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iPhone XR Data off yet still getting 3 bars?

W

white4s

macrumors 68000
Original poster
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
 
white4s said:
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
Click to expand...
Turn on airplane mode and turn off wifi ... That should kill everything
 
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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”
 
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white4s said:
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
Click to expand...
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).
 
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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
 
white4s said:
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
Click to expand...

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?
 
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bushman4 said:
signal bars aren’t accurate for some reason
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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.
 
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