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General How to get Wifi on iPad while iPhone stays on cellular?

AppleInLVX

AppleInLVX

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 12, 2010
1,258
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Seems like a silly question, but I can't find the answer. I am in a situation where I have both my iPhone and iPad at work, and while I can use the office's open Wifi to connect the iPad (and I do), I want to use my own cellular package on the iPhone to avoid the office snooping on my usage for that device. Alas, when I tell the iPhone to forget the office open network, it disconnects the iPad. If I reconnect the iPad, it also reconnects the iPhone, even though I just told it to forget the network. Initially, I thought this might be some kind of keychain issue, but the setting for iCloud Keychain is off on the iPad, so I dunno why it would be syncing that information.

Anyone have any bright ideas?
 
AppleInLVX said:
Seems like a silly question, but I can't find the answer. I am in a situation where I have both my iPhone and iPad at work, and while I can use the office's open Wifi to connect the iPad (and I do), I want to use my own cellular package on the iPhone to avoid the office snooping on my usage for that device. Alas, when I tell the iPhone to forget the office open network, it disconnects the iPad. If I reconnect the iPad, it also reconnects the iPhone, even though I just told it to forget the network. Initially, I thought this might be some kind of keychain issue, but the setting for iCloud Keychain is off on the iPad, so I dunno why it would be syncing that information.

Anyone have any bright ideas?
Click to expand...
Something with calls on other devices maybe?
 
M. Gustave said:
Turn off wifi on your phone. Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

This is, of course, the easiest answer. I was looking for something that wouldn't mean I forget to turn it on again when I leave the office, thereby needlessly sucking cellular bandwidth when I'm at home.
 
kch50428 said:
Set up a geofenced reminder to check your wifi when you arrive at home...
Click to expand...

I set one up for when I leave the office... made more sense, and I suppose that will fix the issue, although it's a workaround. I suppose it surprizes me that there's no way to have one iOS device forget a network without buggering all other iOS devices for that network as well. Seems like an oversight.

Anyway, thanks for the help, all of you. Nice to have your thoughts. :)
 
Actually, I think it's by design that iOS background syncs wifi settings used between devices... Apple believes a majority of users like it.. You're exceptional that you don't...
 
kch50428 said:
Actually, I think it's by design that iOS background syncs wifi settings used between devices... Apple believes a majority of users like it.. You're exceptional that you don't...
Click to expand...
There are more exceptions as this has been brought up before. And, like the OP, I thought it was linked more to something like iCloud Keychain and not just in general to the Apple ID/iCloud (without any particular aspect of it or setting related to it).
 
kch50428 said:
Actually, I think it's by design that iOS background syncs wifi settings used between devices... Apple believes a majority of users like it.. You're exceptional that you don't...
Click to expand...

Not the first time I've been 'exceptional'. ;)
 
AppleInLVX said:
It's built right into the Reminders app. You can designate a geofence around any area per reminder. You can set it to trigger either when entering or leaving...
Click to expand...

Except it doesn't work. I tried it twice last night, and entering the area didn't trigger the alert either time. It was my home, and I was on foot, in NYC.

About 20 minutes after I got home the second time, the alert went off. So at best it's completely unreliable. Would love to hear what I did wrong.

Ps. I'm on iOS 10.0.2
 
Although I admit, it's never been perfect, mine usually fire within 2 minutes of arriving/leaving and often exactly when I do. I'm not sure if it's a function of the GPS, or when it picks up familiar WiFi or how exactly it works, but I've had good results. That is, until iOS10. Now I'm getting results like you're pointing out.

Honestly, I've had little annoying bugs all over the OS since I upgraded. Things not working *quite* as well as they used to. At the moment, I'm hoping Apple will iron out all the bugs in the next couple updates. It does seem to me, however, that a lot of things got a little broken behind the scenes in the plumbing parts of the OS.
 
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AppleInLVX said:
Not the first time I've been 'exceptional'. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, I think I'm 'exceptional', too.. :p

My case is similar to yours: at work, my old iPad 2 uses WiFi, but the iPhone does not connect to it, although the WiFi remains turned on. But, telling the iPhone to 'forget' the work WiFi does not disconnet the iPad. I don't know if it's an explanation, but I do not store my passwords in iCloud Keychain, and I have no idea if a WiFi network that's known by one device is automatically known by other...

edit: all my devices remain on iOS 9.3.5. I know, the iPad 2 won't get 10, but the iPhone can be updated to it. I'm not sure when I'll do it, since I will have to deal with some of the apps I use not getting updates in the iPad from now on...
 
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