Why can't I deploy my personal hotspot to my MacBook with cellular data turned off?

If your phone is connected to a wireless router, your phone cannot be a hotspot as well.

Your phone needs to receive internet through another means, like your cellular data plan, in order to use wifi as a hotspot.

~Lyssa

bcuserlr wrote:

I understand I cannot do this with my iPhone. My PC at home can share it's internet connection through Wi-Fi. I'm requesting that Apple make a change to this. I think a change could be made to IOS to allow this.

Your PC at home can only. share its Internet connection through Wi-Fi because it has an Internet connection, through some other networking means.

If cellular data is turned off on your phone, then either

• Your phone is connected to the Internet through a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot that is connected to the Internet. In that case, you could tell the laptop to connect to the same hotspot, instead of having the iPhone serve as an intermediary.

or

• Your phone is not connected to the Internet. If your iPhone doesn't have an Internet connection, it can't offer Internet service to your laptop. What change to iOS do you imagine could overcome that?

bcuserlr wrote:

I recently made a trip to Europe and but a limited data plan for the trip. While on a riverboat I could connect my iPhone to Wi-Fi but not my laptop. I wanted my iPhone to share my Wi-Fi connection and not use cellular data so I could use my laptop. However, the Hotspot on my phone only works when Cellular data is on. Can't Apple allow the phone to share Wi-Fi and not use cellular data?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

If you could set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on your phone without using cellular data, then neither your iPhone, nor your laptop, would have Internet access.

All you would have is an isolated network, using Internet protocols, that was not connected to the actual Internet. The Mac could talk with the iPhone, and vice versa, and that would be it. They wouldn't even be able to carry out iCloud-based synchronization, as that would require an Internet connection to Apple's iCloud servers. They'd be saving notes in local device storage on what to synchronize the next time they got a chance to connect to iCloud. They'd probably say little or nothing to each other, and you'd wonder what the point of the isolated network was.

With Personal Hotspot, your iPhone is acting in a manner similar to a home WiFi router, but with a cellular data link substituting for the coax or fiber-optic cable that brings Internet service into your home. Unplug the cable coming into your home router, and you get no Internet service even if there is still Wi-Fi connectivity between local devices. You need that external ("wide area") link to the rest of the Internet, whether it is a cabled link, or a cellular data one.

bcuserlr wrote:

Everyone is quick with an answer, but it you read my original post, I could not get my laptop to connect to the Wi-Fi. It would not load the login page on the browser. I spent hours trying to debug why trying dozens of things with no luck. I could only use cellular data from my phone which was limited and expensive as I was in Europe. I'm only posting this to encourage Apple to look at an enhancement to IOS to allow the phone to share it's Wi-Fi connection not using cellular data. No other replies please!

Send your feedback to Apple, then: Product Feedback - Apple

I don't see Apple adding support to iPhone to act as a Wi-Fi dongle for Windows or macOS or otherwise. Cellular hotspot, yes. Wi-Fi dongle, no.

Acquiring a Wi-Fi dongle for that Windows box—or re-installing the Windows box to get the Wi-Fi to work again, or getting the Wi-Fi hardware in that Windows box repaired and working again if that is what is needed, or replacing that Windows box with a Mac, or using a different Wi-Fi network that is working with that Windows box—is going to be vastly more expedient.

The last Mac lacking integrated Wi-Fi was probably twenty or more years ago, absent a hardware or software problem. There are some Windows boxes still without Wi-Fi, but those are rarely traveling.

Your hotspot feature is a cellular provider feature. Since it’s literally sharing your cellular data plan with a connected device as a hotspot you would need your cellular data on. You’re wanting to be able to use your cellular provider feature (your data as a hotspot) without it counting against your data. That’s not possible. WiFi even from your home internet uses data….no way around that. Even when you connect to free public WiFi it’s only available because the owner has an active data plan with whoever they use…

bcuserlr wrote:

I understand I cannot do this with my iPhone. My PC at home can share it's internet connection through Wi-Fi. I'm requesting that Apple make a change to this. I think a change could be made to IOS to allow this.

You’re using your Windows PC as an expensive and slow and somewhat clunky router.

Your PC is routing from its ISP connection to Wi-Fi or wired network, depending on the setup.

Your iPhone can do that too, routing its ISP connection (cellular) to Wi-Fi.

The preferred approach here is a Wi-Fi router, which connects from an ISP (or cellular) link to wired and/or Wi-Fi.

How is your PC connected to the internet? Through a cable?

~Lyssa