IPhone Tethering Not Working After iOS 14 Update

Having same issue with GL-iNet router running OpenWRT. I use this to work from our holiday home in the Highlands and have been doing this for several years. Local LAN connectivity is fine, as is DNS but no internet connectivity via USB tethering. Having to use my backup Samsung A6 instead. Been an iPhone user since the 3 but unless this is sorted this will have to be my last 🙁 Lost almost an entire day figuring out it was the phone that was my issue!

I spoke with Apple support about 2 weeks ago and they said they aren't going to fix it.

I then contacted GL-Inet and they sent me this reply:

"I believe this will be fixed in the future but I am not sure when, it

may take several months or longer. For urgent use I suggest changing

to another phone."

I'm still amazed at how Synology was able to develop an updated driver in a week or so for the RT2600ac, and everybody else has not yet figured it out. Synology uses a Linux-based OS for the RT2600ac so, I shouldn't be much different than any other Linux-based OS.

Update... on ubuntu detects the ethernet usb adapter, dhcp works but no route to internet, on windows it doesen't detect the ethernet adapter but after installing itunes it appears in device manager. The internet woks on windows with iphone tethering on usb ios 14.1 but there's one catch, if you close itunes the adapter disconnects and dissapears from device manager. Haven't tested on macos an no itunes on ubuntu.

conclusion... still works on usb but with a big but just with itunes

I have contacted Tech Support.

I use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and also have used 18.04 LTS tethering to the pre-14.2 OS with no issue.

Checking on my system, it clearly is NOT getting a route for the path... I see an IP address assignment, Netmask, and Broadcast address, but no gateway address.

My windows desktop appears to be working w/o issue, using my iPhone X w/ 14.2.

I wonder if these guys test their setups...if they did, they would've easily found this issue.

STILL waiting for an update from these guys...should charge them my $175/hr fee for troubleshooting this crap.

You should check out this about troubleshooting: github libimobiledevice libimobiledevice issues 1038

Packet analysis shows how Win10 systems are sending packet types that were not necessary for IOS 13 USB tethering, and the services that support those are at least in part now obfuscated. The appearance is that the new IOS 14 tethering is engineered to behave in the way we see and to be difficult to establish without a full tethering specification at the packet level from Apple.

Was that information readily available to the devs for various Linux distros and firmware? I don't know the answer, other than that it appears at the moment that just one Linux-based networking device has a patch to allow tethering with an iOS 14 device.

Finding the issue is not difficult. Fixing the issue appears to have a higher degree of difficulty. I've done a small amount of packet inspection myself, and while I got results, I found it neither easy nor fun. If you have skills to lend to the effort in the page the search terms I gave leads to, I am sure they would appreciate the assist. I'd appreciate having a wider range of Linux devices able to use iOS 14 tethering.

Thank you for the feedback...Who was the Linux vendor and where is their patch...I can grab a sample of the exchange to look for the same pattern.

I’ll look at the GitHub article.

Clearly iOS changed their behavior.

I have the Same problem, updates have not helped, now I get ads for new iPhone. Now I use a Samsung phone to tether. Sounds like a plot to sell more phones and cell companies to sell more hotspots. Control communication in time of crisis, you control people.

I went ahead and ordered a Synology RT2600ac from Amazon Warehouse for $130. I got it up and running and confirmed that tethering works with iOS 13 but not iOS 14. I contacted their support and asked them for the hotpatch, applied it this morning, and now tethering works in iOS 14. My thoughts are if Synology can do that, other vendors, and the wrt community in general, should be able to also.

The problem has been fixed for my router.

I use GL.iNET AR750 and the small yellow 300M mini and both now work.

You have to install the last beta firmware update from the manufacturer site.

https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/usb-tethering-broken-in-ios-14-fixed-nov-26-2020/12342

Their routers are quite cheap and this solution can be useful for who, like me, need this feature for work.

The GL.iNet routers are a good option right now because of this iOS 14 situation. You can pick up the GL-AR150 model for about $25. Tether your phone to that, then take an ethernet cable from the LAN port and plug it into the WAN port of your main router to give internet to your whole network. Just make sure your IP addresses are set up right. The 150 comes preset at 192.168.8.1, so if your main router is set at 192.168.1.1 you're all set.

I can confirm this problem, my fritzbox 4040 running with openwrt stop working too. My Manjaro Linux PC cant tether through the iPhone either, but latop with Windows 10 has no problems with tethering.

I can confirm that I can no longer tether via USB to my Synology RT2600ac after iOS 14 update. Also tested on iOS 14.0.1 and it still does not work. It is visible in SRM (Synology Router Manager), and it also appears to give an IP but it won't work. Tried countless configuration options to no avail. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

I’m currently using the latest 14.2 beta on my 11 pro max, and USB tethering with my dd-wrt router is still not working.

I can confirm that Synology has already figured it out and they have a minor unofficial patch available for the RT2600ac that fixes the problem with iPhone USB tethering with iOS 14.