iOS11: airplane mode and Bluetooth

Question

I just updated to iOS11 and I realized that, when you enable and then disable the airplane mode, the Bluetooth is automatically turned on (even if previously is was switched off). Is there a way to prevent this annoying functionality?

Answer 1

I had the same issue but I finally found out how to fix it. Bluetooth actually stays on the whole time even if in the control center the bluetooth button isn’t even blue. Go open “settings”, and you’ll see that bluetooth is switched on (and maybe you thought it was off like in my case). If you turn it off in the settings, the bluetooth icon from the control center will get crossed, and from there it doesn’t get switched on automatically every time you disable airplane mode.

Good Luck :)

Answer 2

On iOS 11 - to disable bluetooth, you'll want to install a configuration profile to accomplish that. Note that the control center now keeps the Bluetooth and WiFi radios on when you disable them - only AirPlane mode truly turns them off and you can turn them on piecemeal when in AirPlane mode. That change may have required the one you wish to modify.

Apple's hardware and services need bluetooth for more than a dozen features all bundled under continuity / handoff / siri knowing which device is closes for "hey siri" so the vast majority of people need bluetooth on all the time for these to work.

You can make profiles with Server.app (which costs money) and with Apple Configurator 2 which is free. You may need to supervise your devices to control bluetooth at that granularity so read into that a bit and be sure to test your profile to be sure it does what you want.