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contacos

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 11, 2020
5,529
21,112
Mexico City living in Berlin
Can someone please explain the location data settings for dummies to me? I read the Apple documentation for it but it seems incomplete / outdated / just not clear to me.

Goal: Having as little activated but at the same time not killing the user experience of iOS

  • Apple Pay Merchant Identification: I guess this is only used for Advertisement and therefore can remain OFF
  • Compass Calibration: Should I leave this on? I turned it off for a while but I feel like it made finding "me" on a map much more unreliable. Hence the name of the toggle
  • Device Management: What is this for exactly? - have had it OFF for a long time and have not noticed a difference
  • Emergency Calls & SOS: Why does this require access to my location? My iPhone does not support satellite. Can I turn it off?
  • Find My iPhone: Most likely needed for AirTags to work correctly or well, to find my iPhone so I am leaving this ON.
  • HomeKit: What is this for? I mainly use the Philips Hue app to control my lights. I do have the Home widget in control center activated but it does not seem to matter if I have HomeKit on or off, therefore I am leaving it OFF
  • Location Based Alerts: Probably more Ads - OFF
  • Location Based Suggestions: What does this do? Probably more Ads - OFF
  • Mobile Network Search: Either I have service or I dont? What does location services have to do with it? - OFF
  • Motion Calibration & Distance: Probably required to track my steps? - Leaving it on
  • Networking / Wireless: Is this required for AirTags to work correctly or can I turn it off?
  • Setting Time Zone: I think this is needed for Screentime to work?
  • Share My Location: I guess this is needed to share my location on Find My or iMessage with other people? - never use it - OFF
  • System Customisations: I think this needs to be turned on for Night Shift and Dark Mode to work on sun set?
  • Wi-Fi Calling: What is this toggle for? I use Wifi Calling but it does not seem to matter having this on or off. It still works either way. Therefore I turned it OFF!
Could I turn anything else off? I only really use AirTags, Night Shift and Dark Mode on Sun Set and GPS on Maps

IMG_6936 (1).jpeg
 
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I think I ran into this article before but it does not seem to be updated and completely correct. The Wifi Calling part for instance:

Wi-Fi calling: If you’re using Wi-Fi calling on your new iPhone, you should have this feature enabled. It’s required by the Wi-Fi calling feature on your device. If you don’t use Wi-Fi calling, or have a device that doesn’t support it, you can just disable this feature.

Wi-Fi calling also works fine with this one disabled
 
I think I ran into this article before but it does not seem to be updated and completely correct. The Wifi Calling part for instance:

Wi-Fi calling: If you’re using Wi-Fi calling on your new iPhone, you should have this feature enabled. It’s required by the Wi-Fi calling feature on your device. If you don’t use Wi-Fi calling, or have a device that doesn’t support it, you can just disable this feature.

Wi-Fi calling also works fine with this one disabled

If it works fine, leave it disabled 🙂
 
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