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I recently got an iPhone and at first I had problems connecting to the wifi. After a while, I got it to work. Now I noticed a small circle next to the wifi icon that spins when I am going down through a timeline on Facebook or Tumblr.

Does this indicator mean that it is just loading? Or is it using the cellular network?

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  • It's just loading; I see it all the time if it has to work extra hard like on an app or connecting to a network. – L.B. Jun 9 '14 at 13:11
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The spinning circle icon is simply a means of indicating that some network activity is taking place, i.e. loading new data in Facebook or Tumblr. It could even be background data access like updating apps from the store or if you have background refresh enabled for some or all apps.

It has nothing to do with which network is being used — for that, check the cellular/Wi-Fi indicator. If the Wi-Fi icon is there, then it's the Wi-Fi network being used.

It's also worth noting that apps can turn on and off the indicator at will, so it's not a 100% reliable indicator that data is actually being transferred. If coded poorly, an app could activate the indicator, but neglect to deactivate it in certain circumstances.

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    You're welcome. If that answered your question, please click the green checkmark next to the answer to mark it as such. – robmathers Apr 27 '13 at 18:55
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Just leave it alone and it'll go away. I had the same problem on my phone and it didn't go away for about a day. It turned out that I was checking how much space I had used up and it was still loading all the information.

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    It’s okay to suggest no action needed as an answer, but you must also give a reason why the indicator is spinning, preferably with external source that explains its behavior. – sayzlim Apr 19 '14 at 6:11
  • Switch off and turn it back on. It worked for me. – user81239 Jun 9 '14 at 12:13

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