Disable certain services such as Mail while using public wi-fi

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Disable certain services such as Mail while using public wi-fi

I have a first generation iPhone SE with iOS 12. There is no cell service on this phone because I mostly only use it away from home when I am on vacation and that's often in an another country where I'd have to set up service there. Occasionally when I am out I want to use a public wi-fi. I don't really care if somebody sees I am asking Google where the nearest coffee shop is, or what if I am looking up something in a browser. I am concerned that my phone may be trying to do more sensitive things such as checking my e-mail and sending my password to the server. Is there a way to disable features such as Mail when I am connected to a public wi-fi? I went into Settings > Mail and didn't see anything.

I know people advise to use VPN but again I only use this with public wi-fi for perhaps 5 minutes per month so it hardly seems worth subscribing to a service for that.

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 2:15 PM

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Answer 1

Axel Foley

Level 10

156,872 points

Feb 20, 2021 2:25 PM in response to Limnos

There is nothing in the settings to disable the Mail app when you are connected to a Wi-Fi Network.

You can, however, use a workaround. You can turn set Fetch New Mail to MANUAL instead of PUSH or Automatic. This way your mail will ONLY be received or sent or checked when you OPEN the Mail app. You just have to remember to not open the Mail app when you are connected to an undesired Wi-Fi Network.

The drawback of this workaround is that the same behavior of the Mail app will exist even when you are connected to a cellular network.

EDIT: Also read Lawrence Finch's response to you above.

Axel F.

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2021 2:17 PM in response to Limnos

If your email accounts are configured to use TLS (as almost all major ISPs are) your connections are encrypted from your phone to the mail server. It is safe to use a public Wi-Fi.

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Answer 3

Limnos Author

Community+ 2026

Level 10

458,345 points

Feb 20, 2021 3:30 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you. It took me a while to find out where they hid the fetch settings since it was under Passwords & Accounts and not Mail. I was looking under Mail before posting feeling sure it must be there but it wasn't. Both my Hotmail and Gmail use TLS. However, I also saw listed under the setting, iCloud and Calendars. I may use that Manual feature to minimize things across the board.

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Answer 4

Feb 20, 2021 2:16 PM in response to Limnos

We are at 14.4 now.

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Disable certain services such as Mail while using public wi-fi

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