Cannot turn off personal hotspot

You have given your permission, you have signed into the same iCloud account on your other device using YOUR password. This is not a security flaw by any stretch of the imagination. It would be a security flaw if anyone could access your bank account without using your PIN or password. Simple.

NO - the point is that connections are being made without password/permission. PopQuiz states "simply connects without password or anything". Spotted dog "logs right in without asking for the new password". Robert Hodges1 "There was even a password that I did not use". Whuggie "All of the devices forced a connection without ever being asked for the Personal hotspot password".

I believe this to be a security floor because devices CAN connect without a password (even when instant hotspot is turned off) and I experienced data being downloaded on my account which led to excess data charges!. Fortunately the gnus bar agreed and my network provider credited me. Using my hotspot to download without permission is, I believe, theft. As such this is therefor a security flaw. Why does 'off' on Instant Hotspot not mean OFF?

I think this answers the question. I hate it when apple changes stuff and then doesn't tell you anything about it anywhere.

Years ago I used to search for Easter Eggs in Mac OS. There were some great ones. Now the Easter Eggs are just stuff you step on and get all over you.

NO, they aren't being made without a password. If I go into a room near your iPhone with my iPad it will not activate your hotspot and I cannot connect. If you give me your Apple ID and password so I can sign into your iCloud account then it would activate your iPhone hotspot and let me connect.

Dreggie - YES, they are being made without a password. If you go into a room near my iPhone with your iPad it should not activate my hotspot and you should not connect. If I give you my Apple ID and password so you can sign into my iCloud account then of course it would activate my iPhone hotspot and let you connect.

Unfortunately, sometimes connection is being made to the hotspot WITHOUT Apple ID and Password or the Hotspot Password. Once that connection is made there appears to be no way to turn it OFF. Apple gnus bar have seen it happen and confirmed the issue. I have no doubt the same is happenning to some on this site - All that is needed is a facility to disable Instant Hotspot - the customer deserves that choice. End of matter - BYE

Agreed. My wife's iphone 6 is advertising a hotspot. We have never turned on the hotspot capability. Additionally there is a password associated with account that was generated by the IOS8x. It is a different password than our ICloud password. I have 9 devices in my house that can see her phone broadcast its hot spot SSID even though her phone shows it being switched off. All of those devices can activate and connect to her phones hot spot WITHOUT ENTERING A PASSWORD.

if you thinks not a security issue, then turn off the security on your house wifi and tell me your home address. We will see how you feel when people drive up outside your house and start using your wifi router.

Bmusgrove wrote:

Agreed. My wife's iphone 6 is advertising a hotspot. We have never turned on the hotspot capability. Additionally there is a password associated with account that was generated by the IOS8x. It is a different password than our ICloud password. I have 9 devices in my house that can see her phone broadcast its hot spot SSID even though her phone shows it being switched off. All of those devices can activate and connect to her phones hot spot WITHOUT ENTERING A PASSWORD.

I'd bet that all nine of those devices are connected to the same Apple ID. Therefore, you've already given them access. If I were in range of your wife's phone. I would not have access UNLESS you gave me her Apple ID and password, I signed out of my Apple ID on my phoen and signed back in under hers.

I had AT&T update my witless plan. That plan included the ability of having AT&T's blessing in using the iPhone's personal hotspot function. I did not know this until after my first post to this topic. Now the odd thing is that this function should have been active before I ever walked out of the ATT store. It did not show up until about two weeks after the implentaton of the new plan. I checked the Console logs to verify. So, I am of the mindset that AT&T's release of the block of the hotspot plays a big role on what I am seeing on my end. But still y'all, really, it's disconcerting to some and vexing to others. Apple could be a bit more forthcoming about it.

Exact same situation. My iMac sees my iPhone 6 advertise a hotspot when i have the feature OFF. This is not a good thing.

PS: If I turn off bluetooth on my iPhone 6 the problem goes away. So it is using my phone's bluetooth connectivity...

Thank you so much for the tip about the Bluetooth involvement. I have now turned off Bluetooth on my new iPad Air and the hotspot no longer shows up.

How I wish I had been aware of this problem sooner. I have an iPhone 6 and an iPad Air which is three weeks old. The day it was purchased I transferred all my data from my old iPad to the new, at my home where I have a broadband router. I did not realise Personal Hotspot was turned on. I spent several hours running the transfer and in doing so incurred an excess charge from my 4G provider of more than £70 above my monthly fee, due to a 3GB excess. At no time have I ever put in a password to initiate a hotspot connection, in fact I had no knowledge of such facilities. Reading this discussion thread has helped me avoid this problem for the future. Thank you.

I completely understand the one apple ID for managing. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the auto-activation of personal hotspot that is set to off in your scenario is to turn off bluetooth. This is a design flaw. To verify turn off bluetooth and then toggle personal hotspot on then when prompted select wifi and usb only. You will notice that now when phone 2 tries to access the personal hotspot it requires the password as expected the first time.

Now this only works for the devices you have in your possession. You cant stop other devices using the same apple id from turning on their blue tooth and autoactivating personal hotspots on other phones under the same ID from being used. There are many unintended consequences.

noeldon wrote:

I completely understand the one apple ID for managing. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the auto-activation of personal hotspot that is set to off in your scenario is to turn off bluetooth. This is a design flaw. To verify turn off bluetooth and then toggle personal hotspot on then when prompted select wifi and usb only. You will notice that now when phone 2 tries to access the personal hotspot it requires the password as expected the first time.

Now this only works for the devices you have in your possession. You cant stop other devices using the same apple id from turning on their blue tooth and autoactivating personal hotspots on other phones under the same ID from being used. There are many unintended consequences.

There is an even simpler solution: Don't share Apple IDs. Use individual Appel IDs. If you need to share purchased content, use Family Sharing.

TThat's a great idea Meg... Except... ( yea I know ***** moan ***** moan) , family sharing requires a credit card for tha master / parent account. Some of us that have had credit card info stolen from vendors and used, or that have had a few thousand dollars in charges unknowingly made in itunes by kids, do not like to and will not place a credit card on file with any vendor. In a store like itunes it is far too easy to rack up charges without knowing, especially for kids who have not yet learned fiscal restraint. Heck even for adults who aren't paying attention ( mea culpa)..

I Actually love family sharing. If Apple would jus gets id of the need for me to maintain a CC on file I would weep with joy.

no matter what though it still comes down to Apple has tied two unrelated services together. iCloud and personal hotspot. You can access one without entering the password specifically dedicated to that service. IE you can access my personal hotspot without entering the very long and obtuse password I have created for it. Even that wouldn't be too much of a issue if I could turn off the hotspot so it can be used only when I want it turned on, and not willy nilly by anyone who happens to be nearby. Before you respond , I have already demonstrated inside my own household that you can access my wife's iPhone6 hotspot from a device on a different iCloud account. I have duplicated it routinely between these two devices, figured out how to stop it By doing a complete factory restore on the device.

turning off Bluetooth is not a solution . That kills my Bluetooth phone functionality with my vehicles. Turning off Bluetooth to stop a wireless feature is screwey in the first place. Kinda liked closing my garage door to run the car off .

NO matter how you look at it, if I turn off the personal hotspot, it should be off. Period . Why else have a on off switch?

We just found about this after getting hit with a higher than expected phone bill.

It is a nice feature to have iCloud remember some settings but it is not good to lose control when one sets the Hotspot off it means off.

We found that with the Hotspot off on the iPhone when the iPad tried to connect (probably it had the settings for it already saved from a previous use) something turn Hotspot back on on the iPhone and we started to consume bandwidth above our plan limit.

Dear Apple, where do I have to send the AT&T bill for you to pay ?

Thanks & Regards

Jorge

Guys I have the same problem and have been talking to Apple, It is caused by the Iphone and Ipad having the same Username and Password to iCloud. The only way I got around it is by turn off the Bluetooth on the Ipad which stopped it automatically creating the hotspot with out my knowledge but still allowed my car kit to work on the Iphone.

Apple are aware of the issue but this appears the only simple way around the issue at present with IOS8.3. Hopefully IOS8.4 resolves the issue.