Instant Hotspot / Personal Hotspot Not Functioning Correctly

This worked great! Thanks for your suggestion, Tim.

Something that is probably assumed but hasn't been said is that you should make sure (after you follow Tim's steps) that both devices are connected to the same wifi.

nestrada5 wrote:

This worked great! Thanks for your suggestion, Tim.

Something that is probably assumed but hasn't been said is that you should make sure (after you follow Tim's steps) that both devices are connected to the same wifi.

It shouldn't be necessary to have both devices already connected to some wifi network to enable a personal wifi hotspot.

Kibby the Cabbit wrote:

I notice that I am able to establish Instant Hotspot immediately after I restart my iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S. Momentarily later, if I want to do it again, it will fail. It will work again after I reboot the iOS device.

It's hard to say which is fault.. Yosemite or iOS 8.1

All we can do is to reboot and wait for the update fix...

Does that method work for you?

Rebooting my devices has worked temporarily in the past, but I haven't been able to connect from Yosemite on my MBP in a long time. I can always connect two of my iOS devices using instant hotspot.

Worked like a charm MarcOjanssen !

I was only haven't a problem with auto hotspot and not handoff. Seems to be showing up without a problem now. Go figure. Thanks!

Yes. Please think about it folks - same WiFi network obviously cannot be a requirement for Instant Hotspot. If it is a requirement, the functionality is designed poorly because if I am on WiFi why on earth would I need to enable an Instant Hotspot? I'm sure there are a few exceptions, but more often than not when I need Instant Hotspot is when NEITHER device is on WiFi.

I believe people are confusing Instant Hotspot (bluetooth requirement) with Call & Text Continuity (wifi requirement).

As an update to everyone I could not get my 2014 Macbook Retina to work at all with my devices. They would show up in the list, but could not enable. iOS to iOS functionality has always been fine. I got mine working two days ago by doing this and it still works today:

1. Click on WiFi on Macbook and record the name of my iPhone exactly.

2. Change name of iPhone in Settings - General - About to some other name

3. Went back to WiFi on Macbook, searched again, still found old name even though I just changed it

4. Went back to iPhone and changed name back to this original name (Settings - General - About)

5. Connected Macbook to this device in WiFi list

Maybe this fixes a few other people. This also still works after the OS X 10.1 update. I did not have to log out if iCloud for this method.

ridedontslide wrote:

As an update to everyone I could not get my 2014 Macbook Retina to work at all with my devices. They would show up in the list, but could not enable. iOS to iOS functionality has always been fine. I got mine working two days ago by doing this and it still works today:

1. Click on WiFi on Macbook and record the name of my iPhone exactly.

2. Change name of iPhone in Settings - General - About to some other name

3. Went back to WiFi on Macbook, searched again, still found old name even though I just changed it

4. Went back to iPhone and changed name back to this original name (Settings - General - About)

5. Connected Macbook to this device in WiFi list

Maybe this fixes a few other people. This also still works after the OS X 10.1 update. I did not have to log out if iCloud for this method.

I've had temporary success in the past, but I thought, now that I've updated iOS and OS X to the latest versions, I'd need to retry the whole gamut of things that have worked for others. Reseting network settings, signing out of icloud, etc. No luck.

Then I read the steps ridedontslide listed, and here were my results:

1. Clicked on WiFi on Macbook and recorded the name of my iOS device exactly
2. Changed name of my iOS device in Settings - General - About
3. Went back to WiFi on Macbook, searched again, and found that the name of my iOS device was the current name.
4. Clicked on the new device, and I successfully connected.

I'll keep the group posted on whether these steps create a lasting solution for me, but for those still having issues, ridedontslide's tip is worth a try. If you see your iOS device update in the WiFi list right away, try to connect and see if it will work for you without following the rest of the steps.

Please follow these steps:

Turn off iCloud on your iphone

Turn off iCloud on your Mac

Restart your iPhone

Log in to your iCloud account on both devices

This will solve your issue

Sohrab Rafie wrote:

Please follow these steps:

Turn off iCloud on your iphone

Turn off iCloud on your Mac

Restart your iPhone

Log in to your iCloud account on both devices

This will solve your issue

Those steps didn't solve my issue, but adding a few steps to that did. Here's what worked for me after trying the steps you listed.

1. Clicked on WiFi on Macbook and recorded the name of my iOS device exactly
2. Changed name of my iOS device in Settings - General - About
3. Went back to WiFi on Macbook, searched again, and found that the name of my iOS device was the current name.
4. Clicked on the new device, and I successfully connected.

I'm A bit puzzled... My understanding is wifi hotspots is meant to work automatically without needing any input from the user. You just swiitch on the iPad and hotspots will find the iPhone, and fire up wifi hotspots... Or at least that is the way I understood from the keynote. Am I wrong?

what I find is this: the way it works for me is this, I switch on wifi hotspot on my iPhone, then I switch on Bluetooth and wifi on my iPad mini. In the menu, a window with the Personal Hotspots shows but this is where it deviates from what I thought I should do, it connects, thinks about it for a few secons and then slides up to the connected list ano just looks like any other wifi connection. Should this happen or should it stay as the Personal Hotspot?

either way, I have to do that every time with the only difference from old is it connects a little quicker without needing to switch hotspots on and off between sessions.

I can work with it as is but hopefully it'll get fixed soon.

Thanks Tim!

I tried everything, trying to get my new rMBP to Hotspot with my iPhone 6 & 6 Plus. Then I tried your solution and it worked like a charm!

Thanks again

I still have this exact problem. Both the USB method and Bluetooth will work but they are so much more cumbersome and/or slower.

sammiemo wrote:

I'll keep the group posted on whether these steps create a lasting solution for me, but for those still having issues, ridedontslide's tip is worth a try. If you see your iOS device update in the WiFi list right away, try to connect and see if it will work for you without following the rest of the steps.

Using ridedontslide's tip worked for a few days, but once again I can't use personal hotspot apart from connecting via USB tethering.

Jaij!! This worked for me too!

Sitting with Yosemite 10.1.1 and iOS 8.1.1 - Did your mentioned procedure on both iPhone 5s and Air 2 tablet.. Thanks!

i keep on getting this...

bascially i no longer want to rely on any new software feature in the ios introduced in a major update... until the next major update!

guys i suggest we all wait till ios 9 and the thing will be solved.😠

Thank you for posting this procedure.

I was skeptical at first because I tried some of them individually before without any success.But I decided to follow your steps exactly as specified, and it worked!

My setup: Macbook pro retina, 2012 x iphone6 plus

I'm very happy since I've been banging my head against a wall ever since I upgraded to Yosemite.

Thanks again.

--Taroqro