why cant i turn off wifi in the control center in ios 11? it just says not connected when i go to settings.

The wifi doesnt turn off in control center in ios 11.

Posted on Sep 20, 2017 7:17 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 21, 2017 5:38 AM

That control simply disconnects you from the current wifi network. It is not an on/off switch for wifi.

User uploaded file


Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center with iOS 11 - Apple Support

50 replies

Sep 21, 2017 6:13 AM in response to jvplata

You are not correct. When you turn Wifi off via the Control Center. Did you even read the link?


About Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

In iOS 11 and later, when you toggle the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth buttons in Control Center, your device will immediately disconnect from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth accessories. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will continue to be available, so you can use these important features:

  • AirDrop
  • AirPlay
  • Apple Pencil
  • Apple Watch
  • Continuity features, like Handoff and Instant Hotspot
  • Instant Hotspot
  • Location Services

User uploaded file


While Wi-Fi is disabled, auto-join for any nearby Wi-Fi networks will also be disabled until:

  • You turn on Wi-Fi in Control Center.
  • You connect to a Wi-Fi network in Settings > Wi-Fi.
  • You walk or drive to a new location.
  • It's 5 AM local time.
  • You restart your device.

User uploaded file


So, by disabling it, you are, in essence, turning it off. Before you start worrying about your battery, why don't you try it. Bluetooth is the same way:


Disconnect from Bluetooth accessories

Open Control Center and tap User uploaded file. The icon will dim and your device will disconnect from any accessory it's connected to, except for Apple Watch, Instant Hotspot, Apple Pencil, and Continuity features, like Handoff.

If Bluetooth is turned off, you won’t be able to connect your iOS device to your Bluetooth accessories until:

  • You turn on Bluetooth in Control Center.
  • You connect to a Bluetooth accessory in Settings > Bluetooth.
  • It's 5 AM local time.
  • You restart your device.

User uploaded file


So, in response to the need to have auxiliary support for Bluetooth, disabling Bluetooth in the Control Center disconnects you from your Bluetooth devcies with the exceptions of the services listed (Apple Watch, Instant Hotspot, Apple Pencil, and Continuity features, like Handoff).


So, you can suspend it, or you can turn it off completely. But if you mean that by "turning off" Wifi in the Control Center, you don't want Wifi to be invoked, then that will be the result until you meet one of the following conditions:


You turn it back on in the Control Center

You connect via Settings>Wifi

You go to a different location

You restart your device


Also, apparently, this "temporary" suspension of these services will automatically be unsuspended at 5:00 am. This is because you disabled it using the new feature. If you want it fully turned off, then turn it off in Settings.


GB

Oct 9, 2017 8:37 AM in response to LACAllen

LACAllen wrote:


IdrisSeabright wrote:


There's very little reason to turn off WiFi. Leaving it on and not connected to a network has minimal impact on battery life. It does, however, improve location services accuracy.


And this appears to be why the change was made.


Continuity features and things like Airdrop depend on Bluetooth and Wifi simply being ON but not necessarily connected to anything. Just on.


The new control centre features allow for that quite easily. And leaving both on has been proven to have minimal impact on battery life. In fact, turning them off and on likely consumes more power than leaving them on.


But... urban myths don't go away easily.

That was pretty much my take on the matter. The iPhone is designed to be an always on, always connected device. One could certainly argue over whether this is a good design decision but it appears to be very carefully considered.

Oct 8, 2017 6:34 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

IdrisSeabright wrote:


There's very little reason to turn off WiFi. Leaving it on and not connected to a network has minimal impact on battery life. It does, however, improve location services accuracy.


And this appears to be why the change was made.


Continuity features and things like Airdrop depend on Bluetooth and Wifi simply being ON but not necessarily connected to anything. Just on.


The new control centre features allow for that quite easily. And leaving both on has been proven to have minimal impact on battery life. In fact, turning them off and on likely consumes more power than leaving them on.


But... urban myths don't go away easily.

Dec 14, 2017 6:17 AM in response to Jultomte

Jultomte wrote:


This change is very unwelcome to me.

Any change is going to be a problem for someone. For some of us, this is an extremely welcome change that we have been asking for. And yes, it is a documented feature. And yes, several people have suggested that using Siri is easiest way to turn off WiFi. It's not a "workaround" either. It's also a documented feature of Siri.


By the way, if you're experiencing battery drain, this is not the cause.

Dec 19, 2017 6:17 AM in response to Amegon

Amegon wrote:




It is not that the feature to temporary disable wifi is bad. The big issue is that there is no way to turn off wifi anymore. Could add another button there, or configure behavior of button insettings.. all would be happy. Or to have an option to only enable wifi in some locations. That could also be an acceptable fix.

You can still turn WiFi off by going to Settings>WiFi. Or, even easier, "Hey, Siri, turn off WiFi"


No one here can effect any of the changes you want. Submit your feedback to Apple using the the link already provided in this thread. Apple reads the feedback. No on here can predict if they will act on it.


Best of luck.

Oct 8, 2017 6:23 PM in response to Saved2dabone

Saved2dabone wrote:


Yes there is something to fix. I’ve been complaining about this since the first public beta of iOS 11. They need to take it back to the way it was in iOS 10 and before when you could just swipe up and turn it completely off in one step instead of having to go clear to the settings app to turn them completely off which waste time. This is one of the issues that makes me feel apple is taking a step backward and not forward cause for me it’s frustrating and now I can’t go back to iOS 10.3.3. That’s one of the reasons I’m starting to call iOS 11 a trashy operating system. That and the poor battery life I’m getting now.

This is one of the most utterly brilliant little changes Apple has made lately. I got really tired of having go to settings and "forget" a network just to disconnect from that network. There's very little reason to turn off WiFi. Leaving it on and not connected to a network has minimal impact on battery life. It does, however, improve location services accuracy.


Could Apple have done a better job explaining the change? Absolutely.

Jan 6, 2018 2:42 PM in response to Kimmysiphone

Kimmysiphone wrote:


I agree. The old system worked so it was a useful function. Now I turn that WiFi button to white aka off and on one phone it turns itself right back on, not waiting til 5 am, and on the other it turns white and says it will be off till tomorrow. So, yeah, since they don’t do the same thing I’d say one is broken & neither is as convenient as the original short cut menu & that irritates me. Not to mention it took a while to find the airdrop shortcut and that was found by accident. The first response as to this not being broken. In other words this was an on purpose change by Apple misses the point that the change stinks.

I strongly disagree. The ability to disconnect from a network without turning off Wi-Fi is a brilliant innovation that every device should have. As it uses a button that was a previously quadrupedally redundant way of controlling Wi-Fi there are still 3 ways to turn off Wi-Fi, but for the life of my I can't think of any good reason to ever turn off Wi-Fi. It doesn't use significant energy. It isn't a security problem. It DOES significantly improve navigation and location services. However, being able to disconnect from a network just for a period of time is extremely useful.


BTW, it reconnects if you leave the vicinity of a network and come back to it. And it doesn't turn off Wi-Fi at all; it leave it on but disconnected from ONE network.


In case you missed the link near the top of this thread, here it is again:


Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center with iOS 11 - Apple Support

Dec 14, 2017 1:31 AM in response to LACAllen

This change is very unwelcome to me. “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” is a good quote regarding this so called improvement.


During the Steve Jobs days, ease of use and design was paramount. Now we have a change that first of all requires a technical article to even explain, and second of all is creating extra click work for me every morning.


I turn off WiFi every day on the way to work, as I commute in a downtown environment where my phone constantly tries to connect to open networks. At the office, it also tries to connect over and over again to our guest/consultant-only open network every time I switch floors or buildings. Drains battery and sends me irritating pop-ups.


My solution is to every morning just ask Siri to turn it off, and then ask her to turn it back on when I’m home. She gets it right, even if the control panel doesn’t.


To the people who want to switch to Android: stick around. Apple makes great phones and Siri is a good workaround.


Don’t listen to the overzealous and slightly rude people who tell you to just leave.

Dec 19, 2017 12:20 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Long topic and much emotions here. Lets try to be neutral.

Positive effect: after leaving a place and wifi is just ‚suspended‘ then it will be on when coming back there. Useful for people who forgot to turn it on again and use all their mobile data at home. However, just disable mobile data for youtube.. good, done.


Negative: i don‘t want the phone to track my location to figure that. And not to scan/try different network during the day while driving/walking.

For me it is a very bad use case because there are some wifi networks nearby with same ssid name but different password. Even without the option to show available networks, a message keeps popping up about incorrect password for a foreign network.

I see deleting the bad named wifi login from a friend not as fix. I just want to quick disable wifi when i leave a place and quick turn it on when back. No wifi activity between that at all.


Control center is used to allow turning features on/off with less clicks/swipes. This is not the case anymore.


It is not that the feature to temporary disable wifi is bad. The big issue is that there is no way to turn off wifi anymore. Could add another button there, or configure behavior of button insettings.. all would be happy. Or to have an option to only enable wifi in some locations. That could also be an acceptable fix.


Personally i see this change as the main issue with latest iOS and am still hoping to get a ‚fix‘ even if they will not call it like that. And something completely turned off is always consuming less. Scanning and connecting uses energy (send and receive data). So we have more energy and less privacy with a ‚feature‘ that removed the feature to easily turn off wifi - a change that noone i know wants. Neither friends (normal people) or colleagues in area of robotic engineering and software engineering.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

why cant i turn off wifi in the control center in ios 11? it just says not connected when i go to settings.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.