooth and WiFi off. I’m glad Apple is pushing its ecosystem as a priority.
Also, don’t tell me you don’t use ANY of the things I mentioned because I DOUBT you haven’t used Google Maps on your phone. Turns out you’re WASTING battery life by keeping WiFi off - instead of having the precise location of the WiFi chip you’re forcing your iPhone to use GPS which is much worse for battery life - not to say less accurate.

To each their own, I guess...

You seem like a sensible person and I love your enthusiasm, so I’ll explain my phone use a little to help you understand.

I don’t watch TV so I don’t have an Apple TV, and I don’t wear jewelry so I don’t have a watch. I do have Bluetooth headphones, but they were not made by Apple.

Bluetooth off?

I have a Mac, a PC, and three IOS devices and I keep Bluetooth turned off on all of them. Otherwise, when I turn my portable Bluetooth speaker on, the wrong device might connect to it and I’ll have to search the house to figure out which one and turn it off. For me, this new “disconnect” feature has no advantage over just turning it off.

Wi-Fi off?

I usually have Wi-Fi off when I’m away from home so unscrupulous people don’t use it to gather information about me. I’ve never used Google maps. I used Apple maps about a year ago when I was in an unfamiliar city, but the phone was plugged in so the battery was charging, not draining, and location accuracy was perfect. I don’t need to use maps in my own city and most of my travel is to remote places. The phone is off on those trips.

I never start something on my Mac that I want to continue on my phone, and I use Microsoft’s cloud to transfer files/photos. I don’t keep any photos on my IOS devices because I don’t want Apple trying to organize them. I wish I could turn their photo analysis features off.

So, there you go. We have different lifestyles. One is not better than the other.

Keep smiling

 

[RezSeeker]

So one more time, Apple: you created a nice shortcut to toggle some functions except now it only half works. If you want them to FULLY work you have to take the scenic route. Thanks.

 

[sbailey4]

No we shouldn't go through this step. I shut off wi-fi when I go to bed, I don't have to go through settings to switch it off. Just a swipe up, tap and lock the phone should suffice.

This is just utter bullsh*t. It's pure logic to press a switch to toggle something on or off.

If you find it useful, fine by me, but you're one of those 1% of people. Apple should make an option in settings that changes the behaviour of this button to what it was and what it now is, so that we can choose.

Or make it a button that has 3 states. One for on, one for off, and one for that weird thing they're doing now.

So why does the current disconnect from control center not work for you when you go to bed? It disconnects you from your Wi-Fi like you want. (for whatever reason).

 

[Jodiuh]

I think this thread proves humanity is getting dumber. To everyone saying you can’t turn it off or don’t have control, read towards the bottom. Hint: in the settings app you can completely turn on/off WiFi/BT and it won’t turn on ever until you decide to.

Bunch of drama over nothing.

It’s not nothing. It’s just one more pain in the ass about iOS 11. Going into settings is maddening enough. Now if I ant to turn off radios, I can’t even do that from the ridiculous control center?

It’s crap on the iPad with busted animations, too many steps to do something, etc.

 

[newellj]

I have good reasons for turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and when they’re off I have no further need for them. I, like most iPhone users, have never used my phone to do any of the things on your list.

In theory, I agree with you, but in real life, I don't think it has any observable impact on the phone or how I use it. What are your reasons for wanting wifi and BT _off_?