Q: remote hotspot failure unable to start personal hotspot

My iPad failed to initiate remote hotspot on my iPhone 6. I tried "Reset Network Settings" and "Reset all Settings" numerous times these few days, none of these attempts do the trick.

I suspect there is some inconsistency between registered device names in the iCloud, and possibility something messed up with the keychain. So I do the following:

1. Turn iPhone and iPad into flight mode first, eject the SIM as well, the intention is to prevent the device name sync to iCloud.

2. Do a "Reset Network Settings" on both iPhone and iPad ( General > Reset > Reset Network Settings ).

3. Change your iPhone and iPad's name according to your preference ( General > About > Name ).

4. Insert your SIM back to iPhone, and turn off flight mode.

5. Make sure you iPad and iPhone are connected properly to the internet via Wifi or Cellular connection.

6. Turn off keychain on both the iPhone and iPad ( iCloud > Keychain > Off, but before you do this, please make sure you remember your keychain security code, otherwise, you might have problem to turn keychain back on ).

7. Turn on keychain on both device again.

After doing the above steps, I could then properly do instant remote hotspot.

Maybe a subset of the above listed steps would do the trick as well, but I dare not doing any verification further since it is now working fine .

Hope this helps,

Ronald

Thanks for this guide.  I too went through several resets.

Your method did not work for me until I did a Reset All Settings at step 2 in addition to Reset Network Settings.  After doing that, in step 3 I made sure my new ipad and iphone names were unique names I have never used before.  Then both devices were able to connect.

Thanks for the help. Step 2 solved it for me - "Reset Network Settings". Now the hotspot feature works like a charm!

Here is a little background. I have an iPad Air (ATT cellular) and just purchased an iPhone 6 (Verizon). I was testing the Verizon Hotspot on my new iPhone and via wifi I could connect my MacBook Pro, my wife's iPad Air (Verizon cellular) just not my iPad. After resetting the network settings (on my iPad) and putting the iPad into airplane mode, I was able to successfully use the hotspot.

Now, when there is no wifi network and I'm using my iPad, I have a choice of using the hotspot for a connection, rather than paying ATT for connection.

Thanks again for your help.

Hello,

Not sure if anyone is still checking this post but here's what worked for me.

Equipment: iPhone 5 iOS 8.1

iPad Air iOS 8.1

(I've had the same problem on 8.0 and 8.0.1)

1) On the iPad I reset network settings.

2) Then I changed the name of my phone (on the phone).

3) Powered down both devices.

4) Reset network settings on iPad.

After that the hotspot appeared with the new name of the phone and connected seamlessly on the first attemp.

For what it's worth, I was able to get hotspot working by pairing my devices via Bluetooth and then restarting both devices. It appears the request goes through bluetooth and making the initial connection and approvong it added the corresponding devices to each device to allow future connections.

I wasn't aware that you could pair your iPhone to your iPad.

I have experienced this problem intermittently as well since the introduction of iOS 8.  I could not connect earlier, and I read this thread just now, so I changed the name of my iPhone, and voila, Personal Hotspot works again.

Definitely an iOS 8 bug that needs to be squashed....  Please iOS coders.... get busy.

This has started happening to me a lot since iOS8.  The workaround mentioned in this thread about renaming the iPhone in settings seems to be a temporary fix.  The iPad recognizes the hotspot but a few hours later it has the same problem and I have to rename the iPhone again.  I've had to rename the iPhone three times today!

Try enabling iCloud Keychain on both mobile device and Mac.

A mac really isn't relevant to the discussion.  This problem is about setting up a personal hotspot on an iPhone, and then getting an iPad to connect to it. When I'm standing in front of a board meeting and 50 people are staring at me trying to get a keynote presentation started, I really don't have 20 or 30 minutes to perform 6 or 8 steps mentioned above. Thus far the fastest workaround seems to be renaming the iPhone so that the hotspot gets a new name and appears as a new hotspot in the iPad's list of available networks. 

But keychain is enabled on both of my devices, for whatever it's worth.

This question has been posted in the category "using iPhone".  Providing a solution that tells us to do something with a mac (which we may not even have) is simply off topic.  Different o/s, you know.  If anyone here is actually having trouble creating a hotspot with their mac, it would be a good idea to post that issue under mac or the appropriate o/s. 

I apologize. I misunderstood the problem.  I thought it was in reference to an "instant hotspot", not manually connecting to a personal hotspot.

So you are trying to connect from an iPad to a personal hotspot on an iPhone but it won't work?  Have you tried connecting from any other device? Mac? PC? Mobile?  Do those other devices work?

And just to confirm, you do see your iPhone's wifi network on your iPad but it just won't connect when you select it?

In my case, I'm starting up a personal hotspot on the iPhone and trying to get the iPad to connect to it.  The reason most people do this is because they have a WiFi only iPad and the want to tether it to the iPhone to get 3G internet access. 

In my case, I'm a lecturer and use Keynote on the iPad.  I use the Keynote remote on the iPhone to advance through the slides, so I can walk around the room as I'm presenting (see this apple support article for details).  For this to work, the iPad must be on the same WiFi network (or linked via bluetooth) as the iPhone.  Creating a hotspot with the iPhone allows me to do this when there isn't another WiFi access point that both devices can join.

But after iOS8, here's the screen I'm getting when I try to connect to my iPhone's hotspot:

As you can see, the iPad shows my iPhone's hotspot (named "BGP IP3" in the image above) and even knows there is 3G available and can see the iPhone's battery level.  But it just can't join it!

The only way to make it work is to go into settings/general/about/name and rename the phone, say from "BGP IP3" to "BGP IP4".  If I do that, the new hotspot "BGP IP4" shows up in the iPad's list of available networks and will successfully connect to it.  Funnily enough, "BGP IP3" also continues to show up in the list, even though it shouldn't be available any more.

Unfortunately, this only works for as long as you stay connected.  When I pack up the presentation and move to another room to give another presentation, the iPad disconnects from the hotspot and won't reconnect.  I have to go through the whole renaming process on the iPhone to get the iPad to see a "new" hotspot and reconnect.

My PC has never had a problem connecting to the hotspot.  I suspect the iPad (4th gen) is just not feeling the love for iOS8.  I have an iPad air but haven't tested it yet.  I'll do that and report back if anything interesting happens.