Right, been doing some digging... you may be able to manipulate the service order still, but using terminal commands...
Using this command in terminal should display the list of known networks and the order they're currently in:
- networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en1
Just check whether your Wi-Fi interface is en0 or en1 or something else. You can use "networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder" to see all the interfaces, and their names and device number.
You can use combination of the following commands to manipulate the order of the wifi networks. In your case, you may only need to move your hotspot SSID to the top of the list; so that you Mac prefers to join that network first whenever is available.
- networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks <device name>
- networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex <device name> <network> <index> <security type> [password]
- networksetup -removepreferredwirelessnetwork <device name> <network>
- networksetup -removeallpreferredwirelessnetworks <device name>
You could try using the following for example:
- syntax: networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex <device name> <network> <index> <security type> [password]
- example: networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex en1 Hotspot 0 WPA2
I'm estimating that because the network already exists, you may not require the password. This should move the network "Hotspot" to the top of the list. You can check the list order again by using the first command again. You may need to remove the network and add it back where you want it in the list.
Happy hunting.
