How To Stop Your IPhone From Switching Between 4G And 5G

Your Apple iPhone may switch between 4G and 5G automatically. Here’s how to stop this behavior and stick to either of the two mobile data types.

If you’ve bought a new 5G smartphone, particularly one of the latest iPhone models, you might’ve noticed that it sometimes switches between 4G and 5G automatically. That’s because iOS 17 shifts between the networks based on different factors, such as your phone’s needs and battery life, by default. Nonetheless, sometimes we want our iPhones to persistently stick to 4G or 5G instead of hopping between the two. Fortunately, you can control that. Whether you have an iPhone 15 Pro Max or an older model, you can follow the steps below to stop your device from switching between 4G and 5G automatically. However, if you’re running earlier versions of iOS, you may see “LTE” or “4G” used in place of each other.

How to stop your iPhone from switching between 4G and 5G

1. Launch the Settings app.

2. Tap on Cellular.

3. Enter the Cellular Data Options section.

4. Hit Voice & Data.

5. 5G Auto switches between 4G and 5G automatically. If you want to rely on 4G at all times, tap on LTE.

6. If you’d rather use 5G always (assuming you have 5G coverage), tap 5G On.

Why you might want to turn 5G on or off

After changing that default setting, your iPhone will no longer switch between 4G and 5G automatically. Keep in mind that 5G drains your battery and data plan significantly faster than 4G or 3G. So, if you have a limited data quota, you may want to refrain from using this option. While it may make sense to keep 5G Car enabled to minimize the reliance on 5G, many people don’t need 5G. 4G is already fast enough for video calls, media downloads, and everyday tasks. Unless you are uploading or downloading several gigabytes of data and are in a rush, 4G can be sufficient. However, people in cities where 5G towers are widely rolled out will see a big benefit in performance by turning 5G always on.

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