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Intermittent problem with Personal Hotspot

Hello All


I think either my iPad 2 or my iPhone 4 is mental. Can anyone convince me otherwise?


For some months now I have been experiencing an intermittent problem with tethering my iPad 2 to my iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot.


Sometimes it works without a hitch (although I have to turn the Personal Hotspot on the phone off and on again to get iPad to 'see' it) and at others, like now, it shows me the message 'Unable to join the network 'iPhone'. It throws the message up so quickly that even though it 'sees' the phone in the list of networks, it behaves as though it can't actually be bothered to even try to connect.


I have tried reboots and restarts, 'forgetting' the network, changing passwords, sacrificing a chicken... all the usual stuff. But still when it gets in this kind of mood it stubbornly refuses to do anything. I have even taken it to the Apple store where, not surprisingly it worked first time and the assistant looked at me as though I was an idiot. It then proceeded not to work for a couple of days again as if punishing me. There is no problem with the general Wi-Fi connection as I have another phone (an Android) that I run as a Hotspot too. It has never once had a problem connecting to this or any other Wi-Fi connection..


Confusingly, and rather irritatingly, after a few days of this not-connecting lark it will have a few days of not having a problem connecting at all. I won't have changed any settings on either iPad or iPhone and so I have no way of figuring out why this is happening. This has been the same situation with all versions of iOS I have installed ever since buying the phone in April 2012, and the iPad in June 2012.


Please, is there anyone out in the ether that can suggest a solution to this? Or is one of my Apple products simply mad? I have given both devices a strong talking-to, but this hasn't sorted the problem either. Next, I think I might have to try sacrificing a goat.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jul 13, 2013 9:42 AM

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5 replies

Aug 8, 2013 4:06 AM in response to No stranger to the p45

I have the same issues with my iPhone 5 (6.1.4). I do not have an answer for you, and perhaps my "workaround" will lead someone with more knowledge about these things to offer us more information.


When I turn on the Personal Hotspot and it does not show up as visible on my iPad or MacBook, or offers that ambiguous message about being unavle to join the network, I perform a few steps that almost always resolves it. I have to go through these steps twice sometimes. The order of operations seems to affect the outcome (at least it appears to me that it does)


Turn off WiFi on the client device (iPad, MacBook, Windows laptop, KindleFire, etc)

Turn off Personal Hotspot on iPhone

Turn off Bluetooth on iPhone

Turn off WiFi on iPhone


Then turn on Personal Hotspot and allow it to automatically start WiFi and Bluetooth.


Turn on the client WiFi services.


Connection successful!


As I said, I sometimes need to perform the steps ablve twice, but it eventually works. It is incredibly frustrating to go through these hoops to make the device perform. I do not know precisely when the problem began to occur, but I don't think it did not occur on my iPhone 4s with IOS5.


Any help from the Apple guys would be appreciated. I think it is a software issue, because the shutdown of services and restart seems to resolve the issue. I guess I might take a trip to the Aple Store to have them look at this behavior.

Aug 8, 2013 4:35 AM in response to JCDnVa

Thanks for your comment, JCDnVa, and your suggestion as a possible solution. Your idea certainly seems a great deal more practical than sacrificing a goat. After all, it took ages to clean-up after the chicken... what with all the blood and the garbage bin he knocked over as he ran around the kitchen without his head. Still, he did make a pleasant lunch.


I will give your solution a go next time the issue arises as at the present time both my iPhone and iPad seem quite happy to acknowledge each others' existence. How long it lasts is anyone's guess.


..


Intermittent problem with Personal Hotspot

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