Prevent Turning Off Wi-Fi on an iPhone

Ben

Updated July 27, 2024

If you've set up your home router to filter content using a content policy , you'll want to ensure that an iPhone can't bypass it and use an unprotected internet connection.

A common way that iPhone user's bypass WiFi content filtering is to simply turn off WiFi and use an unfiltered roaming internet connection (4g/5g), but you can prevent this with a supervised device.

One way to deal with this bypass technique is to configure the iPhone to point directly to your Content Policy to ensure filtering on any internet connection.

There's an additional strategy you might want to consider as well. If you've set up an iPhone as a supervised device , you can enforce the following settings:

Prevent the iPhone from turning off WiFi
Configure the iPhone to auto-connect to your home WiFi network.

This ensures that the iPhone will prefer auto connect to the filtered home internet connection when browsing at home. The iPhone user won't be able to switch to unfiltered roaming internet by turning off WiFi.

4g/5g will still work

The user will only be prevented from using a roaming connection when within the range of your home WiFi. When out roaming, another WiFi connection could be connected to. If the iPhone can't connect to a WiFi network, it will fall back to the iPhone's roaming internet connection.

Here are the steps to follow:

Navigate to the W-Fi section of the profile editor

Click the Wi-Fi icon to see a list of available networks, then copy your Wi-Fi network name that is pointed to your content policy and add it to the Service Set Identifier (SSID) field.

Select Auto join, WPA / WPA2 Personal security type, and enter the WiFi network password.

Go to the restrictions section and scroll down so that you can check Force Wi-Fi- power on (supervised only).

Save the config file and add it to the connected iOS device.

Enable Supervised Mode on iOS

Reliably enforce content blocking on an iPhone

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the iPhone still use roaming internet?

Yes, if the device can't establish a connection with WiFi, it will fall back to the phone's 4g/5g connection. This technique is most useful when trying to prevent bypass of the home network filtering.