Personal Hotspot - can't connect with bluetooth, and only works with wifi if bluetooth turned off.

Question

Level 1

15 points

Personal Hotspot - can't connect with bluetooth, and only works with wifi if bluetooth turned off.

I use my iPhone Personal Hotspot for my Macbook Pro when on the road. Recently I've found two annoying issues involving bluetooth.

1) Can't use PH via bluetooth. It's not possible to pair the devices as per the instructions here If Personal Hotspot is not working on your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) – Apple Support (AU) because the iPhone just connects for a fraction of a second and then disconnects again.

2) Can connect via wifi, but *only if bluetooth is off* on the computer. If BT is on, it just says that the connection failed. That's a pain, because I can't use any other BT devices while I'm using the hotspot.

This all started after I got my new MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) which came with Monterey (12.3.1). Not sure if it could be a problem with the new hardware, or the new OS, or a combination of the two. iPhone is a 12 (mini) running 15.4.1.

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on May 9, 2022 10:41 PM

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Answer 1

Iafeef

Level 7

25,879 points

May 9, 2022 11:06 PM in response to Paul_C_G

Hey there,

did you follow the instructions that in the article that you come from?

If you're still unable to connect to Personal Hotspot with Bluetooth

On your devices, turn bluetooth off and back on:

On your iOS or iPadOS devices, go to Settings > Bluetooth and turn Bluetooth off and back on again.
On your Mac, click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar or click Bluetooth in Control Centre, then turn Bluetooth off and back on again.
On your PC, choose Settings, click the Bluetooth icon , then turn Bluetooth off and back on again.

If you still can't connect, follow these steps:

Unpair your device:

- On the iPad or iPod touch that needs to connect to Personal Hotspot, tap Settings > Bluetooth. Tap the Info icon next to the device that's providing Personal Hotspot, then tap Forget this Device.
- On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth. Select the device that's providing Personal Hotspot, then click the Remove button .
- On your Windows PC, click the Bluetooth icon in the Notification area. Select "Show Bluetooth devices" and select the device that provides Personal Hotspot. Click Remove, then click OK.

Restart all your devices.
Pair your devices and try again to connect to Personal Hotspot.

If so and you still can't connect, contact Apple Support to get help with your iPhone

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Answer 2

Paul_C_G Author

Level 1

15 points

May 9, 2022 11:19 PM in response to Iafeef

Thanks Lafeef. Yes, I've been through all of those things.

Your last step is to contact Apple Support to get help with my iPhone. However, I've just checked and I can connect to the iPhone Personal Hotspot via Bluetooth from my iPad, so I expect that means I need help with the Macbook Pro rather than the iPhone. I'll give it a try.

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Answer 3

Paul_C_G Author

Level 1

15 points

May 10, 2022 12:19 AM in response to Paul_C_G

Okay, I've just got off a chat with Apple Support. Turns out this is a known issue with Macs hotspotting using Monterey. We have to wait for a fix in a future software update.

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