How to Turn Off Emergency SOS on iPhone 13

Your iPhone has several options on it that can benefit you in the event of an emergency. One of these is a faster way to call 911. But it can happen by accident, so you might be wondering how to turn off emergency SOS on iPhone 13 if you have already activated it without meaning to do so.

How to Turn Off the Call with Side Button Option on an iPhone 13

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Choose Emergency SOS.
  3. Turn off Call with Side Button.

Our article continues below with additional information on how to turn off emergency SOS on iPhone 13, including pictures of these steps.

Do you listen to Pandora but struggle to stop it from playing? Our article on how to turn off Pandora on iPhone 13 can help.

Your iPhone 13 has some elements on it related to health and personal safety. Some of these features allow you to display important health information for medical personnel.

One option makes it a little easier to dial 911 or your country’s emergency services number. This is achieved by pressing the side button 5 times in a row.

Keeping this option is a little risky, however. It’s nice to know that you can make that call so easily (assuming that you remember it’s an option,) but it’s surprisingly easy to press that button five times.

If you are worried that you might call 911 by accident, then you are able to disable this function. Our guide below will show you where to find and adjust this setting so that you don’t accidentally call 911 if you press the Power button too many times.

If you are receiving phone calls on other Apple devices, then you may want to know how to turn off phone calls on the iPad to make that behavior stop.

You need to set up a location on your iPhone if you are going to use Wi-Fi calling. One other place where your location data is used is on pictures, although you can turn off geotagging on iPhone if you don’t want to use that.

How to Prevent 911 Calls By Pressing the Power Button 5 Times on an iPhone (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in iOS 15. These same steps will work on other iPhone models using iOS 15, as well as some earlier versions of iOS.

You can visit SMB Tech Advice for additional articles about iPhone settings.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

open iPhone settings

Step 2: Scroll down and choose the Emergency SOS option.

choose the Emergency SOS option

Step 3: Tap the button to the right of Call with Side Button to turn it off.

This feature is turned off when there is no green shading around the button. I have it turned off in the picture below.

how to disable emergency call with iPhone side button 5 times

Our guide continues below with additional information.

If you don’t want or need a password for your phone, then our how to take passcode off iPhone 11 guide can show you how to change that.

More Information on Disabling the Ability to Call Emergency Services with the Power Button 5 Times on an iPhone

Note that using the steps above to disable this feature won’t prevent you from calling emergency services in other ways. For example, you can still hold one of the volume buttons and the side button to access the emergency calling feature. You can always call 911 directly from the Phone app as well.

For an additional safeguard against accidental emergency calls on an iPhone you can also scroll all the way to the bottom of the Emergency SOS menu and enable the Countdown Sound option. This causes your iPhone to play a loud, attention-grabbing sound that gives you a few seconds to cancel an emergency call in case it occurs accidentally.

You should also take this opportunity to set an emergency contact on your device. This gives medical and healthcare people a way to contact a friend or family member in case of an emergency.

Frequently Asked Questions About the iPhone Emergency SOS Option

What does the SOS button do on iPhone?

You will see an Emergency SOS button on your iPhone if you hold the Volume Up and Side buttons at the same time.

If you slide that button to the right, it will call your local emergency services number.

How do I shut my iPhone 13 off?

Like many of the other electronic devices that you might have in your home, an iPhone may occasionally need to be restarted.

This can happen if the device just doesn’t seem to be working properly, or if an app won’t launch correctly.

You can shut your iPhone 13 off by holding the Volume Up button and the Side button at the same time, then dragging the Slide to Power Off button to the right side of the screen.

The device will turn off after a few seconds.

You can turn the iPhone back on by holding down the Side button until you see the Apple logo. You will then need to enter your passcode to use the device again.

How do I shut off my iPhone 13 if the screen is stuck?

If your screen is stuck and you can’t use the standard shut off method, then you will need to do a hard reset on your iPhone.

You can do a hard reset on an iPhone 13 by pressing the Volume Up button, then the Volume Down button, then holding the Side button. Once you see the white Apple logo you can let go of the side button.

How do I shut off iPhone 13 location services?

If the location services are turning on a lot (which you can tell by the small arrow or paper airplane icon at the top of your iPhone screen) then you might want to disable them.

You can turn off iPhone 13 Location Services by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > then tapping the button next to Location Services to shut them off.

Note that a lot of apps and services won’t work properly if you do this, so you may need to disable location on an app-by-app basis instead if you want to continue using apps that require your location to function.

What if I accidentally called emergency SOS iPhone?

These accidental calls happen, so you need to avoid the temptation to hang up once you realize you made an unwanted call.

Once the operator picks up, let them know that it was an accidental call from your phone.

In many locations they will be required to send out emergency services if someone calls and hangs up, so informing them that it was an accident can prevent that from occurring.

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