Personal Hotspot (also known as internet tethering) can be a crucial feature for many people. Several users have reported that their Personal Hotspot has disappeared or not working properly.
Related:
- How to Set Up a USB-Only Hotspot on Your iPhone
- 10 Ways to Fix Bluetooth Not Working on Your iPhone or iPad
- No Personal Hotspot Option? Hotspot Disappeared? How To Fix
- How to Find Out Which Devices Are Connected to Your iPhone’s Personal Hotspot
- Fix: Apple TV Is Not Connecting to iPhone Hotspot
If you are having problems, try the following troubleshooting tips.
Personal Hotspot Keeps Disabling Itself: How to Fix
In the past, users have reported issues when setting up a personal hotspot after updating their software or upgrading their iPhone. More specifically, they’ve found that when setting up a personal hotspot, the feature disables itself. Some users have also seen interference from other local Wi-Fi networks making the hotspot feature unstable.
If you are having these issues with your setup, here are a couple of tips to fix this issue.
Reset Networking Settings
First and foremost, when faced with any type of connection issues, the best thing is to reset your Network settings on your iPhone or iPad.
Before resetting your network settings, remember to write down your Wi-Fi credentials. You will have to re-enter these once the reset has completed.
- On your iPhone, tap on Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- At the bottom of your screen, you’ll see the Reset tab. Tap on this.
- Select Reset Network Settings when the dropdown menu appears.
- Once your network settings have reset, set up your hotspot again by going to Settings > Personal Hotspot.
Requirements for Personal Hotspot
If you’re having problems with your Personal Hotspot not working, you should first ensure that you meet the requirements for having one in the first place. Here they are in a nutshell.
- Verify that your carrier supports Personal Hotspot for your device and that you have Personal Hotspot enabled on your cellular plan. Your wireless carrier must offer Personal Hotspot to be able to use this feature. And you may need to enable Personal Hotspot on your cellular data plan. Please contact your carrier for more info.
- iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS can share a connection with USB or Bluetooth. iPhone 4 or later and iPad (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular can share a connection using Wi-Fi, USB, or Bluetooth.
If You Meet the Above Requirements, but You’re Still Encountering Issues…
You can try a selection of fixes if you’re still encountering problems with your Personal Hotspot, despite meeting the above requirements.
Check You’ve Enabled Your Personal Hotspot
You should turn off Personal Hotspot when you aren’t using it to avoid unnecessary charges and potentially faster battery draining. However, when you need to use your Personal Hotspot again, you should follow these steps.
- Go to Settings > Personal Hotspot.
- Toggle Allow Others to Join on.
- If you don’t have the password for your Personal Hotspot on your other devices, you should also write this down. On that device, enter it to connect.
Turn Off and On Personal Hotspot
You can also switch your Personal Hotspot off and on again. Follow Step 1 in the previous section and toggle Allow Others to Join off. Then, toggle it back on; it’ll become green when you can connect.
Turn Your Cellular Settings Off and On Again
You can also try turning off your cellular settings, before switching them back on again. Here’s how to do that:
- Go to Settings > Cellular.
- Toggle Cellular Data off.
- Switch the same toggle back on.
Shuffle Your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Around a Bit
You might also want to try this potential fix to the Personal Hotspot not working problem.
- Disable your Personal Hotspot by going to Settings > Personal Hotspot and toggling Allow Others to Join off. Turn off your Bluetooth connection as well.
- Turn on your Wi-Fi. Either do this by going to Settings > Wi-Fi or opening the Control Center and tapping the Wi-Fi icon.
- Turn Bluetooth back on by opening the Control Center and clicking the Bluetooth icon. Alternatively, go to Settings > Bluetooth.
- Now, turn your Personal Hotspot on by navigating to Settings > Personal Hotspot and switching Allow Others to Join back on again.
Another Useful Tip…
If you see an “Unable to Join” or timeout , make sure that you remain on the Personal Hotspot screen until the first device connects. Then you may use your phone normally. Hotspot will stop after 90 seconds of inactivity.  You can start again by tapping Allow Others to Join in Settings > Personal Hotspot.
Try These Tips to Fix Your iPhone’s Personal Hotspot Issues
If your Personal Hotspot is having issues, you can try several fixes to re-enable your connection. You can always try resetting your iPhone’s network settings, but there are other things you might want to consider beforehand. For example, you can check to see whether your Personal Hotspot is switched on.
You also have the option to try tweaking your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. Hopefully, you’re back on track after implementing at least one of them!
Danny has been a professional writer since graduating from university in 2016, but he’s been writing online for over a decade. He has been intrigued by Apple products ever since getting an iPod Shuffle in 2008 and particularly enjoys writing about iPhones and iPads. Danny prides himself on making complex topics easy to understand. In his spare time, he’s a keen photographer.
None of this works when trying to connect to the Amazon Firestick. This is ridiculous and has been going on for over a month!
Hi Daniele,
There are several reports of iOS 13 and Amazon Firesticks not working well. Amazon is looking into the issue.
In the meantime, try this workaround:
Disconnect all devices from the hotspot
Turn off your personal WiFi hotspot from iPhone and toggle on AirPlane Mode
Forget the hotspot network from Firestick
Toggle AirPlane mode off
Turn back on the personal WiFi hotspot
Reconnect your Firestick to the network
If that doesn’t help, try this method:
On the firestick, go to Settings > Network > choose Forget your connection
Reconnect to your network and select Advanced
Add the IP as 172.20.10.4, Gateway as 172.20.10.1, Subnet as 24, and DNS as 8.8.8.8 (Google’s DNS)
Still tried everything mention on this page an others. Personal hotspot is on the plan an still nothing is resolved an working. Makes ya wanna switch from iPhone if they can’t even make an update work accurately. My personal hotspot work perfect until I updated to the latest software. Hopefully you guys get this fixed sooner than later. From all the comments read on other sites I’m not the only iPhone user upset over this update issue using personalhotspot.
I recently updated my iPhone X to 13.1.3. Since, that my hotspot is not working properly. Other devices get connected but internet connectivity not available.
My iPhone 4 sees the internet well. My mac, running Maverick, sees the phone but I cannot access the internet on my computer. This is an intermittent problem.
hahaha… Apple phone is not for the India using networks like TATA DOCOMO,Reliance,Airtel, BSNL etc. as of now… it may take 200 -500 more years ….;-)
Hahaha, buy Android 😛
I used to be able to hotspot my Iphone 6 to my Macbook Pro lap top. I am doing the same procedure I have done since the beginning which is turn my hotspot and and connect iphone to macbook. I have reset network settings, turned off and on phone and still no hotspot.
I called my network and they indicated that there is no issues with their service.
Help!!