Personal hotspot broken on iPhone XR

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Personal hotspot broken on iPhone XR

iOS 15.0 as well as 15.0.1 seem to break my personal hotspot for other Apple-devices. Strangely, it worked without a problem with an iPad (running iPadOS 15.0) until I noticed it didn’t work with my MacBook. To be precise, the personal hotspot as a router seemed to work… the MacBook connected to the personal hotspot and got a IP-Adress, but just didn’t send any packages out to the web or vice versa - in other words: no internet. So I did some troubleshooting: changed the iPhones name, deleted any saved information on the MacBook, reseted the network settings on the iPhone… but the problem stayed. At some point i got curious about my mobile provider and thought, maybe they changed some carrier settings or blocked the personal hotspot function for my number. But that wasn’t the case either: checked for carrier updates and tested the hotspot-function with other SIM-cards in my XR (also my SIM in other phones) and all SIMs worked as a hotspot, aslong as they weren’t in my XR. After that I saw the Update for iOS 15.0.1 - couldn’t find any changelogs about the described issue, but gave it a chance anyway… After the update to 15.0.1, not even my iPad could connect anymore - with exactly the same behavior. I doublechecked every VPN, private relay, DNS or Proxy… but no chance after all. My Tip: just wait for 15.1

And to whoever reads this: I am open to any tips to solve this issue :D

iPhone XR, iOS 15

Posted on Oct 4, 2021 2:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

SravanKrA

Community+ 2024

Level 10

411,356 points

Oct 4, 2021 2:23 AM in response to vipinonen

Use these steps first

Restart the iPhone or iPad that provides Personal Hotspot and the other device that needs to connect to Personal Hotspot. Make sure that you have the latest version of iOS. On the iPhone or iPad that provides Personal Hotspot, go to Settings > General > Reset, then tap Reset Network Settings.

If Personal Hotspot is not working on your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi

The Hotspot is a carrier-specific feature. Contact your carrier, if it is not appearing on your device.

Meanwhile...

Check the following

Network coverage and stability
Data Balance
On your windows (See if WiFi Auto Joins is enabled)
Also, check if you have any stronger WiFi signal around your computer.

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Answer 2

vipinonen Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2021 5:52 AM in response to SravanKrA

Not helpful but thanks for your respone. I am totally aware of the dependency with my carrier - and I already described, why , in my case, it doesn’t have to do with it. Saw your same answer already on other posts, also determined to the iOS 15 Beta Version. Which is kind of odd - Apple seems to have heard about it long time… aslong as we don’t have a SIM-Slot in our MacBooks, we need the personal hotspot to work. Or a mobile AirPort 😂

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Answer 3

vipinonen Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2021 11:50 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Hi again :)

So, just finished testing after an other call with my carrier. They reset the SIM and, me on my side, reset the network settings, restarted the phone, changed the iPhones name, changed the password for the personal hotspot, logged out of the iCloud account… still: any device can connect to the personal hotspot over my iPhone and gets an IP-Adress, but none can access the internet over it. Tried the SIM in a 4G mobile router, and it worked. From my point of view, carrier and SIM is fine - there is no way the problem isn‘t correlated with my iPhone XR / iOS 15. The problem just started with the update to iOS 15. Or am I missing something?

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Answer 4

vipinonen Author

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4 points

Oct 5, 2021 12:04 AM in response to vipinonen

by the way, this problem still seem to affect multiple people:

https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/684727?login=true&page=1#690230022

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2021 6:13 AM in response to vipinonen

vipinonen wrote:

Not helpful but thanks for your respone. I am totally aware of the dependency with my carrier - and I already described, why , in my case, it doesn’t have to do with it.

Nothing you can do on your end tells you what may or may not have happened with your carrier's provisioning. If you tested the SIMs in phones that were not iPhones, that also wouldn't tell you everything about the provisioning of your iPhone. I suggest that you contact your carrier and have them delete the feature, wait while you power cycle the phone and then add it back.

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Answer 6

vipinonen Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2021 12:59 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thanks for your input! I tested it with different iPhones. My SIM worked without a problem on those other iPhones, running iOS 15 as well. Also, neither of the other SIMs seem to be able to tether on my XR. This brought me to the conclusion, that the problem should be related to my device. Had - some hours before your response - a quick chat with the carrier, who just told me that „everything should be fine“ with my SIM. A changed IMEI can’t be the cause after an OS-update. Anyway I’ll give it a try for sure and will reply asap! Maybe I wasn’t clear enough on the phone with the carrier.

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Personal hotspot broken on iPhone XR

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