iPad User Magazine - UK (2019-10)

Manage Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Wecutthroughthewireless confusioncausedbyiOSchanges

ITWILLTAKE

5 minutes

YOUWILLLEARN

Howtomanage

BluetoothandWi-Fi

connections,switch

audiooutputsand

sharepasswords

withAirDrop

YOU’LLNEED

iOS 11 or later

The release of iOS 11 in 2017

made some changes to the way

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked on

iPad and iPhone devices, and it

led to some confusion. When is off really off?

How does it affect AirDrop and AirPlay? Why

did they switch back on when I went out?

A simple rule of thumb is that using

Control Centre to turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off

is enough to drop any existing connections for

the rest of the day, but the system remains

available. If you want to turn them off more

permanently, you’ll need to use Settings, or

put the device in Airplane Mode – which isn’t

ideal if you still want to receive calls.

Apple recommends that you keep Wi-Fi

and Bluetooth turned on to get “the best

experience”, but there are valid reasons for

turning them off, such as saving battery power

(though this is marginal), not being tracked in

areas such as the London Underground, or

preventing your device from connecting to

Bluetooth headphones when you’re trying to

pair them with something else. Ian Evenden

HOW TO Control your connections

1

Control Centre

The simplest way to turn off both Wi-Fi and

Bluetooth in iOS is to open Control Centre.

Press the symbols for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (the

stylised fan and runic B) and they’ll turn from

blue (on) to grey. Active connections will drop.

2

Bring them back

To turn them back on, just do the same

thing, and the icons will turn blue again. This

means you can still use AirDrop, Handoff,

AirPlay and your Apple Pencil – none of these

will work without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Geniustip!

To enter Airplane

Mode, which cuts off all

wireless communication

on your device, open

Control Centre and tap

the plane-shaped icon.

iPadOS Wi-FFiandBluetooth