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Instant Hotspot / Personal Hotspot Not Functioning Correctly

Repost due to header spelling fail... Sorry!

Performed the iOS update to 8.1 and the instant hotspot isn't functioning. Whenever I try to connect from my MacBook I get the error: Failed to enable Personal Hotspot on "Tim's iPhone" - Check to see if the tethering device is turned on and in range of your computer.


I've reset the network settings on the iPhone, cleared all of my saved networks on my MacBook to try to get it back to a semi-reset state (though I did a full drive erase and installed Yosemite from scratch so I can't imagine my settings are very far from virgin state yet) but I'm still unable to connect unless I manually turn on the Personal Hotspot on the iPhone first (even then, connecting is a bit hit and miss which was never a problem before). Restarting each device multiple times and logging into and out of the iCloud account on each device hasn't changed anything.


Even worse is that, prior to upgrading from 8.0.2, the feature worked perfectly between my iPad and my iPhone. It even shut the personal hotspot off as soon as you disconnected from the iPhone. Now, it's hit and miss as well; Connecting every 3rd or 4th try but leaving Personal Hotspot "on" on my iPhone after disconnection.


The smooth experience between my iPad and iPhone is what gave me such high expectations for the Yosemite release. Now I'm sitting here with that still not functioning and the original experience gone. How disappointing.


---

Tim

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 20, 2014 2:18 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 15, 2017 6:01 PM

Simple Process


1: On the device that needs the internet connection (eg your MacBook), Turn Off WiFi


2: On iPhone,


- Set to Airplane Mode = On

- Go to Settings -> Personal Hotspot


set to OFF

then change WiFi password


- Go to Settings -> General -> About


change Name to a name that the device (eg your MacBook) requiring the hotspot has never connected to. Important step, otherwise your device (MacBook) may try using some saved setting for a previously used wifi name.


- Now go back to Settings -> Personal Hotspot and Set to ON


- Set Airplane Mode = OFF


- Wait for your iPhone to be fully connectedness to your mobile network


3. On the device that needs the internet connection (eg your MacBook), Turn ON WiFi


then Connect to your new personal hotspot using the new password

100 replies

Oct 21, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Tim Klein

In addition to Tim's steps, the following seems to have helped me get my 13" rMBP to connect more reliably.


  1. Turn off Bluetooth
  2. rename or delete ./library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist (if it exists)
  3. rename or delete /library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist (if it exists)
  4. restart your Mac
  5. Turn on Bluetooth


Whenever I restart my iPad (which I'm using for my personal hotspot), I have to enter my passcode on the iPad and wait several minutes before I can connect using Instant Hotspot. But after Tim's steps as well as the steps above, things seem much better for me.

Oct 22, 2014 1:47 PM in response to Tim Klein

Thank you so much. It worked. I followed the steps and got to connect iPad-iPhone and Mac-iPhone via instant hotspot. Until the handoff improved.

On Mac I managed to connect, but the system has a problem at the end of the session icloud. Now my Mac keeps asking password for such a talagent. I do not know how to solve, but I suggest that the user has some care to log off icloud on Mac.

Thank you friend.

Oct 23, 2014 5:10 PM in response to sammiemo

if you follow Tim steps this is not a temporary solutions. The detail here is not simple log in and log out is "reconfig" your available devices in your icloud account


Tim steps:

"

Ok... I've had some success with the issue. It seems to be a combination of resetting my network settings on my phone and reinitializing the iCloud accounts on both devices. Following are the steps that worked for me on several different devices. They may not all be absolutely necessary but it's what finally got the functionality working on all of my devices.


1. Sign out of the iCloud account on both devices. (I let iCloud delete everything when asked. It all comes back when sign back in later)

2. Reset Network Settings on the iPhone (General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings)

3. If necessary, Rename the phone to what you want it called (General -> About -> Name. Resetting network settings consistently renamed my phone to just "iPhone")

4. Power down both devices.

5. Restart iPhone and log back in to iCloud.

6. Restart other device and log back into iCloud.

"

Oct 23, 2014 6:32 PM in response to Tim Klein

Tim's steps worked fine, that solved the iPhone issue (Duplicated bluetooth profiles).


When i performed the steps, i could activate hotspot with my iPad Mini Retina, i checked on the iPhone that the Internet Sharing is on and everything. But in my Macbook Pro seem to be a very bad bug, i explain.


When internet sharing is off on the iPhone, the Mac cannot activate it, and when it is on, the Mac does not recognize the WiFi SSID as a valid network, but it only recognize it as a Internet Sharing that should be activated and since it is already activated, does not connect to the network.


To me seems more like a OS X Yosemite bug than an iOS one.


Quick update: You have to activate manually the Internet Sharing and DEACTIVATE Bluetooth on your Macbook, that should do the trick for now. (While Apple solves this issue, i think that Instant Hotspot is one of the best Yosemite features).

Instant Hotspot / Personal Hotspot Not Functioning Correctly

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