iPhone Hotspot Not Working, Here’s the fix!

With Personal Hotspot, you can share the cellular data connection of your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) with another device. And if this feature is not working properly then it can be a trouble situation for many users almost all. If you need help with Personal Hotspot not working on iPhone, follow these steps.

How a personal Hotspot features Work?

By turning on this feature, your phone uses its cellular data to create a WiFi hotspot. You can then connect a computer or other device to this hotspot to access the internet. In short, Your iPhone can use its cellular data connection to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot that your Mac (or iPad) can connect to.

Set up Personal Hotspot

• Go to Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot or Settings > Personal Hotspot.
• Tap the slider next to Allow Others to Join.

If you don’t see the option for Personal Hotspot, contact your carrier to make sure that you can use Personal Hotspot with your plan.

iPhone personal hotspot not working

But what if your Personal Hotspot is not working on iPhone or iPad. Don’t need to worry we have the lists of solutions that you can try and fix your Hotspot issue.

Make sure your Personal Hotspot is ON!

It sounds obvious but you need to double-check if your Hotspot is turned on or not before moving forward. So, how to check your Hotspot is turned on or not,

• Open settings app on your iPhone or iPad
• Click on cellular
• Then click on Personal Hotspot
• Make sure the toggle is in the On position.

Now you should see a message underneath that says Now Discoverable, along with the name of your hotspot network.

While you are on the same tab make sure that your Hotspot Password is correct. You can change the hotspot password by tapping on Wi-Fi Password.

Check If APN Data is missing

Sometimes missing APN data can also be a culprit. If your Hotspot is not turning on then it could be because APN data is missing. If ones knows the APN codes one can add them by going to,

• Go to settings Click on cellular
• Next Click on cellular data options,
• Then tap on cellular networks, And then APN Settings
• Tap on APN in the Personal Hotspot section and type: internet
• Leave Username and Password fields empty.

Your device is now configured for tethering. Whenever you want to use it.

If Personal Hotspot is turning on but not working, Here’s how to fix that!

Check that cellular data is turned on. Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data and check that it is turned on. Again, if it is already turned on, turn it off and back on. This may also fix the problem

Restart your iPhone

Sometimes, all you need to do is simply Restart your device as Restarting your device might be helpful to clear some of the bugs and will definitely help you to deal with the issue. A normal restart is good where you have to switch off your device and again Restart it, but here we will suggest you do do a hard restart as it is more effective!

Here’s how to do that,

For home button iPhone

1. Press and hold the side button or the Sleep/Wake button on the top of your phone (depending on your model).
2. Drag the slider, And your iPhone will restart itself.

For iPhone without home button

1. Press and hold both the side button and either volume button until the slider appears on the screen.
2. Drag the slider And your iPhone will restart itself.

Check if your issue has been solved, if not then move to other troubleshooting solutions.

Disable and Enable cellular data

As we all know, personal Hotspot uses mobile cellular data to work properly and it’s Internet source is only cellular data. As the other devices connect to your personal hotspot and browse the web, they use the cellular data on your cell phone plan as a Network. Sometimes re-enabling Cellular Data solves some of the minor bugs/ glitches which causes the issue and Solves them.

• Go to settings then tap on cellular
• Toggle the switch ON of cellular data located at top of the screen.

Enable and Disable Airplane Mode

Airplane Mode disables Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and turns off the cell phone’s ability to connect to cellular networks. So, By enabling and disabling Airplane mode on your iPhone, you’re effectively restarting features like cellular connection, Wi-Fi connection, Wi-Fi calling and personal Hotspot too. Here’s how you can do that,

• Open iOS control center
•  You will see an airplane icon just toggle it on and off.

Check for carrier settings Update

As we know Apple’s releases regular updates on their software as well as carrier settings updates too for the betterment of their connectivity and to improve your iPhone’s ability to connect to your carrier’s network. So how to check that,

• Open your setting app on your iPhone
• Click on General, Then click on About
• A pop-up screen will appear within about fifteen seconds if the update is available.

If no pop-up appears, then a carrier settings update probably isn’t available.

Reset iPhone network settings

If you reset your network settings it will erase your cellular and APNs settings, so you’ll have to re-enter your passwords after the reset is complete. Keep in mind that this will also reset the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, VPN, and other APN settings on your iPhone to its system default.  So that all networks will start as new and this will definitely help you to solve the issue.

How to reset your network settings?

• Open your settings app
• Tap on general settings then tap on reset
• Now tap on Reset Network Settings.

Your iPhone will turn off, perform the reset, and turn back on. Resetting all Cellular settings to factory defaults could fix a complex software issue if iPhone personal hotspot is not working.

Reset your device to recovery mode

If the problem still exists, then one should go for advanced troubleshooting solutions i.e, you can restore your iOS device in Recovery Mode! Often said as the Final Resort

Recovery mode helps you to solve minor to major problems, so it can easily solve iPhone Personal Hotspot Not Working issues.

• Firstly, download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer(PC).
• Then run iTunes and plug in your iPhone or iPad to your computer.
• If a window pops up and says that you’re required to restore or update your iPhone, just follow the onscreen instructions to make it.

(Or you can force restart your device to put it in Recovery Mode and a pop up window will appear.)

Once connected, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and the Home button, in order to force restart. You must keep holding until you see the iPhone Recovery Mode screen. Please don’t release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. It will probably take about 10 seconds for the iPhone Recovery Mode screen to appear.

You will see the option to Restore or Update. Choose Update. iTunes will reinstall iOS without erasing your data.

• If your iPhone is stuck in Recovery Mode for more than 15 minutes and then the device exits from iPhone Recovery Mode, then, there may be a problem. Retry the process, but this time choose Restore instead. You will be in iPhone Restore Mode.
• Reset your device. If you had a backup either with iTunes or iCloud, you may be able to restore your old data from your backup.
• After the restore iPhone automatically startup itself.

Visit the Apple Store

If all of the solutions did not work for you then you have to visit the Apple store or contact Apple Support. They have specific trained persons to deal with such issues. It’s possible that an antenna inside your iPhone has become damaged, preventing you from using cellular data for a personal hotspot.

Conclusion

Your personal Hotspot is working again normally. Please let us know from which troubleshooting solutions you find the fix for iPhone Hotspot Not Working issue. Now you’ll know what to do next time the iPhone personal hotspot is not working!. Don’t be afraid of asking queries, we will definitely try to help you.