​​ ​

The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.


You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site. 


We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.


Personal Hot Spot

My iPhone Personal Hotspot is not connecting on my pC laptop. any tricks?

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Aug 14, 2022 6:29 PM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 23, 2022 9:56 AM

If you have a VPN on your iPhone, turn it off, turn on the iPhone hotspot and see if your pc will now connect. I had the same problem. I tried everything I found on the internet for a fix, plus multiple calls to Apple and AT&T (my carrier). Somewhere along the line with upgrading the add on VPN was stopping the iPhone hotspot from connecting to the internet. My pc would show "connected, secure, no internet.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 23, 2022 9:56 AM in response to leroydouglas

If you have a VPN on your iPhone, turn it off, turn on the iPhone hotspot and see if your pc will now connect. I had the same problem. I tried everything I found on the internet for a fix, plus multiple calls to Apple and AT&T (my carrier). Somewhere along the line with upgrading the add on VPN was stopping the iPhone hotspot from connecting to the internet. My pc would show "connected, secure, no internet.

Oct 11, 2022 7:05 AM in response to Mr. Fazookus

I use iPhone as a hotspot for my Windows PC daily and found it takes many resets and toggling on/off for both iPhone hotspot and PC's wifi before the PC can see the hotspot in the list of wifi networks. Sometimes I just have to walk away in frustration for 20 minutes or so and then come back and try again. There seems problem in the iPhone or its OS since the PC sees all other wifi spots without fail every single time.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Personal Hot Spot

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.