Bluetooth stays on even once you flip it off, and it is costing you battery life

As my telephones become older, I discover the battery dropping sooner and sooner. Even my newer Samsung Galaxy gadgets can profit from a small restrict on background scanning.

Your smartphone has a ton of options that pay attention for close by gadgets, from sensible house devices and earbuds to different telephones. There are location accuracy scans, one-tap pairing scans, file-sharing beacons, crowdsourced finder networks, and app-level machine permissions. Most come pre-enabled, and a few maintain working even after you flip off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. A couple of are price maintaining, too. Here’s what they do and the place to close them off on Android and iPhone.

The Bluetooth toggle solely handles connections

The radios keep lively

You would possibly assume that turning off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi shuts down every thing that makes use of them. That’s principally true for direct connections, like your headphones or the community you are on, however a number of options maintain working after you flip the toggle.

On iPhone, Apple says tapping the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi button in Control Center disconnects your equipment and networks, however each radios keep out there for AirDrop, AirPlay, Apple Watch, Continuity options, and Location Services. Bluetooth additionally turns into out there once more at 5 a.m. the subsequent morning, or after a restart. To energy the radios off utterly, use Settings > Bluetooth and Settings > Wi-Fi as an alternative.

Android’s Quick Settings tiles do flip the radios off, however the cellphone retains scanning by way of a separate setting underneath Location, which is the place to begin.

On current Pixels, Bluetooth might even change itself again on the subsequent day. You can cease that at Settings > Connected gadgets > Connection preferences > Bluetooth by turning off Automatically activate tomorrow.

Location accuracy is the largest listener on Android

There are two toggles in Location, too

Android lets your cellphone scan for nearby WI-Fi access points and Bluetooth devices to assist your apps get higher location information. Those scans maintain working even if you turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. If you wish to cease your Android cellphone from scanning, go to Settings > Location > Location companies > Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning.

Further, you may open Location Accuracy on the identical display screen. With it on, Google collects information about wireless signals near you for its crowdsourced location map, utilizing rotating identifiers. With it off, your cellphone depends on GPS and sensors, so indoor location fixes get slower.

iPhones do the identical factor, simply with no separate toggle. With Location Services on, your iPhone periodically sends Apple the locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers.

YOu may maintain your property community out of each databaseo: add “_nomap” to the tip of your router’s community identify. Apple will honor it, and so will Google, which opts that access point out of its location database.

Pairing and sharing options maintain looking ahead to devices

Fast Pair, Samsung, and Quick Share

Fast Pair is the system accountable for the little card that slides up once you’re opening new earbuds. Android telephones want Bluetooth and Location on to warn you to any close by machine that may be arrange. The change to show that off is labeled “Scan for close by gadgets” and it is underneath Settings > Google > All Services > Devices.

Samsung places its personal model on prime of inventory Android, after all. Nearby machine scanning can scan for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices within the background even when nothing is paired.

You can flip it off at Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Nearby machine scanning.

File sharing additionally wants Bluetooth capabilities. Quick Share’s Your devices setting retains your cellphone seen even when the display screen is off, and sharing with an iPhone means the vacation spot iPhone must allow Everyone for 10 minutes. You can set Quick Share to Contacts, and AirDrop to Contacts Only or Receiving Off to keep away from the scanning draw.

YOu would possibly assume disabling Fast Pair will shield your cellphone from Bluetooth hacks, however not essentially. The January 2026 WhisperPair flaw let attackers hijack Fast Pair headphones, eavesdrop, and track them, and since the bug lives within the equipment, not a cellphone, a firmware replace on your earbuds is what you want.

Your cellphone additionally hunts for strangers’ misplaced stuff

Decide how a lot you wish to assist

If your Android cellphone participates in Google’s Find Hub network, it makes use of Bluetooth to scan for close by objects and report their places again to their homeowners. That scanning can eat a whole lot of battery, and you’ve got a number of choices to set it.

Check Settings > Google > All companies > Personal & machine security > Find Hub > Find your offline gadgets. “Without community” is the center floor: your cellphone stops serving to others however nonetheless shops its personal encrypted final location.

You can discover the identical factor on iPhone at Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone > Find My community. Of course, you will lose the flexibility to search out your personal iPhone in the event you flip this off, although.

Apps and ultra-wideband can pay attention on their very own

Audit the permissions subsequent

On Android 12 and later, apps with the Nearby gadgets permission can find, connect to, and determine the relative position of nearby devices. Review them at Settings > Security & privateness > Privacy > Permission supervisor > Nearby gadgets. On iPhone, you may test Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth. Apple says that Bluetooth interacts with iBeacons to monitor areas that advertise identifying information, the tech shops use for in-store monitoring.

Ultra-wideband, the precision radio behind AirTag discovering and digital automotive keys, has its personal toggle at Settings > Connected gadgets > Connection preferences > Ultra-Wideband (UWB) on telephones that embody it. On iPhone, essentially the most related management is Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Networking & Wireless, which Apple added after the iPhone 11 Pro was caught checking location for UWB.

Keep the protection nets, lower the remainder

Not each scanning characteristic must be lower. Finder networks assist you get well a misplaced cellphone, and unknown-tracker alerts depend on your cellphone listening for strangers’ tags. For most individuals, the smart lower is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning, Fast Pair, Samsung’s scanner, and UWB in the event you by no means use them, plus Find Hub set to Without community. While you are there, be certain your cellphone is randomizing its MAC address so the networks it does join can’t follow you around.