My personal Hotspot not working between my iPhone 4 and iPad2 ? Suggestions to fix?

I have a similar problem. I upgraded my iPhone 4S to iOS 6 and the hotspot works fine with my MacBook Pro and my iPad 1 so I know it's not an issue with the hotspot itself or the iPhone. Just after upgrading to iOS 6 I also purchased a new iPad (iPad 3?) and it has refused to connect to the hotspot. Other wifi connections work fine for the new iPad. It sees the hotspot and seems to partially connect to it (it appears as the Wifi connection, but the little spinner never stops in the Wifi Settings tab and the connection is unusable.

So I don't know if this is an iPad (3) hotspot issue or an iOS 6 issue (the new iPad was on iOS6 from the start).

I may head over to the local Apple store to see what they have to say.

So here's my solve path for the personal hotspot missing issue after upgrading to iOS6 from iOS 5.1.1. This is on a iPhone 4S. I have the 4GB data plan plus tethering (personal hotspot).

Summary of fix

- The issue wasnt the phone. It was fixed by Level 2 AT&T by messing with network/account settings. My plan didnt change to 5GB - the 4GB plan I was on is the same now its working. I didnt get a new SIM card, or a new phone. So my suggestion if you face this problem is call AT&T, and escalate the problem up through their support.

Steps Tried

- Turn phone off and on

- Reset network settings

- Restore phone using itunes back to factory defaults. Setup as a new phone.

- Restore phone and recover backup

- Do a reset on the phone (hold down top button and front button).

- Called AT&T and was transferred to Apple. Apple escalated up to a Level 2 support person. Transferred back to AT&T Level 2 support (who fixed the problem).

- Note - apple support and AT&T support apparently cannot be on the same call at the same time (some bogus rule). So they will transfer you back and forth but cant be on at the same time.

- Initially AT&T Level 1 said it was Apple problem (a punt - they couldnt work out how to fix). Apple Level 1 said it was AT&T's problem, so its important to get to Level 2 so they actually try to fix.

So like I said at the top, the key is getting AT&T to fix your account, not the phone issue. They will ask you to turn the phone off, then back on a few times, then reset network settings again. It was the network settings reset that finally fixed it for me, after they monkeyed with account settings a few times.

Good luck!

I have resolved my issue with the iPad (3) and iPhone hotspot. I don't know exactly what resolved it, but you might consider one or both of these things. I figured that before I went to the Apple Store I should best consider the iPad as a computer for a minute, so I did two things: 1) powered it off and on, and 2) Reset the Network Settings (Settings->General->Reset)

After doing this I reconnected to my normal WiFi network and then switched to the Hotspot and it now worked properly. I switched back to the house WiFi, went out of range, reconnected to the Hotspot and it continues to operate. For the moment, I'm declaring success.

If you haven't tried these steps, it's worth a shot. Perhaps some iOS5 network data prevented the iOS6 connection from being properly established. Just a WAG, but it worked for me.

Good luck!

- dave

Sadly my victory was short-lived. Attempting to reconnect my iPad to the hotspot again failed to work. I hope to corner an Apple rep one of these days. My current workaround, which has proven quite successful is to use Bluetooth to connect to the hotspot (rather than wifi). Works all the time and seems fast enough.

Certainly a frustrating problem!

Dave