Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot Not Working Under iOS 5

I am facing the same from the day I upgraded my phone to iOS5. The hotspot doest not appear, tried turning hotspot on and off no use, even tried turning wi-fi on and off to no avail. But soetimes it just works in one go. I dont understand what the problem is? But this is really annoying as most of the time i have to use my phone for internet connectivity. Any help guys!!!

I also have a contract that allows tethering my laptop to the internet via my phone. Iphone 4 personal hotspot was working ok although I would have to turn the hotspot off and on again for it to show the wifi as on and be able to connect. Now I have upgraded to ios5 i can't get the wifi to show as on...... and therefore I cannot connect to the wifi hotspot. I was always impressed how the iphones hotspot worked until this. Now I have to plug the phone in via usb to connect to the internet which is a pain as ususally I leave my phone in the dock up stairs where I get a much better signal and much faster internet speeds. Please sort it out Apple.

Update, ok after reading endlessly yes leaving the phone on the hotspot screen seems to get round the issue of not being able to connect. The other issue I have is windows 7 now keeps asking to update the network location (home,public etc) every single time I connect to the hotspot. This never happened with the pervious ios as it would remember. Any ideas? Secondly the new ios seem to cut your hotspot off randomly, its a right pain as I have to keep walking up and down my stairs to turn off and on again......

i have the same problem after i updated my iphone to iOS5, very frustrating. Can anyone help? wifi hotspot just doesn't work anymore 😟

All answer are ******** and atlast i got remedy for this bug...

Go to General >Network>Cellular Data Network > (Fill APN in all section like Apn,Mms,Internet Tethering etc )

And then you will see all working fine 😉

setting up VPN?

at the moment, i have the leave hotspot page on while my macbook is connecting to iphone wifi(not a very smart way)

can someone fix this bug pls?

Yes, it appears to be a bug in iOS5. I spent two hours on the phone with AT&T and Apple and then went to the Apple Store twice and replaced the phone the 2nd time. That did not solve it.

The only way to have the WiFi hotspot work, even sporadically, is to stay on the Personal Hotspot screen after you turn the hotspot on. Even then it may act as the hotspot does not have full "stength" even thought it is discoverable and can cannoct to it.

Right now the only way it works consistently is to tether it by cable or blue tooth - frustrating especially when trying to us WiFi on the iPad.

I have been having similar problems since upgrading to iOS 5 as well. I don't use tethering very often, but have been paying for it since I got the Verizon iPhone 4, iOS 4.

Previously, when I wanted to connect via WiFi, it just worked. At $20 / month, for sporadic usage, that's exactly what I want to be able to do. Just connect to the phone in a pinch and move on with my day.

Since iOS 5, I'll turn the Personal Hotspot on, and my Macbook Air (SL 10.6.8) doesn't see the iPhone for a long time, if at all. Then I have to turn the Hotspot on/off, WiFi on/off, etc and go through a fair amount of frustration to finally get it to work. If I get a call or some other phone interruption, it seems I have to go through the process again.

There definitely seems to be a change/bug introduced in iOS 5 that needs to be corrected.

Bhavesh Patel

I'm having the same issue. Staying on the Personal Hotspot screen after you turn the hotspot on, until there is a connection does same to help.

There definitely seems to be a bug introduced in iOS 5 that needs to be corrected.

I had this same issue, and I resolved it by going to Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings.

That sadly doesn't work for me:(

that worked for me! thanks jonathan!

Doesn't work for me either... And personal hotspot worked flawlessly befor iOS 5.0, totally rubbish now :(

Are they aware if the issue ? I tried calling support 3 times, but the waiting time was 15+ mins each time... So I gave up

I have spoken with Apple support on the phone and been to the store twice on this. It it intermittent so it appears hard to diagnose.

If the wifi is working and I walk away with the phone and come back to the laptop it will not pick it up again until I shut off the phone and turn it back on. Tethering with the USB has been the most consistent way I have seen to use the hotspot.

Well guys the same problem with my IPhone4. I had upgraded to IOS 5.0.1 a couple of days back. Earlier with IOS 4.3.5, I use to connect one of my NOKIA mobile through Personal Hotspot but since I upgraded, was unable to connect with the mobile and even with my laptop.

I dont know how such a bug can be left unseen by Apple Development Team.

It seems like I had done a mistake by upgrading to IOS 5.0.1.