How to turn off Emergency SOS on an iPhone

Apple’s Emergency SOS feature is meant to save critical time reaching emergency services and contacts — iPhone 14 and newer lineups can even send alerts via satellite. But if the feature keeps getting triggered accidentally, say via Crash Detection, children, or your pocket, you can disable it (almost) entirely. Here’s how.

How to turn off Emergency SOS on an iPhone

There’s really no way to deactivate Emergency SOS on an iPhone. That said, you can make it so that nothing triggers it.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into Emergency SOS.
3. Turn off all options. These include Call with Hold and Release, Call with 5 Button Presses, and Call After Severe Crash. The latter is only available in iPhone 14 devices or newer, running iOS 16 or later.

Note that even with all these settings changes, you can still launch Emergency SOS through the power-off screen.

To reach that screen on most iPhones (excluding anything with a home button), simultaneously hold the side button and one of the volume buttons. Swipe the Emergency Call slider to initiate a call.

How to fix the “SOS only” problem on iPhone

If you see “SOS” or “SOS only” in your iPhone’s status bar, regular cellular service is unavailable. However, you can still make calls to emergency numbers like 911 or send satellite alerts if you have an iPhone 14 or later.

There are a few potential fixes for the iPhone “SOS only” issue:

• Restart your iPhone: The first troubleshooting step should always be to restart your device. Press and hold the side button and either the volume up or volume down button. Then, use the slide to power off slider. When the phone is off, press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
• Move to a different area: If you’re currently in a spot that doesn’t have reception, “SOS only” is more likely to appear. In this case, move to a different location with better cellular coverage.
• Restart cellular data: If you are in a well-serviced area, consider restarting your cellular data. To do this, go to Settings > Cellular and toggle Cellular Data off for 10 seconds, then back on again.
• Activate roaming: If you have no service while traveling, go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options and ensure Data Roaming is enabled, at least if you’re not worried about roaming fees.
• Check your SIM card: If you’re still using a physical SIM card instead of an eSIM, try popping it out, checking for damage, and putting it back in if it’s okay.
• Check if your carrier has issues: If the “SOS only” notice remains even after you’ve followed the steps above, the problem likely resides with your carrier. Downdetector is an excellent tool for checking if your network provider has any widespread outages that may affect your service.