How to Turn Bluetooth On or Off With Your iPhone or iPad

Temporarily or permanently turn Bluetooth on and off on iOS

Updated February 29, 2020

There are two different ways to turn Bluetooth off on your iPhone or iPad. The quickest way to flip the switch on Bluetooth is to use the hidden Control Center, but this only turns Bluetooth off temporarily. You can turn it off permanently by using the Settings app. Here are instructions to do it both ways and why you might choose one over the other.

These instructions apply to devices running iOS 7 or later.

How to Turn Bluetooth On or Off Using Control Center

The Control Center method is a quick solution because you don't need to hunt for the Settings app. However, turning Bluetooth off using the Control Panel will only turn it off until 5:00 local time the next morning.

Using this method, Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, and Apple AirPlay and AirDrop services will work even though they use Bluetooth to communicate.

Open Control Center. Slide your finger up from the bottom edge of the iPhone.

To open the Control Center on an iPad, drag your finger down from the upper-right corner of the screen.
Tap the Bluetooth icon to turn it off.
A window opens to tell you that Bluetooth will be turned back on tomorrow.

How to Turn Bluetooth On or Off Permanently

You may want to turn Bluetooth off for longer. For example, you might have Bluetooth speakers you occasionally use with your iPhone when you are at home but you don't need them all the time. If you don't use Bluetooth much, it's easy to turn it on or off when you want to use the speakers.

Launch the Settings app.
Tap Bluetooth.
Slide Bluetooth toggle switch to turn the service on or off.
When Bluetooth is on, a list of devices that can be connected appears under the My Devices or Other Devices headings.
Tap a device name to connect to it.