As my phones get older, I notice the battery dropping faster and faster. Even my newer Samsung Galaxy devices can benefit from a small limit on background scanning.

Your smartphone has a ton of features that listen for nearby devices, from smart home gadgets and earbuds to other phones. There are location accuracy scans, one-tap pairing scans, file-sharing beacons, crowdsourced finder networks, and app-level device permissions. Most come pre-enabled, and some keep working even after you turn off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. A few are worth keeping, too. Here’s what they do and where to shut them off on Android and iPhone.

The Bluetooth toggle only handles connections

The radios stay active

You might assume that turning off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi shuts down everything that uses them. That’s mostly true for direct connections, like your headphones or the network you’re on, but several features keep running after you flip the toggle.

On iPhone, Apple says tapping the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi button in Control Center disconnects your accessories and networks, but both radios stay available for AirDrop, AirPlay, Apple Watch, Continuity features, and Location Services. Bluetooth also becomes available again at 5 a.m. the next morning, or after a restart. To power the radios off completely, use Settings > Bluetooth and Settings > Wi-Fi instead.

Android’s Quick Settings tiles do turn the radios off, but the phone keeps scanning through a separate setting under Location, which is the place to start.

On recent Pixels, Bluetooth may even switch itself back on the next day. You can stop that at Settings > Connected devices > Connection preferences > Bluetooth by turning off Automatically turn on tomorrow.

Location accuracy is the biggest listener on Android

There are two toggles in Location, too

Android lets your phone scan for nearby WI-Fi access points and Bluetooth devices to help your apps get better location info. Those scans keep running even if you turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. If you want to stop your Android phone from scanning, go to Settings > Location > Location services > Wi-Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning.

Further, you can open Location Accuracy on the same screen. With it on, Google collects information about wireless signals near you for its crowdsourced location map, using rotating identifiers. With it off, your phone relies on GPS and sensors, so indoor location fixes get slower.

iPhones do the same thing, just without a separate toggle. With Location Services on, your iPhone periodically sends Apple the locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers.

YOu can also keep your home network out of both databaseo: add “_nomap” to the end of your router’s network name. Apple will honor it, and so will Google, which opts that access point out of its location database.

Pairing and sharing features keep watching for gadgets

Fast Pair, Samsung, and Quick Share

Fast Pair is the system responsible for the little card that slides up when you’re opening new earbuds. Android phones need Bluetooth and Location on to alert you to any nearby device that can be set up. The switch to turn that off is labeled “Scan for nearby devices” and it’s under Settings > Google > All Services > Devices.

Samsung puts its own version on top of stock Android, of course. Nearby device scanning can scan for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices in the background even if nothing is paired.

You can turn it off at Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Nearby device scanning.

File sharing also needs Bluetooth capabilities. Quick Share’s Your devices setting keeps your phone visible even when the screen is off, and sharing with an iPhone means the destination iPhone needs to enable Everyone for 10 minutes. You can set Quick Share to Contacts, and AirDrop to Contacts Only or Receiving Off to avoid the scanning draw.

YOu might think disabling Fast Pair will protect your phone from Bluetooth hacks, but not necessarily. The January 2026 WhisperPair flaw let attackers hijack Fast Pair headphones, eavesdrop, and track them, and because the bug lives in the accessories, not a phone, a firmware update for your earbuds is what you need.

Your phone also hunts for strangers’ lost stuff

Decide how much you want to help

If your Android phone participates in Google’s Find Hub network, it uses Bluetooth to scan for nearby items and report their locations back to their owners. That scanning can consume a lot of battery, and you have several options to set it.

Check Settings > Google > All services > Personal & device safety > Find Hub > Find your offline devices. “Without network” is the middle ground: your phone stops helping others but still stores its own encrypted last location.

You can find the same thing on iPhone at Settings > [your name] > Find My > Find My iPhone > Find My network. Of course, you’ll lose the ability to find your own iPhone if you turn this off, though.

Apps and ultra-wideband can listen on their own

Audit the permissions next

On Android 12 and later, apps with the Nearby devices permission can find, connect to, and determine the relative position of nearby devices. Review them at Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy > Permission manager > Nearby devices. On iPhone, you can check Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth. Apple says that Bluetooth interacts with iBeacons to monitor areas that advertise identifying information, the tech stores use for in-store tracking.

Ultra-wideband, the precision radio behind AirTag finding and digital car keys, has its own toggle at Settings > Connected devices > Connection preferences > Ultra-Wideband (UWB) on phones that include it. On iPhone, the most similar control is Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Networking & Wireless, which Apple added after the iPhone 11 Pro was caught checking location for UWB.

Keep the safety nets, cut the rest

Not every scanning feature needs to be cut. Finder networks help you recover a lost phone, and unknown-tracker alerts rely on your phone listening for strangers’ tags. For most people, the sensible cut is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning, Fast Pair, Samsung’s scanner, and UWB if you never use them, plus Find Hub set to Without network. While you’re there, make sure your phone is randomizing its MAC address so the networks it does join can’t follow you around.