iOS 26 update breaks personal hotspot on iPhone 16 Pro Max

Contact your carrier and have them take a look at your account.

1. Restart your iPhone
2. Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN, then restart your device. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN, but probably shouldn't.

MmFf05 wrote:

I already contacted my carrier and they confirmed that my account and plan support Personal Hotspot, and there are no issues on their side.

That's good. Lots of people think that because the plan includes the hotspot, it must be working. Or must be properly set up on their account. And those things are not always true.

In addition to Lawrence's suggestions, you might also try resetting your network settings. The only thing it deletes are your saved WiFi passwords.

Settings>General>Transfer or Reset iPhone>Reset>Reset Network Settings.

It's all the way down at the bottom of the Settings>General screen.

This is absolutely a software issue. Anyone saying differently is incorrect. Apple needs to fix this in an update. It nearly had me downgrade tonight

Me too. Just started happening.

lilRichard wrote:

This is absolutely a software issue. Anyone saying differently is incorrect. Apple needs to fix this in an update.

Have you spoken to Apple? Given them feedback?

Product Feedback - Apple

It nearly had me downgrade tonight

Good luck with that.

It 100% is a software issue

I placed my sim in another phone and was able to use the hotspot services freely with no issue

I am using the hotspot connection from that same phone which I placed my sim in(to prove its not a carrier issue) to send this message

Same issue

What same issue? And what troubleshooting have you done, starting with deleting any VPN profiles?

I have the same issue, it’s not a carrier problem with the hotspot. Since I installed IOS26 my hotspot it’s completely grayed out and have already deleted statistics, reset network settings, contacted my carrier, deleted VPN, restarted the phone a thousand times, it’s a software issue

Same issue

For personal hotspot to function. The iPhone or iPad requires only one of the following with an active cellular signal:

Bluetooth ON

USB cable connected directly to device

WiFi enabled on the iPhone AND disconnected to local WiFi

(In Settings/WiFi Tap on the WiFi with the blue check if on a local WiFi to disconnect )

Also try to toggle “Personal Hotspot/Allow Others to Join” in Settings

I’m experiencing the same problem. Personal Hotspot remains grayed out after updating to iOS 26.0.1.