In Summary
- Focus lets you filter incoming notifications from apps and people on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to improve focus and be more productive.
- It’s set to automatically synchronize Focus mode changes made on one device to another, as long as both devices are on the same Apple account.
- While this can be useful at times, you may not always want to have a change in Focus mode on your iPhone affect the Focus status on your Mac—and vice-versa. And thus, the need to stop sharing Focus status between devices.
Focus is an all-new feature on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey that helps you filter incoming notifications from apps and people according to your priorities and contexts, so you can improve your focus and be more productive.
By default, the way Focus works is that when you turn on a Focus mode on one of your Apple devices, it’s automatically enabled all your other devices as well. While some may benefit from this feature, it may not be ideal for those who don’t want the Focus status on one device to be affected by the change of Focus mode on other devices.
If you, too, don’t want to have the Focus status on your devices synchronized, here’s a quick guide to stop sharing Focus status between your Apple devices.
Table of Contents
How Can You Stop Sharing Focus Status Between iPhone and Mac?
When you set up and/or enable Focus on any of your Apple devices for the first time, it also enables the Share Across Devices option at the same time. This Share Across Devices option is what shares the Focus status on one device with the other—on the same Apple ID—and instructs it to enable the same.
So, in order to prevent a device’s Focus from being affected by another device’s Focus selection, all you need to do is disable the Share Across Devices option. For this, you can either disable the option on your primary or secondary device, as shown in the following sections.
Turn Off Share Across Devices on iPhone/iPad
If you carry out most of your operations throughout the day on your iPhone, and you don’t want its Focus status to be affected by the Focus status of your iPad or Mac, follow these steps to turn off Focus status sharing:
- Open Settings on your iPhone/iPad.
- Scroll down and click on Focus.
- Toggle off the button for Share Across Devices.
- In the prompt box, click OK.
Share Across Devices should now be disabled on your iPhone/iPad. And, moving forward, you should be able to change its Focus mode independently—without it affecting/being affected by another device’s Focus mode.
Turn Off Share Across Devices on Mac
In case you mostly use Focus on your Mac while working or studying and don’t want its Focus status to affect the same on your iPhone/iPad, you can disable Share Across Devices on your Mac like this:
- Open System Preferences.
- Click on Notifications & Focus.
- Select the Focus tab.
- Uncheck the checkbox for Share across devices.
- Click OK on the alert prompt.
Once Share Across Devices is disabled, your Mac will no longer sync your Focus status with your other Apple devices, and you’ll be able to change it freely without worrying about it affecting the Focus status of those devices.
Changing Focus Modes Independently Across All Your Devices
If you own a Mac and an iPhone/iPad and have recently started using Focus to avoid distractions, ensuring that the Focus mode change on one device doesn’t affect the status of other devices can prove to be crucial. And by following the instructions in this guide, you’ll be able to isolate Focus settings on all your devices.
Of course, if you ever need to revert, you can turn on Share Across Devices to keep your Focus settings up to date across all devices.