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iPhone mobile hotspot prevents WiFi from turning on and phone needs to be rebooted

I have my phone setup like a normal person would that wants to share their hotspot with their family. When I was on Android this was not a complicated issue. I would turn on my hotspot when I want them to use it and turn it off when I don't want them to. Since switching to Apple though, the hotspot seems to enable itself on it's own when their iPads search for it, which is multiple times a day in the truck when I take them to school. In theory, this is fine...except that some days when I get to work, my phone refuses to turn on WiFi and gives me the message "Enabling Wi-Fi will disconnect personal hotspot users". There are no devices connected to my hotspot at this time and I try to hit the option to enable the WiFi, but when the prompt goes away, nothing changes. My hotspot is set as not discoverable and no devices are connected to it, but the WiFi refuses to turn on. I try to enable and disable the hotspot discovery, but it still won't turn on the WiFi! Finally as a last resort, I tend to reboot my phone and then the WiFi works fine.


Today I went a little further and tried to completely kill all settings in my hotspot while it's broken. I shut off family sharing, maximize compatibility, and allow others to join. Even with all of these settings 100% off, it still refuses to turn on the bleeping WiFi. You know...with my Galaxy, I could be on Wifi and share that WiFi through my hotspot, but on Apple, you can only have WiFi on OR hotspot...


After completion of making this post, I accidentally stumbled on a solution for this which should not be required. I accidentally clicked on airplane mode (yes I feel like an idiot for not thinking of that sooner) and after turning airplane mode back off, then the WiFi was on. Anyway, please fix this Apple...


On an unrelated note, WiFi calling sucks (if you didn't know that already). I get lots of failed calls where it doesn't even try to call, like it can't make a connection. This is another area which is really failing me as my Galaxy was great at it, just not always great at switching from WiFi to LTE while on a call.


iPhone 13 Pro

Posted on Dec 3, 2021 6:23 AM

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5 replies

Dec 3, 2021 6:30 AM in response to Tech2008

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

iPhone mobile hotspot prevents WiFi from turning on and phone needs to be rebooted

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