Apple’s ecosystem connects all of its devices with a single thread to provide a unique experience that lets you access the same data from every device you own or continue where you left off from one device to another. But what if you don’t want your Mac and iPhone to coexist? Can you use these devices without relying on Apple’s ecosystem?

Technically, it is possible to disconnect a Mac and an iPhone from sharing or syncing user data. In this post, we will explain how to disconnect your Mac from an iPhone and vice versa.

Before you learn how to disconnect the two devices, you first need to understand how a Mac and an iPhone connect to each other. The most basic way to connect these two devices is through iCloud, something that happens when you first set up your Mac and iPhone.

When you add your iPhone and Mac to your Apple account, they’re instantly connected. iCloud syncs content from apps on your Mac and iPhone with each other, backs up photos from your iPhone so they’re visible on your Mac, and other files you might have backed up to iCloud Drive.