Networking & Wireless

[sorgo †]

Earlier today I was playing around with System Services under Settings > Privacy > Location Services and thought to myself, "Why not just re-enable everything (aside from 'Product Improvement'/analytics)?" I previously had quite a few of them turned off, but I've heard from several users here that they keep them all on all the time without issue.

The only thing was that I was using cellular data at the time and noticed after re-enabling the defaults that my connection slowed to a crawl. Upon further testing I seemed to have found the culprit: Networking & Wireless. I have always, or at least since its introduction (with iOS 13 I think?), found this setting particularly interesting, because even though Apple does its best to keep users from disabling it with its pop-up warning about alleged potential impact to wi-fi/bluetooth/ultra-wideband performance there is little perceptible difference (in my experience) with it turned off. There is a caveat, though, which is that I do not own/use AirTags. I do have second-generation AirPods Pro but if I ever need to use precision finding I can just re-enable the service in Settings.

But the proof was in the pudding: Connection responsiveness and Safari page-load times were just far better with Networking & Wireless off.

So, in the end, I went back to how I had System Services set previously, with Device Management, Cell Network Search, Wireless & Networking, HomeKit, Apple Pay Merchant Identification, Sharing.framework, Location-Based Suggestions, Significant Locations, and everything under "Product Improvement" turned off (pardon the Spanish):



So, my question to the MacRumors community is: Do you leave System Location Services as-is or do you tailor them to your needs? If you have changed any of them, do you notice any difference in networking performance or in battery life? Has anyone had any experiences akin to mine regarding Networking & Wireless, or am I simply imagining things?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

[JM]

Earlier today I was playing around with System Services under Settings > Privacy > Location Services and thought to myself, "Why not just re-enable everything (aside from 'Product Improvement'/analytics)?" I previously had quite a few of them turned off, but I've heard from several users here that they keep them all on all the time without issue.

The only thing was that I was using cellular data at the time and noticed after re-enabling the defaults that my connection slowed to a crawl. Upon further testing I seemed to have found the culprit: Networking & Wireless. I have always, or at least since its introduction (with iOS 13 I think?), found this setting particularly interesting, because even though Apple does its best to keep users from disabling it with its pop-up warning about alleged potential impact to wi-fi/bluetooth/ultra-wideband performance there is little perceptible difference (in my experience) with it turned off. There is a caveat, though, which is that I do not own/use AirTags. I do have second-generation AirPods Pro but if I ever need to use precision finding I can just re-enable the service in Settings.

But the proof was in the pudding: Connection responsiveness and Safari page-load times were just far better with Networking & Wireless off.

So, in the end, I went back to how I had System Services set previously, with Device Management, Cell Network Search, Wireless & Networking, HomeKit, Apple Pay Merchant Identification, Sharing.framework, Location-Based Suggestions, Significant Locations, and everything under "Product Improvement" turned off (pardon the Spanish):

View attachment 2104167

So, my question to the MacRumors community is: Do you leave System Location Services as-is or do you tailor them to your needs? If you have changed any of them, do you notice any difference in networking performance or in battery life? Has anyone had any experiences akin to mine regarding Networking & Wireless, or am I simply imagining things?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I did a DFU mode restore as new on my iPhone a few months ago due to some frustration with bugs while on iOS 15, and I just left the phone untouched and unedited because I didn’t have time that day to set it all up (so ALL the original Apple settings on except location for product improvement, seen in screenshot below.)

Then the next day I figured “why don’t I just leave all the settings on and see what a vanilla iOS experience is like. I don’t think I’ve EVER kept everything turned on! It’ll be a test to see if battery life is worse, and if I get a better iOS Siri integrated experience.”


Turns out it was fantastic and I was getting the same battery life, and actually useful Siri suggestions.

I’ve had all the settings on ever since and had zero problems. And to answer you question, I haven’t noticed any difference in network speeds between when I had settings turned off (including networking and wireless) before, and when I had it on the last few months.