Hotspot not working on OS 13.1.2

So, I have just spent nearly 3.5 hours on and off the phone with Apple support in Australia. I have an Xr - but my problems as per prior posts - are very similar to all the other models. It appears the "Personal Hotspot" slider no longer exists with IOS 13.1.2 - instead you have "Allow Others to Join" (similar to comments above). Before I took the following steps I am not sure that the "Allow Others to Join" was working properly and family sharing was also showing. Family Sharing is no longer showing after taking the following steps and my hotspot now works. Although I have only just done this - not sure if it will last for hours, but I did let my phone go into sleep mode (I didn't turn it fully off) and the hotspot stayed connected.

These are the steps I took (it might be best to do this with an Apple Support person in case I have missed something):

1. Backed-up my iPhone
2. Restored my iPhone (back to factory settings - hence the need to back-up first!)
3. When it restored - I set it up as a New Phone - I didn't log into iTunes and use the back-up straight away.
4. Select "Don't transfer Apps and Data"
5. Select "Forgot or Don't have an Apple ID"
6. Select "Set up later in Settings"
7. After setting up the other functions i.e. Siri etc. I checked the phone and had the "Allow Others to Join" option. After sliding it on, we tested this on my laptop and the hotspot worked.
8. From iTunes on your computer - select Restore Back-Up (we didn't do this from the New screen - we did it from the usual iTunes screen.
9. My hotspot is working (yay!). Will keep the chat posted if I have the intermittent problems and dropping out like some of the other feedback.

Fingers crossed this works and good luck everyone else.

Can confirm we also found it's a problem with DHCP in the iOS.

After connecting to the hotspot, open a command prompt window ("black box" = cmd.exe program) on the PC and run this command (type it after the C:\users\yourname> then hit enter)

ipconfig /all

Find the chunk of info that belongs to your wireless adapter

You will note that probably the IPv4 address given there is the one that you use for your office or home network, and that gateway is empty. It's normal that the PC will try and maintain the same IP address for you "hi, this is my IP I want to use", but the DHCP server on a different network (unless it coincidentally has the same configuration and that IP is not in use by another user) should reply back with "sorry, I can't let you use that IP, here's another one". That is not happening in this case - something broke this communication in v 13

As mentioned, theasy fix on Windows is to run each of these commands, hitting enter after typing each one:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

What this does it make Windows NOT attempt to reuse the same IP, and instead start the conversation with "hi, can I have an IP?" to which the DHCP server will dutifully give you a new one in the correct subnet.

For example, in our case, the PC wanted to reuse 192.168.2.109 but the DHCP service on the phones gives IPs in 172.20.10.x

For those who fixed it this way, would appreciate if you can answer:

• ipad or iphone and what IP range did you get (I am wanting to know if 172.20.10.x is same on all ?)
• how long is the lease ? (after connection succeeded, do ipconfig /all and look at the lease obtained/expired times)
• is it a one-time fix or you have to release/renew again if you connected back to office/home wifi then to phone hotspot again or at a later time after the lease expired?

"It has the new release 13.3.1 and it’s working great"

It could work for the first connection okay. What you need to do is connect your laptop VIA WIFI to work and/or a home network that does not use the same subnet 17.20.x.x. i.e. if your home +/- work network uses a range in 192.168.x.x or in 10.x.x.x. . Connect to that network and check a few pages on the internet. Now disconnect from that wifi and connect your laptop back up to using the hotspot from your phone and see if your internet works.

The issue is that the laptop will try to use the same IP it last connected on [whether that be 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x.]: "Hello, this is the IP I'd *like* to use, can I connect?" The bug is that the phone's DHCP server SHOULD BE saying back "sorry, wrong subnet, use this IP in 172.20.x.x instead" <- BUT this isn't happening.

BROKEN? The workaround is that you have to have your laptop send a DHCP release/renew command to the phone's DHCP server to get it working. Basically, you're forcing your laptop to instead say "I don't have a preferred IP, please assign me one"

To do this open a command prompt (cmd) windows and type each command by itself hitting enter after each:

 ipconfig /release
 ipconfig /renew

Extra work on your part. My staff confirm they need to do it every time they connect to phone if they have connected to work in the interim.

So now it's working on phone? Great! Now notice that if you now get off the hotspot and switch back to your wifi on a different subnet, you have no problem. Your laptop again still does the "My preferred IP is 172.20.x.x., can I use it?" and your home or work network replies back dutifully with "no but you can use 192.168.x.x. (or 10.x.x.x)" It's not a Windows problem because the DHCP conversation goes on A-OK between laptop and other networks.

If SchizoidInformer and a few others can confirm you can move your laptop back and forth from home+/-work and phone hotspot repeatedly WITHOUT using release/renew, we'll all be satisfied it's finally fixed.

An other workaround is less than ideal: Set a static IP in 172.20.x.x on your wifi adapter. This will only useful if your other wifi networks use the same range. With this method, your laptop is saying "I ONLY want to use this IP".

Finally, you may be able to set a static IP for the "known network" wifi connection belonging to your hotpot. This is only recently available on later Windows 10 versions. i.e. rather than a static IP at the adpater level acting on ALL wifi networks, it would be specific to the phone hotspot wifi network only.

Resetting my network settings on my iPhone fixed this for me. Before that the hotspot wouldn't work through wifi, bluetooth, or cable!

Very frustrating problem, I'm glad the reset worked. For folks that haven't tried this yet: Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.

Same issue on my XR. However I did get to work but the way I got it to work is not ideal.

it seems that the hotspot goes away when the phone locks so I have to turn off the auto-lock off and also leave the personal hotspot under settings as the foreground application. I also have to have my phone charging. Doing this I was able to keep connected for 8-10 hours a day for 5 days. With the auto-lock on or if the hotpot under settings goes to background the connection dies shortly afterwards.

i’m hoping Apple will get this corrected soon as it kills the battery quickly plus creates a security hole as the hotspot password is displayed on the screen.

Not sure this will help you and it’s a little painful in that you have to reset your Touch ID and log back into all the apps that use Touch ID using your password but this is what I did and it resolved my problem.

Go to settings/general/reset/reset all settings.

You won’t lose any contacts or data but it will reset your wallpaper and other settings generally go back to the factory defaults.

But like I said it fixed my hot spot problems c

Hi. Ive had all the same problems as everyone else has described here with hotspot connection problems with my laptop, firetv stick etc. IOS 13.1.3 currently.

Up until right now I was unable to connect to the phone hotspot on my laptop without using a USB cable so I tried the

1. ipconfig /release
2. ipconfig /renew

which allowed me to connect to the wifi hotspot initially, but as others have said this was only a one time fix and if I switched off the hotspot the laptop would not reconnect properly.

But, I have now seemed to be able to fix things (with the connection to my laptop at least) by simply changing the WIFI "Auto-Join Hotspot" setting to Automatic rather than Ask to Join

My laptop now reconnects to the hotspot even if I move the phone out of range and then come back within range!

I still need to check whether my other devices will connect successfully but would be interested to hear if this simple setting change makes any difference for anyone else?

Doing the "Reset All Settings" worked for me, after resetting network failed and the static address became cumbersome to re-enter every time. Only caveat is that when it becomes disconnected, I have to open the Personal Hotspot settings on my iPhone before it will re-connect. Don't have to change anything or toggle on/off, just keep the screen up while it connects. Still a pain and hope it works as it used to. I live and work remote and hotspots are the only way I get service.

Well that's Apple.. Even such trivial thing like HOTSPOT is buggy after "DARK side" upgrade. :-)

Here is workaround.

As DHCP on HOTSPOT apearently stopped work Do this:

Turn off "obtain IP autamtically"

Enter manually any IP from this range: 172.20.10.2 - 172.20.255.254

subnet mask 255.255.0.0

Gateway 172.20.10.1

Enter manually DNS server: 8.8.8.8

alternative server: 8.8.4.4

You’re welcome Libertee23!

Now we need Apple to step up and fix their iOS 13.1 and up HotSpot DHCP server; it’s busted!

Windows CMD Prompt:

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

Google it for other operating systems. They all have a similar procedure to refresh an IP address configuration; although discussing up thread with Charo1973, Roku doesn’t provide an easy way to accomplish this!

Yeah, iOS network reset and reconfiguration was getting annoying, so was fully resetting the iOS device, and then only to have the issue return later was getting very annoying!

A simple IP address refresh while connected to the busted iOS Personal HotSpot fixes it quickly, every time.

Come on Apple, we need a fix already! This thread is almost 20 days old now!

No response from Apple yet.

Release and renew IP address does work to get a connection. That has to be repeated pretty much each time the HotSpot is used. Something is wrong with the DHCP server in iOS 13.1 and up; not giving out proper IP connection settings on first connection; refreshing IP address while connected to HotSpot does fix it for that session.

This worked for me :

What I needed to do on my Mac was to turn off

WiFi (make sure you turn off the Hot spot on the iPhone as well).

Open up System Preferences->Network, select Wi-Fi and then click

the "Advanced..." button. It should show a list of preferred networks.

Delete the on related to your iPhone hotspot, and click okay.

Then, enable the iPhone hotspot, turn on the Mac's WiFi and rejoin the

iPhone.

One thing to note, if you may need to temporarily uncheck automatically

join networks until the process is complete, i.e. uncheck Automatically join this

network".

Worked for me and my hotspot, via WiFi began working again.

If you're able to connect to the hotspot but internet isn't working, this solved the issue for me

"While connected to the iPhone Hotspot:

7) In the Network and Sharing center, in the “view your active networks” section; click the network (blue text, something to the effect of…) “Wireless Connection (iPhone)”

8) You’ll see that IPV4 shows “no internet”, while IPV6 shows “Internet”

9) Open an elevated command prompt (run as admin)

10) Run the following commands (do not reboot as suggested by the CMD);

netsh winsock reset

netsh int ip reset

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

ipconfig /flushdns

11) Same as step 7, only now you should see that both IPv4 & IPv6 are pulling IPs, & have internet."

source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250721256

Had same issue. GO TO CONTROL CENTER. HOLD DOWN THE WIFI TAB. THIS WILL GIVE THE HOT SPOT OPTION.

GUYS!!! The reset all setting works for me. Don't worry about data it's not deleted