iOS 9 wifi password sharing

Question

Jemster Author

Level 1

25 points

iOS 9 wifi password sharing

I remember reading about this somewhere a few months back, but can't find anything on it. Please refresh my memory!

iOS 9 appears to have a feature that shares wifi-network logons between devices (devices with the same iCloud account)?

How do I disable it?

Here's the scenario...

In my office, my company WiFi blocks IMAP traffic (<sarcasm> as it's apparently a huge security risk... unlike POP3 traffic that isn't a security risk at all </sarcasm>). So my phone has to remain on cellular data as I have personal mail accounts on there that I need to be able to access through the day that I can't switch to POP3.

My iPad however is a WiFi only iPad. I'd rather it was on the corporate WiFi so I can at least use it for web surfing etc... even if I can't get to my mail.

It used to be that I could "Forget" the WiFi network on the phone and use it happily on the iPad. However, I've just noticed that my 2 devices are sharing the darn setting now. If I make the phone Forget the WiFi, the iPad forgets it as well. If I add it back on the iPad, it comes back on the phone also.

I can understand how this is a Great Feature for most users. But it completely breaks my use-case. How do I turn this feature off?

(Our Windows Phone loving IT guy here laughs as his phone can be configured to use Cellular Data for email and WiFi for everything else, I can only configure the exact opposite)

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 8:44 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 2, 2015 1:31 PM in response to Jemster

Jemster - sorry, I can't help solve this, but at least I can say I observed the same behavior with IOS 9, and I have the same question - how do I get control over which WiFi connection each of my devices uses ? I have an iPad and iPhone, and a MiFi device and while I may want the iPad to connect to the MiFi, I don't always want the iPhone to connect to MiFi device. (iPhone brain says, oh boy I am on WiFi, let me back stuff up, etc ... chewing up MiFi cellular data needlessly). If I tell the iPhone "Forget This Network", the iPad ALSO forgets ... When I re-enter the password on the iPad, the iPhone is informed. I don't want my devices sharing WiFi passwords. Is there a way to control this behavior for WiFI only without having to completely disable the entire iCloud Keychain feature ?

Reply

Answer 2

Jemster Author

Level 1

25 points

Oct 2, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Jemster

Errrr ok, so I've just found two different web pages from 2014, one saying "wouldn't it be great if iOS shared passwords..." and the other saying "iOS shares passwords and has done since iOS 7"

So, question re-phrased I guess is.... How come this has only happened since upgrading to iOS 9 for me? I've been using this exact configuration through iOS 8 & 7 at least, so as it wasn't sharing, I'm not sure why it's sharing now.

Looks like I have to disable iCloud Keychain to get rid of this "feature". Is there any way to keep a wifi login OUT of the shared Keychain without disabling the entire iCloud Keychain feature?

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 25, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Jemster

I'm with you on this... when I got a MiFi I stopped using the SIM card in my iPad 2 (well, the SIM card actually died and I can't be bothered to get a new one) so when I'm on the road I use the MiFi with the iPad (besides, the MiFi is 4G and the iPad 2 is only 3G so why would I not want to use the faster connection?)

But I have Wifi Calling enabled on my iPhone 5S and I don't particularly want to be using the data allowance on the MiFi for that (and the phone has quite a good data allowance on it and a good 4G connection. I don't want to keep having to switch Wifi off and on on my phone to stop it from using the MiFi when I'm mobile only to realise I can't make phone calls in my house when I get home because the cellular network is so poor there and I forgot to turn Wifi back on.

There are any number of reasons why sharing the Wifi passwords between my devices is an excellent idea but there are many more that override it's usefulness and actually make it a complete PITA when you can't turn the feature off.

Perhaps some feedback to Apple is called for.

Reply