My devices are in flight mode but iCloud can still locate me – how?

[Silly John Fatty]

Both my iPhone and my iPad are in flight mode. They're connected to the home's Wifi, though. Bluetooth is turned off.

I was on the iCloud.com website and wanted to test the "Find My" feature. I noticed it managed to locate both devices exactly where they are right now.

But how is that possible, if neither has mobile data turned on?

 

[mw360]

The devices figure out their position using either GPS, the presence of nearby WiFi networks, or cell tower triangulation. They don't need all three, so it still works without the cell signal. Once they've located themselves, they send their location to iCloud over your WiFi network.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The devices figure out their position using either GPS, the presence of nearby WiFi networks, or cell tower triangulation. They don't need all three, so it still works without the cell signal. Once they've located themselves, they send their location to iCloud over your WiFi network.

I suspected something in this direction!

Do you know if GPS is always on, e.g. if the phone is in flight mode?

 

[3166792]

Even with Flight Mode on, if you are connected to WiFi, your location is known as Apple logs the location of your home WiFi network. This is why if you move your router to another location it may appear as though you're still at the old location at first.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Even with Flight Mode on, if you are connected to WiFi, your location is known as Apple logs the location of your home WiFi network. This is why if you move your router to another location it may appear as though you're still at the old location at first.

Interesting to know! How come it's possible to find out a where a router is located?

 

[3166792]

Interesting to know! How come it's possible to find out a where a router is located?

By pinging nearby known WiFi networks, it can estimate where you are based on the time it takes those signals to bounce back and forth. This is why sometimes setting up a new network in a rural area can cause all sorts of odd location issues on Apple devices. It's a bit weird.

Apple previously partnered with Skyhook to provide this location logging but rolled their own version back in around 2010 (I think).

 

[Silly John Fatty]

By pinging nearby known WiFi networks, it can estimate where you are based on the time it takes those signals to bounce back and forth. This is why sometimes setting up a new network in a rural area can cause all sorts of odd location issues on Apple devices. It's a bit weird.

Apple previously partnered with Skyhook to provide this location logging but rolled their own version back in around 2010 (I think).

Very interesting to know. Maybe that explains why I sometimes get locations that are not even close to where I am, lol.

But I'd rather turn this off completely anyway. Is there a way to stop your router from pinging other networks?

 

[3166792]

About privacy and Location Services in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS - Apple Support

Learn how privacy settings and Location Services help protect your personal information on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

support.apple.com

Crowd-sourced Wi-Fi and cellular Location Services​

If Location Services is on, your device will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers to Apple to augment Apple's crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations. If you're traveling (for example, in a car) and Location Services is on, a GPS-enabled iOS device will also periodically send GPS locations, travel speed, and barometric pressure information to Apple to be used for building up Apple's crowd-sourced road-traffic and indoor pressure databases. The crowd-sourced location data gathered by Apple is stored with encryption and doesn't personally identify you.

 

[mw360]

Very interesting to know. Maybe that explains why I sometimes get locations that are not even close to where I am, lol.

But I'd rather turn this off completely anyway. Is there a way to stop your router from pinging other networks?

Your router isn't pinging other WiFi networks. Your router is emitting wifi signals which any passing devices can detect, and many of those devices will report the physical location at which your wifi was detected back to geo-location services. There's not much you can do about that and nothing you really need to do. You can't keep your wifi network a secret.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I suspected something in this direction!

Do you know if GPS is always on, e.g. if the phone is in flight mode?

Yes it is. Next time you are flying in Airplane mode, open Maps and put your iPad near a Window. It will figure out where you are and you can see how fast you are flying over the land below. I actually do this often (Google Maps though) just to quickly see where I am in the flight.

 

[960design]

Both my iPhone and my iPad are in flight mode. They're connected to the home's Wifi, though. Bluetooth is turned off.

I was on the iCloud.com website and wanted to test the "Find My" feature. I noticed it managed to locate both devices exactly where they are right now.

But how is that possible, if neither has mobile data turned on?

iPhone's have a bunch of cool tracking features available to the device owner.

You can locate the phone via Find My even if the device is turned off.
You can even locate it with a dead battery. Have you ever let your iPhone die completely, only to press power a couple of hours later and it turns back on with 1% battery for a couple of minutes? Low power bluetooth will use this reserve battery to send a bluetooth ping to any Apple device for location purposes. Those devices will anonymously pass the location back to you.