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How to use hotspot if my iPhone can connected to number of WiFi's and have problem with ISP

How do I provide hotspot if my iPhone can connected to number of WiFi's that doesn't connect to internet? I had problem with my ISP and couldn't when I connected to my hotspot it just tried to use the Wifi connection and not my cellular data path. Is there a way to force it not to use WiFi?


Posted on Jul 1, 2022 7:58 AM

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Posted on Jul 1, 2022 8:07 AM

Your personal hotspot uses your cellular connection to provide internet to other devices. Your cellular carrier is responsible for your hotspot. They have to support it before you can use it. If you have wi-fi turned on for your iPhone, it will connect to wi-fi. If the iPhone will not switching to cellular when you turn hotspot on, you need to contact your cellular carrier to ensure that your hotspot has been activated by them.

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Jul 1, 2022 8:07 AM in response to JBcommunity

Your personal hotspot uses your cellular connection to provide internet to other devices. Your cellular carrier is responsible for your hotspot. They have to support it before you can use it. If you have wi-fi turned on for your iPhone, it will connect to wi-fi. If the iPhone will not switching to cellular when you turn hotspot on, you need to contact your cellular carrier to ensure that your hotspot has been activated by them.

Jul 1, 2022 8:04 AM in response to JBcommunity

I'm sorry, your post is a bit confusing.


Personal Hotspot shares your data internet connection to other devices. It is not used by your iPhone, but instead is provided by your iPhone for other devices to use.


If your iPhone is using a WiFi network, it will disconnect from it, when Personal Hotspot is activated and another device connects to it.




Jul 2, 2022 7:53 AM in response to Phil0124

Hi Phil,

I’m sorry about that. I use my iPhone as a backup connection to internet if I have problem with my ISP service. Although Verizon has been very good but things happen once a while and I have used hotspot in the past when I have lost access.

I recently upgraded my iPhone to 13 pro(blem) and the other day we lost internet connection. I could access internet with my iPhone when I turned off my Wi-Fi using my cellular data. I wanted to connect other devices to internet using my hotspot and for that I had to turn my Wi-Fi on. That is where I had problem because my iPhone would connect to one of my access points throughout the house and I think my internet connection would use access point rather than cellular data path. So my question is “ how do I make sure that my hotspot is using cellular data path without having to turn off all the access points or configuring the phone to forget about my access points network.

Jul 2, 2022 8:10 AM in response to JBcommunity

As soon as you turn on Personal Hotspot by turning on "Allow Others to Join", it should disconnect you from your wi-fi and connect you to cellular data. It then uses your iPhone as the router/network for other devices to connect to the hotspot.


Just to check, while connected to wi-fi, go to Settings>Personal Hotspot and turn on that Allow switch. Watch the status bar at the top of the iPhone and you should see the wi-fi fan go away and should see the cellular connection. It will show one of the cellular data connections, i.e. 4G, LTE, 5G, whichever you get connected to. Then your other devices will connect to your iPhone, by using the name of your phone for the network, and the Wi-Fi Password that you have under Personal Hotspot.

Jul 2, 2022 11:31 AM in response to JBcommunity

JBcommunity wrote:

Hi Phil,
I think my internet connection would use access point rather than cellular data path. So my question is “ how do I make sure that my hotspot is using cellular data path without having to turn off all the access points or configuring the phone to forget about my access points network.

Hi, No, this cannot happen like that.


As I said, the iPhone will only share your data connection. It cannot share its Wi-Fi connection over Personal Hotspot at all.

Again, when you turn on Personal Hotspot, by switching on the “Allow others to join” switch and a device actually connects to the Hotspot, the iPhone will immediately disconnect from the Wi-Fi network it is using and begin sharing its own cellular data connection.


You can verify this by turning Personal Hotspot on, and connecting another device to it. You should see the Wi-Fi icon at the top disappear and be replaced by the cellular connection type.




How to use hotspot if my iPhone can connected to number of WiFi's and have problem with ISP

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