When Apple introduced the Control Center feature in iOS 7, it gave users shortcuts to certain iOS features like the WiFi toggle. Users could turn WiFi on or off via this toggle, but with iOS 11, Apple made it so that tapping the WiFi toggle no longer turned it off permanently, and instead only turned it off temporarily where the next day it would be enabled again.
How To Really Turn Off WiFi On Your iPhone
- On your iPhone or iPad, launch the Settings app
- Tap Wi-Fi
- Toggle the switch off (the switch should no longer be green in color)
- When you bring up Control Center, you should see a slash through the WiFi icon which indicates that it has been disabled
- Tap on it if you want to turn WiFi back on.
Take note that this permanently turns off your iPhone’s WiFI until you go through those same steps to turn it back on. If you’re on a limited data plan then forgetting to turn back on WiFi could potentially result in your data draining a lot faster. Also note that when not connected to WiFi, there are certain features that you’ll be missing out on. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Backing up your iPhone and iPad wirelessly (you can still backup without WiFi but will need to connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer)
- Streaming high-quality audio from Apple Music (you can choose to enable high-quality streams via cellular, but it is off by default and will consume more data)
- Netflix has a cellular data usage feature that by default is set to “Automatic” which will let you stream about 4 hours worth of shows per GB of data. This is versus WiFi which could allow for better quality or longer streams.
- Your app downloads are limited to 150MB when not connected to WiFi
- Certain iOS features such as AirDrop will require WiFi to be enabled in order to work
For the most part, your iPhone will continue to function as per normal, and some of these “limitations” when not connected to WiFi aren’t immediately noticeable or might impact you too much, but it could be worth noting all the same. If you think you might forget to turn WiFi back on, then you can turn off WiFi temporarily through the Control Center.
How To Temporarily Turn Off WiFi On Your iPhone
- Bring up Control Center
- Tap the WiFi icon
- You will see a message flash across the top off your screen that lets you know that WiFi will be disabled until the next morning
- The icon will now be greyed out and will look different compared to when WiFi is permanently turned off
By default, if you temporarily disable WiFi, it will turn itself back on at 5 AM local time. However, we should point out that there are instances in which it can turn back on earlier. According to Apple’s support website, this can occur when you restart your device or if you walk or drive to a new location. For example, if you temporarily disable WiFi because you’re at a cafe and its WiFi isn’t particularly strong, but if you leave the vicinity of the cafe (and nearby networks), it will turn back on again.