How do I completely turn off location on my iPhone?

Tips
1

I just realized a bunch of apps on my iPhone have been tracking my location in the background, even when I thought I turned most of that stuff off. I’m worried about privacy and also want to save battery life. Can someone walk me through all the settings I need to check so location services are fully disabled or as locked down as possible?

2

If you want location totally off on iPhone, here is the closest you get:

  1. Turn off Location Services completely
    • Open Settings
    • Go to Privacy & Security
    • Tap Location Services
    • Toggle Location Services to Off at the top

That stops apps from using GPS, Bluetooth location, Wi‑Fi scanning and cell tower data for location. Most tracking from apps stops there.

  1. Lock down system services too
    Even with Location Services on, tons of Apple stuff asks for it. Since you worry about tracking and battery, do this:

    • Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services
    • Scroll to bottom → System Services

Turn off anything you do not need, especially:
• Location-Based Alerts
• Location-Based Suggestions
• Location-Based Ads or Apple Ads related stuff
• iPhone Analytics, Routing & Traffic, Popular Near Me

Leave on only what you care about, like Find My iPhone if you want theft protection.

  1. Check each app’s location access
    If you do not want global Off, use this instead:

    • In Location Services list, tap each app
    • Set to “Never” for apps you do not trust
    • Avoid “Always” unless it is something like navigation or tracking you want
    • “While Using” is safer and better on battery than “Always”

Background location drains battery, especially for social apps, delivery apps, weather apps that poll often. People see noticeable battery improvement when they set everything to “While Using” or “Never”.

  1. Kill “Significant Locations” logging
    Apple keeps a log of places you visit often.

    • Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services
    • System Services → Significant Locations
    • Turn it Off
    • Tap Clear History

This reduces detailed movement history on the device.

  1. Turn off Bluetooth and Wi‑Fi scanning tricks
    Even with Location Services off, random Wi‑Fi networks and Bluetooth devices can help apps infer rough location.

    • Swipe down from top right to open Control Center
    • Turn off Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth there does not fully disable hardware
    • To hard disable: Settings → Wi‑Fi → Off, and Settings → Bluetooth → Off

Downside, stuff like AirPods, Apple Watch, AirDrop, auto‑join Wi‑Fi breaks.

  1. Check “Find My” and tracking stuff
    If your goal is pure privacy and not phone recovery:

    • Settings → Apple ID (your name at top)
    • Find My → Find My iPhone
    • Turn off Find My iPhone and Find My Network
    • Turn off Share My Location if you do not want friends/family to see you

Reminder, if you disable Find My, tracking for theft and lost phone also stops.

  1. Tighten Safari / app tracking
    Not pure GPS, but apps and sites track you with IP and ads too.

    • Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track”
    • Settings → Safari → turn on “Prevent Cross‑Site Tracking” and “Hide IP Address”

  2. Tradeoffs
    If you completely disable Location Services and most system stuff, you lose:
    • Maps navigation accuracy
    • Weather for current location
    • “Find My” accuracy
    • Location based reminders like “when I arrive home”
    • Some ride share and food apps functionality

For a good balance:
• Leave Location Services ON
• System Services: keep only what you use daily
• Apps: set almost all to “While Using”, a few to “Never”, and avoid “Always” unless needed

If you want hardcore privacy, turn Location Services Off at the top, turn off Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth in Settings, and disable Find My. That is about as close as iOS lets you get to no location at all, with the cost of a worse user experience.

3

If what @nachtdromer wrote is the “how to,” I’ll add the “what you probably still don’t realize is happening” part.

Even if you nuke Location Services, some stuff can still hint at where you are, so if you care about privacy and battery, look at these too:

  1. Background App Refresh = sneaky location behavior helper
    Location itself might be blocked, but apps still wake up to:
  • Upload old location logs
  • Phone home with identifiers that can be correlated with IP and time
    Turn it down:
    Settings → General → Background App Refresh
  • Set to Wi‑Fi only or just Off globally
  • Or kill it per app for social, shopping, delivery, weather, etc.
    Huge battery win and indirectly kills a lot of tracking behavior.
  1. Photos & metadata tricks
    Even if GPS is off now, old pics might already have your coordinates baked in.
  • Open Photos → pick a picture → swipe up
    If you see a map, it has location attached.
    To prevent future ones:
    Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera
    Set to Never.
    Also when sharing: in the Share sheet → Options → turn off Location.
    Stops you from leaking home / work coords when sending pics.
  1. Widgets & “helpful” system features
    Some home screen widgets quietly lean on location or network data:
  • Check weather, maps, ride share, and “smart suggestions” widgets
    Delete anything you do not really use.
    Fewer widgets = less background poking.
  1. Third party keyboards & VPN / DNS apps
    Not exactly GPS, but:
  • Some keyboards and VPN / “security” apps log IP + timestamps which can be mapped to location pretty well.
    If you installed random free VPNs, “battery saver,” “cleaner,” or keyboard apps, reconsider them. Remove anything you do not trust 100%.
  1. Limit ad & analytics IDs
    Again, not pure GPS, but advertisers do “location by proxy” using IP + device IDs.
  • Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising
    • Turn off Personalized Ads
  • For third‑party apps: a lot use their own SDKs, so combine that with what @nachtdromer said about disabling “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” That cuts off their official channel for cross‑app tracking.
  1. Router / home network angle
    If you are really paranoid:
  • Your home Wi‑Fi SSID is already mapped by companies like Apple, Google, etc. Just connecting to it lets them approximate your location. You can’t fully stop that on iOS, but you can:
    • Use a privacy friendly DNS (via your router or a trusted DNS profile)
    • Turn off “Auto‑Join Hotspot” for random networks so your phone isn’t constantly shouting for them.
  1. Reality check: “completely off” is kind of a myth
    You can get very close, but:
  • Your carrier always knows roughly where your phone is via cell towers
  • Any internet connection leaks at least an approximate region via IP
  • Apple’s own services need some info for things like push notifications, even with Location Services off

So:

  • Follow the big switches from @nachtdromer
  • Add: aggressive use of Background App Refresh off, limit photos location, cut down widgets, remove shady apps, and minimize ad tracking.

If you do all that, the remaining “tracking” is mostly what you cannot avoid while the phone is powered on and connected to a network. At that point, if an app still knows exactly where you are, it is either because you explicitly gave it location again, or it is guessing very roughly from IP, not live GPS.

4

What @waldgeist and @nachtdromer already covered is basically the “settings-level nuke.” I’ll add the perspective of: how do you live with location mostly off without hating your phone, plus a bit of “where this still leaks.”

1. Decide your actual goal first

“Completely off” can mean different things:

  • A) You just want to stop random apps from following you and save battery.
  • B) You are okay breaking core iPhone features to reduce all tracking as much as possible.
  • C) You are in “paranoid / threat model” territory (stalker, abusive ex, etc.).

For A, you probably do not need the full hardcore setup they describe. For B or C, you do, and you might even want the phone powered down or in airplane mode a lot of the time.

2. The one switch almost no one talks about: Shortcuts & automations

Even after Location Services is heavily locked down, Apple’s Shortcuts automations can trigger based on location that you have granted in the past.

  • Open Shortcuts → Automation
  • Delete any “Arrive” or “Leave” based automations
  • Also review “Before I Commute” or “CarPlay” ones that infer location from driving patterns.

These can quietly reintroduce patterns about when and where you move, even if not logging GPS coordinates directly.

3. Notifications that leak location context

Some apps infer or hint at location through notification content even if they are not technically using GPS in the moment.

  • If you have weather, local news, “nearby deals,” or transit apps:
    • Go to Settings → Notifications
    • Turn off notifications entirely for any app where the notification itself is location flavored.

Reason: many of these services build a profile over time by which city / area you are interested in and correlate that to your device. Killing those notifications reduces the usefulness of the profile, plus helps battery a bit.

4. Be careful with “check in” features

Even with GPS off, apps like social networks, messaging apps, or ride share apps can ask you to manually tag a place. That manual tagging is just as strong a location signal as GPS.

  • Avoid “Check in,” “Share where you are,” or “Add location to this post” features.
  • Disable “Location” or “Places” permissions in those apps’ own settings menus too, not just iOS.

@waldgeist and @nachtdromer nailed the OS settings, but a lot of these companies double up with internal toggles that sit above what iOS does.

5. When to temporarily turn location back on

Here is where I slightly disagree with going permanently nuclear like they suggest. For most people, a better pattern is:

  • Keep Location Services On globally.
  • Keep 95% of apps at Never or While Using.
  • For maps / ride share, switch to While Using, then actually close the app from the app switcher after use.

Why this is not as scary as it sounds:

  • iOS shows a solid or hollow arrow in the status bar when location is active or recently active, so you get decent visibility.
  • You avoid constant on/off toggling of the main switch which can be annoying and easy to forget when you really need navigation or emergency help.

If you are in category C (serious safety risk), ignore this and follow their “hard off + radios off” advice.

6. Consider physical habits, not just settings

A lot of battery and privacy gains come from behavior:

  • Use Airplane Mode when you are at home on Wi‑Fi and do not need calls or SMS. This cuts cellular location at the carrier level and often saves more battery than any single setting.
  • Turn the phone fully off overnight if you are comfortable with that. That is the only time it is truly not locatable via any radio.

7. About the product title ‘’

Since you brought up privacy and battery together, this topic basically sits in the same space as products like ‘’.

Pros of ‘’ in this context:

  • Helps centralize your thinking about privacy and battery; useful mental model for “what is on and why.”
  • Good as a reference concept: when you search for it, you tend to find guides focused exactly on cutting location, background activity, and tracking.
  • Works nicely alongside the controls described by @waldgeist and @nachtdromer, because it pushes you to think of your phone as an always-on sensor that you can strategically defang.

Cons of ‘’:

  • It is not a magic switch. You still have to manually do all the toggling in Settings.
  • Some advice around it can be overkill for casual users and break features you actually rely on.
  • Can give a false sense of “I am 100% invisible now,” which you never really are while a connected device is powered on.

If you are searching around and see people discussing alternatives, you will notice that @waldgeist tends to focus on the practical, system-level steps, while @nachtdromer leans into broader tracking behaviors beyond pure GPS. Both perspectives are useful, but neither replaces actually reviewing your daily habits and deciding what you are willing to lose in exchange for privacy.

8. Quick sanity checklist

If you want a simple “am I in a good place now?” list, try this:

  • No app has Always location, except maybe one nav app you trust.
  • System Services trimmed to just what you truly need (e.g., maybe Find My, Emergency Calls & SOS).
  • Background App Refresh mostly off for non-essential apps.
  • Camera has location off if you share photos a lot.
  • Airplane Mode or full power off is used in places / times you really care about not being tracked.

Once you hit that, you are already well beyond what most people do, and the remaining tracking is mostly at the carrier / IP level, which you cannot fully avoid unless the phone is disconnected or off.