With the release of iOS 15, a new beta feature called “Private Relay” will become available to iOS 15 and MacOS devices signed into a premium iCloud account. The Private Relay feature will be blocked automatically by Circle managed devices. Doing so prevents Private Relay enabled devices from getting around Circle’s tracking.
We recommend that Circle users not enable Private Relay for managed devices due to known incompatibility issues with the beta feature. Circle does not support beta software, and we encourage our users to wait until Private Relay leaves beta to enable it on their managed devices.
Turning off Private Relay for iOS devices
Users can tap “Use Other Network” to switch networks away from Circle, but if they want to stay on the network and be managed by Circle, they must choose “Use Without Private Relay” to disable that feature:
- On the affected iOS device, go to Settings >> Wi-Fi and tap the info icon to see the Wi-Fi network settings.
- Disable the iCloud Private Relay toggle.
You can also disable Private Relay across all networks (not just the one where your Circle is):
- On the affected iOS device, go to Settings and tap the Apple ID option at the very top.
- Then, go to iCloud >> Private Relay and disable the toggle.
Blocking Messages
iOS and MacOS devices with Private Relay enabled and managed by Circle will have that connection blocked automatically and will not have Internet connectivity until the feature is disabled. Thankfully, Apple notifies you promptly when this occurs asking you to disable the feature or try another network.
If this occurs, you should receive a notification like this:
You may also see one of these messages:
