iPhone XR Data off yet still getting 3 bars?

[white4s]

Just messing around and went to turn off cellular data and it still shows a signal? Able to make calls as well. Also turned off lte.

Am I missing something here? My se completely turned off everything

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Just messing around and went to turn off cellular data and it still shows a signal? Able to make calls as well. Also turned off lte.

Am I missing something here? My se completely turned off everything

Turn on airplane mode and turn off wifi ... That should kill everything

 

[ZelMousse]

Turning off cell data only disabled internet access, It doesn’t effect voice. If you want to disable all cell functions then turn on “Airplane mode”

 

[C DM]

Just messing around and went to turn off cellular data and it still shows a signal? Able to make calls as well. Also turned off lte.

Am I missing something here? My se completely turned off everything

Text messaging (SMS) and calls don't use data and go through essentially what would be something like 2G. Disabling cellular/mobile data (which also includes LTE) just disables the data portion, not the cellular signal itself (for that, as others have mentioned, airplane mode can be used).

 

[white4s]

Well I was looking to cut off everything except wifi when I'm home. I feel like this was possible with my other iphones? Weird

 

[itsmilo]

Just use airplane mode??

 

[Mr.C]

I would think turning airplane mode on and then turning wi-fi back on would do the trick.

 

[deeddawg]

Well I was looking to cut off everything except wifi when I'm home. I feel like this was possible with my other iphones? Weird

It continues to completely possible now, just as with was before. You're apparently just misremembering what you did (or what you were doing didn't do what you thought).

To turn off the cellular radio, switch to airplane mode. You can re-enable Wifi and Bluetooth if you wish.

Turning off Cellular Data simply does just that, it turns off the data stream over cellular -- so no Internet access (email/web/imessage) and no MMS messaging. It does NOT turn off voice calling or SMS text messages -- those still work since they don't use the data side of cellular.


I am curious though -- why exactly are you feeling the need to turn off the cellular radio when you're home?

 

[C DM]

Well I was looking to cut off everything except wifi when I'm home. I feel like this was possible with my other iphones? Weird

Turn airplane mode on and then with it on just enable WiFi.

 

[bushman4]

signal bars aren’t accurate for some reason

 

[deeddawg]

signal bars aren’t accurate for some reason

They're not accurate for several reasons.

In this case they're pretty dead on though. If you see bars it means the cellular radio is turned on. If you see an airplane logo (or see no bars) it means the cellular radio is turned off.

Addition to the airplane mode comments -- Looks like in IOS12 you can turn off the cellular radio without technically choosing airplane mode.

EDIT: I was incorrect, the control center cellular control it just turns off cellular data. Sorry.

 

[C DM]

Addition to the airplane mode comments -- Looks like in IOS12 you can turn off the cellular radio without technically choosing airplane mode.

How does that work?

 

[Ebok]

Well I was looking to cut off everything except wifi when I'm home. I feel like this was possible with my other iphones? Weird

But why....

 

[deeddawg]

How does that work?

It doesn't. My error. Saw the cellular icon in control center and it seemed like it turned off all cellular but with further research it apparently just turns off cellular data and not the whole cellular radio as I (mistakenly) thought.

I've corrected my post accordingly.

More info here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202769