iPhone Hotspot keeps disconnecting

I have an I phone 13 pro max and was facing this issue! All I did was turned on the hotspot and turned off the option maximize compatibility and connected my hotspot and it works well! Try this and hope it helps all those who are facing this issue.

Hi guys .. your pain is mine too . After wasting many hours of testing.. Apple suc ks .. try this

Settings - Personal Hotspot - Maximise Compatibility.

and in your wireless adapter on your computer. Go to properties- configuration- advanced- wireless mode and select IEEE 802.11b/g/n

much more stable and connected faster, albeit at not the fastest wifi speeds… Apple perhaps has perpetually tweak in the future to wireless version 5 or 6 standards

Looks like my previous response was censored/deleted, so I'll try again.

The company I work for asked me (okay, forced me) to use an iPhone more than two years ago. Right away, I also noticed that after about 15 minutes or so, the iPhone stopped broadcasting its SSID. I really didn't connect the dots until a few days ago. "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting its name (SSID)" seemed like a logical next step. Well, it is working.

For more than 12 years, there's been a lot of discussion about whether hiding the SSID "helps" with Wi-Fi security. I think the Apple engineers probably thought so and got a two-for-one with potential power savings. The old iPhone batteries are an Achilles heel in the phone design.

In addition, I suspect that in the MAC OS, that "Connection to hidden SSID networks" is turned on by default.

Apple is notorious for not fixing Windows bugs unless the European Union brings financial heat. USB-C anybody? I suspect that this bug isn't ever going to be fixed.

It is the same for me when connecting my Win10 laptop wirelessly to the 13 mini, disconnecting radomly every few minutes. But it does work reliably via USB cable. Annoyingly you have to have iTunes installed for this to work (why???).

It works wirelessly with my iPad aswell. In fact, it works so good, that it drains the phone's battery overnight, if I forget to turn off wi-fi on the iPad. So much for disabling the hotspot if there's no traffic ...

Oh, and another one, which does not really belong to this subsection, but anyway ... As of iOS 17, I cannot connect to my car's bluetooth anymore. Yes, it's an old BMW, but still, a month ago the thing was working flawlessly. S#tshow.

Finally after looking for days how to solve this I can share what worked for me. This is for when iphone was dropping personal hotspot with my pc over cable. I reset the settings of ethernet card on MY PC. Reseting iphone network settings didint work, even factory reset didint help. So I went to the Ethernet connection that my iphone created and I choosed reset network, that more or less wiped all the settings of PC network card and it worked. Hope it will work for you guys.

I can add that for example different iphone was working with my PC but my iphone had that issues. So I think it had to "start over" with fresh settings on PC.

Hello! Updating your Windows PC driver with the newest version by manually downloading and installing it has helped me. For Windows 11 I used this one https://www.intel.de/content/www/de/de/products/sku/130293/intel-wifi-6-ax201-gig/downloads.html

I FIXED IT!!!

Go to Settings

Click on Personal Hotspot

Turn OFF "Maximize Compatibility"

It works perfectly now and has not disconnected and I have even used it while being on the phone.

Hope this helps!

I think I have found a real solution to the hotspot dropping everything. Don’t tell anyone that works for Apple or they will find a way to patch this and it won’t work anymore. Go to your setting->display&brightness->autolock->never. The. Go to settings->personal hotspot->allow others to join toggle on. Set your phone down and leave it alone. Plug it up if you can be because this will drain the battery kind of fast. I tried everything else, reset network setting and that was more of a headache than it was worth.

You need to de-select the “Maximise compatibility” option. That worked for me. Even with Low Power Mode on, it will stay connected.

Disable the “Maximise compatibility” option

turning off the Maximize compatibility setting for the hotspot—on the phone. Thanks to Jayp0817 for the solution

Dunno... Too many responses on this thread to be of any value....

What am *I* going to do?

• Stop using an iPhone as a hotspot (Thanks, 🍎),
• get a real WiFi instead, (i.e. continue using the tp-link I had in the past, even though it is "only" LTE), and have a STABLE connection.
• Forget about an Apple device to be a reliable hotspot.

My experience with Android devices acting as hotspots is 1000x better, but I'll go with a mobile hotspot from a reputable supplier instead of reactivating my Samsung Galaxy S6 (which was more reliable than my iPhone 14 Pro Max).

Dunno why Apple is crippling the "Personal Hotspot"? (deliberately or out of incompetence?). It just turns off after 10 - 20 minutes, no matter whether I am idle, or in the middle of a phone conference in my home office... Unless, of course, I keep "personal Hotspot" settings open in my iPhone settings app for the duration that I need uninterrupted service...

It sure doesn't make me more loyal to the platform. Apple, you're way too expensive to not make all aspects of mobile computing a complete breeze....

I'm just not buying into your annual (or even bi-annual) (or even tri-annual) renewal cycles anymore, and into your commercials with oh-so-diverse and always-bright-teethed-alleged-developers-or-users...

JUST "MAKE IT WORK"?? You truly OWE it to me, ok?

My situation is slightly different from most of you but i found this post because I was having the exact same problem. Hotspot disconnects at random. Maybe on for 5 mins, maybe 15 mins next time. Maybe 2 mins after that. Who knows? I sure don’t.

Im running iPhone XS Max, iPad wifi+cellular, and MacBook Pro running Windows 10 on bootcamp. I do vehicle diagnostics and reprogramming for a living. When i flash update a cars computer, i need a steady internet connection for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. If the update is interrupted for any reason, i will be buying my customer a new computer out of my own pocket AND trying the process again. Being an Apple loyalist, you can imagine my frustration. I have been very blessed so far and have not had the disconnection during a programming event. Here’s how I managed to work around this problem.

I noticed years ago the hotspot issue with iPhone. I also noticed that when i use my iPad as the provider of hotspot, i got much longer connection times, but still not indefinite. After finding this post, it gave me some ideas and i found something that worked for me. I always restart my iPad first. I go into settings and set auto screen lock to “Never”. Then i go to the hotspot page and turn hotspot on and I LEAVE THAT HOTSPOT PAGE OPEN WITH SCREEN LIT UP AND IPAD PLUGGED IN TO CHARGE AND I DO NOT TOUCH IT FOR ANY REASON!!! When i do this, my MacBook stays connected on hotspot for a very long time. I have never had the connection drop at all since I’ve used this method and i have tested 12 hours of continuous connection time. I know someone’s gonna say “it won’t disconnect if you connected to a MacBook” but i promise you that’s more a MacOS thing because im running windows on my MacBook Pro and without this method, depending on apple’s hotspot is like playing russian roulette with 5 bullets.

As i said in the beginning, i know my situation is slightly different as im working with an iPad with cellular. I have not tested this method using the iPhone as the provider of hotspot because it’s nearly impossible for me to set my phone down and not touch it for any amount of time. I imagine it “should” work the same. Maybe I will test it sometime soon.

It’s not a fix, but it worked perfectly for me. And it’s better than buying an android (YUCK!)

(More than two years ago, the company I joined forced me to use an iPhone 11. The hotspot timing out has plagued me until today).

For those Windows 10 users (and maybe Windows 11), try enabling "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting its name (SSID)"

I didn't pay attention to this although I did noticed that the iPhone SSID would become hidden about the same time my Windows 10 disconnected. If I were to jump to conclusions, I believe that the Apple Engineers came up with this "feature" to accomplish power saving and a modicum of Wi-Fi "security."

(I also suspect that the Apple computer Wi-Fi drivers have the "Connect to Hidden SSID" feature on by default.)

For more than eight years, there's been a lot of discussion about whether a hidden SSID is worth the annoyance. My conclusion is that hiding an SSID misses the point: Any environment so very concerned about Wi-Fi security should go back to copper connections.

If I was cynical, I'd just assume that Apple keeps a list of bugs/features that irritate Windows users (only) and fix them only if the European Union brings financial heat.

I have been running into this as well. I seem to have found a solution that works for me: use the Command Center to make the hotspot discoverable:

1. Pull down from the top-right corner
2. Long press on the wifi icon
3. Press the button for "Personal Hotspot"

At this point, the Wifi icon will disable and the hotspot icon will turn green. Since enabling the hotspot in this way, my connection has been consistently stable while watching One Piece from my office tv. I could barely even start the video before this. I do have "Maximize Compatibility" turned off. Not sure if it makes a difference or not. I think simply using the Command Center to manage the hotspot made all the difference.