How to Turn Off Location on iPhone [2024 Guide]

There are many reasons why you would want to turn off location on an iPhone. Well, whatever the reason, you can always adjust your iPhone’s privacy settings to control the amount of data collected and shared with online services and apps. Thankfully, disabling location services on iOS is quick and easy. Just a few taps and you’re sorted. Let’s learn how to turn off location permissions on an iPhone.

Turn Off Location on iPhone

You can choose to completely turn off your location on an iPhone. When you do this, it will disable all the services that rely on your device’s location. For instance, you can’t attach your location to your photos or use Maps for navigation. Also, if you’re using food delivery or Uber services, you won’t be able to pinpoint your location. This can helpsave battery life on your iPhone, but may also affect the overall experience.

If you’re ready, here’s how to disable location services on an iPhone:

Whenever you wish to turn on location on your iPhone, follow the same steps and turn the toggle On.

Turn Off Location on iPhone for Specific Apps

Rather than turning off the location completely, you can choose to disable location services for specific apps on your iPhone. This gives you the freedom to choose which apps can access your iPhone’s location. You can give location permissions to important apps like Maps and Uber, and while restricting it for others. Here’s what you need to do:

If you don’t mind apps using your location data but don’t want to share your exact location, you must turn offPrecise Location. When you do this, that app will only know your approximate location, and it should get the work done for most services and apps.

Turn Off Location for iPhone’s System Services

You’ll find several backend location tracking features in iPhone’s System Services that are both important and easily overlooked. The iOS System Settings operate in the background to support apps and essential functions, such as location-based alerts and time zone adjustments.

You can disable location tracking for any of these system services on your iPhone. Here’s how to do it:

You can disable location for many of the system services, without worrying about anything. For instance,HomeKitis only useful when you use Home Automation.Apple Pay Merchant Identificationis useful for people who use Apple Pay.Motion Calibration & Distanceonly matter for people who use fitness tracking. Depending on whether a feature is useful or not, you can adjust location permissions for different features and services.

Turn Off Location in Find My App

TheFind My Apphelps you track the location of a lost or stolen Apple device. Also, it allows you to share your location with your friends and let them share theirs with you. Generally, it’s a great idea to activate location services for the Find My app. However, if you want to stop your location from being tracked on an iPhone or wish to completely disable Find My before selling or giving away your iPhone, you can turn off location in the Find My app. Let me show you how it’s done:

There can be instances when you don’t want your family or friends to know your location. For this, you must go toSettings -> Apple ID -> Find Myand turn off theShare My Locationtoggle.

In case you want to disable location sharing for an individual contact, open theFind My app, tap on thePeopletab, choose the contact, and make the necessary adjustments.

That’s how you can hide your location on an iPhone. While Location services allow several apps and services to work properly, you can disable it to stop anyone from tracking your location. You get to enjoy greater privacy and increased battery life on your iOS device.

You can go toSettings -> Privacy & Security -> Location Services and turn off the Location Services toggle to stop sharing your location. If you want, you can also enable DND to temporarily turn off the location on your iPhone.

No, your iPhone won’t send any alerts when someone checks your location. That said, you need not worry as people can only track your current location if you’ve explicitly shared it via Messages, Find My app, or anywhere else.

Yes, even if your iPhone is turned off some apps or services may still access your last known location data. To prevent this, you should disable Location Services and adjust app permissions.

Kanika Gogia

Kanika has been a loyal iPhone user since 2014 and loves everything Apple. With a Master’s in Computer Applications, passion for technology, and over five years of experience in writing, she landed at Beebom as an Apple Ecosystem Writer. She specializes in writing How To’s, troubleshooting guides, App features, and roundups for Apple users to help them make the best use of their gadgets. When not writing, she loves to try out new recipes and enjoy some family time.

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