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Turning Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11's Control Center Doesn't Actually Turn Off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the apple-things dept.

An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: Turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you're not using them on your smartphone has long been standard, common sense, advice. Unfortunately, with the iPhone's new operating system iOS 11 - which was released to the general public yesterday - turning them off is not as easy as it used to be. Now, when you toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off from the iPhone's Control Center -- the somewhat confusing menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the phone -- it actually doesn't completely turn them off. While that might sound like a bug, that's actually what Apple intended in the new operating system. But security researchers warn that users might not realize this and, as a consequence, could leave Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on without noticing. Numerous Slashdot readers have complained about this "feature" this week.

5 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Very Brave by sound+vision · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another decision to impede security in the name of convenience. People act like Microsoft only does this.

  2. This is why I refuse to update my iphone by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Informative

    my iphone 6+ will stay on 9.3.5 forever, or until the hardware dies... whichever comes first.

    How do I stop the auto updates? It's impossible to stop the phone from downloading updates automatically, unless you jailbreak it... OR you block the following URLs on your wifi router:

    appldnld.apple.com
    mesu.apple.com

    This will prevent your iDevice from auto downloading OS updates. Don't worry, you can still update your installed apps, it only blocks iOS updates.

    1. Re:This is why I refuse to update my iphone by Spy+Handler · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, it can happen. Here is how it goes:

      1. I go to Starbucks or a friend's house and my phone auto-downloads 2 GB worth of iOS updates on their wifi

      2. iPhone displays a popup saying "iOS 11.0.5 has been downloaded." Two choices are given: UPDATE NOW, or LATER

      3. I choose "LATER", then go into Settings - General - Storage & iCloud Usage - Manage Storage. There, it will display a list of everything that takes up space on my phone. The iOS 11 update will be at or near top of the list, being 2 GB in size.

      4. I select the "iOS 11 update" and tap to delete it. Tap again to confirm delete.

      5. Presto, my phone is still version 9.3.5 and the downloaded update is gone.

      6. !profit!

  3. Re:Burying the takeaway by tk77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you long-press on one of the buttons in the control center, it pops up a larger display that sort of details whats going on.

    If you tap the wifi or bluetooth buttons to turn them off, the blue highlight turns gray and the text in the larger display will say "disconnected". If you turn them off in the settings app, the highlight turns gray and there's a line through the wifi/bluetooth logos and in the larger display it says "off".

    The airplane mode button which is the first button in the control center, when pressed, turns everything off.

    It's not obvious and I didn't really know that this is how it worked until I saw the Apple support doc. Knowing now how it works, I don't mind so much. It means on my iPad I can have Bluetooth on, but "disconnected" and still be able to use the pencil (rather then having to have BT fully on).

  4. Facts by sjbe · · Score: 4, Informative

    The problem is that they replaced an engineer with a pointy haired boss with an MBA.

    The only thing factually correct in that sentence is that Tim Cook does have a MBA degree and there is no evidence that constitutes a problem for Apple. Steve Jobs was not an engineer and did not have an engineering degree (or any other degree for that matter). Tim Cook IS an engineer and does have an engineering degree from Auburn University.

    Tim Cook knows how to do is squeeze people for more cash, exploiting their captive user base until people throw their hands up in the air and walk away.

    There is no evidence that Apple customers are walking away in any meaningful numbers.

    It's ironic, Microsoft is trying so hard to be like Apple, but Apple is trying very hard to be like Oracle.

    If you think that then I don't think you've actually dealt with Oracle. The experience of working with Apple is NOTHING like the experience of working with Oracle.