No connection to iPhone hotspot after Sonoma update

I was having this issue. I tried all the options listed in this thread with no success. Just talked with Apple support and they eventually suggested that I try to add a new network location

Could you please follow the below steps and try adding a new network location? 

1 Choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Network in the sidebar.

2 From the More pop-up menu below the list of services, choose Locations > Edit Locations.



3 Click the add (+) button below the list of locations, then type a name for the new location, such as Work, Home or Mobile. 

4 Click Done. Any changes that you now make to your Wi-Fi, Ethernet or other network settings will be saved to the new location. The network settings in your previous location will remain as you left them, so you can switch back at any time.

5 To save your changes and complete the switch to the new location, exit Network settings or quit System Settings.

This ended up fixing my issue.

Brother I cannot thank you enough, days and hours of searching for a fix trying everything I read with nothing working. Then I finally came across your post and tried it thinking it would be like the others and BOOM it instantly connected after adding a new location.

It does make sense that this works because I kept getting the cannot connect and that the router or device was not near, although I don't fully understand what the issue was tbh.

I literally made an account here just to say thank you, I really appreciate it.

For everyone that is having the same issue, this fix works.

The only thing that worked for me was setting the IP manually instead of DHCP:

• Set IP Address manually instead of DHCP
• iOS hotspot address is 172.20.10.1, so use that as router address
• Give your device a manual ip address of 172.20.10.3
• Subnet 255.255.255.0 (on android devices just leave it /24 because they ask for network prefix length instead)
• DNS I was fine with 8.8.8.8

The Location fix worked for me as well, but it seems a bit annoying to need to change from Location to Location when you go from a regular WiFi to a Hotspot. I'll outline my solution below, but note my thoughts on HW / SW caveats at the bottom, as many others have not had to go through all this to get it working consistently.

What seemed to work for me was setting up 2 Locations:

1. Home WiFi (but you can name it whatever)
   1. I allowed the Home WiFi connection to use standard DHCP (i.e. no need to configure anything)
2. Hotspot Wifi (but you can name it whatever)
   1. For the Hotspot WiFi, I set TCP/IP to Using DHCP with Manual Address. I chose a specific IP address (e.g. 192.0.0.3) -- instead of the 192.0.0.2 that DHCP was giving it. That did not fix the problem, so I went further to the DNS Settings as others had mentioned in the thread, and I added 8.8.8.8 as the DNS server.

The reasoning behind this solution was that I was noticing that this 2023 14" MacBook (on Sonoma 14.3.1) kept getting the same IP address as another device on the Network. Through much trouble shooting, I noticed this yesterday as well. One would think to blame mhy iPhone 15 Pro's Hotspot, however the same thing was happening when I tried to connect 2 devices to my iPad Hotspot. For whatever reason, the 2023 14" MacBook always seemed to be getting 192.0.0.2 -- while one of my other devices (2019 MAcBook or iPad) already had that IP address. I could be wrong, but 2 devices saying they have the same IP has always been an issue in my experience.

I am leaning towards thinking this could be a combo situation where the 2023 MacBook (hardware) + Sonoma (software) has this issue with anything post iOS 17.1 or 17.2 (not sure which). When this same 2023 MacBook was on 13.X.X -- I do not recall having this problem, I could connect to both my iPad or iPhone.

Notes:

• 2019 MacBook 13" (Intel) on multiple versions of OS X (including Sonoma) never had iPhone or iPad Hotspot connectivity issues on my iPad Air (4th Gen), iPhone 14 (no longer using), or my iPhone 15 Pro (current phone), across a variety of iOS versions, including the latest (17.4.X).
• 2023 Macbook 14" for work -- only seemed to have hotspot connectivity issues with iOS devices near the end of 2023, somewhere after iOS 17.2.X or 17.3.X -- but also around the time of the Sonoma update.

• Restart the iPhone 
• On the iPhone go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset [Device] > Reset, then tap Reset Network Settings. This also resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings

Quick update, I just update my macOS to 14.2.1 and my Iphone’s to 17.2.1. It worked but I waited more than 5 minutes to finally have the hotspot connection. I never encountered this issue on the last OS version (Ventura). Please apple fix this, looks like the Macbook and Iphone should have the same version(latest) for me to be able to connect to the hotspot. This has not been an issue before.

I know it can seem this way but it can often be the case that other devices do connect while one won’t.. it only takes a couple of minutes to do this and will restart the iPhone so you can skip the first step to restart. Not promising It will work but it’s your best troubleshooting step to try first.

If you can’t connect to a Wi-Fi network on Mac - Apple Support

I have the same issue with my Mac 2019. The only thing that seems to work is restarting my Mac and then trying to connect to the hotspot (you need your hotspot on before the reset completes). Either way this is a major bug.

This was a reproducible bug in Sonoma 14.0. However, it looks to me like 14.1.1 took care of it. I tried to using my up to date phone with my MacBook Air when no WiFi was available. It worked just fine. So, us Apple enthusiasts who are early adopters identify the bugs that Apple seems to quickly fix.

I encounter the same. In my Macbook with Sonoma, just configure in 'other' network and input your hotspot ID and password manually. It only works once & needs to be done every time hotspot is required. Really a pain.

I hope to upgrade to 14.1.1 and will know whether this bug is fix.

Same issue here. The only thing that seems to work is just to keep trying until it randomly works for no apparent reason. I don't have the time or energy to bang my head against a digital wall every time I want to use my hotspot. Please, Apple, let's restore the seamless integration.

In Wi-Fi System Preferences (Sonoma 14.4.1), what worked for me was selecting Details - DNS. The DNS server was "::1". I changed that to 8.8.8.8 and the hotspot worked. It doesn't seem to remember this, so it needs to be done every time I connect to the hotspot — annoying but better than no hotspot.

I was really struggling to figure out what was happening to glad to have found this thread.

OK heres what works in sonoma or ventura i guess: open system preferences then go to network.

there make sure the wifi is turn off. and erase the wifi network settings with a right click.

you will only have the ethernet and thunderbolt settings then

add a new network and chose Wi-Fi.

turn on your wifi, and connect to your shared internet connection on your iphone and it should work. what a mess....

something interesting is that the Usb cable connection between the mac and the iphone was still working so it was just a network setting problems.

I just figured out how to keep the hotspot working without having to change the DNS server every time. I noticed the ::1 which is an IPv6 notation, so I thought it might have something to do with that.

I disabled IPv6 on macOS by entering this in terminal:

sudo networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi

Issue fixed and I can now use my hotspot as normal.