Level 1

40 points

Cannot turn off personal hotspot

iPad Air running latest iOS version.

iPhone 6 running latest iOS version.

Personal Hotspot is turned off on my iPhone. My iPad can see its Personal Hotspot as available to connect to.

I tap the entry for the iPhone Personal Hotspot, the iPad connects to it ... even though it is not turned on.

My iPhone confirms this by the telltale blue strip appearing at the top of the screen indicating someone has connected to the phone ...

I check the Personal Hotspot section within iOS and sure enough it has turned itself on.

I turn off the Personal Hotspot again ...

The iPad then shows an alert to indicate its connection has been terminated.

But shortly after, the iPhone Personal Hotspot (which I turned OFF) entry appears in the wireless connection list on the iPad and I can tell it to connect again. I click the entry, and the iPad connects again via Personal Hotspot to my iPhone.

I Have told he iPad to 'forget this device' and it still connects with no issues whatsoever ...

Also, the iPad is able to connect to my iPhone without giving the password that I have set up!!

HELP!

This is a security problem surely?

iPhone 6, iOS 8.0.2

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 4:43 AM

Top-ranking reply

TakomaFan

Level 1

42 points

Posted on Jan 19, 2018 7:13 PM

GREAT TIP!!!!

I can’t believe it... I’ve been fighting this on an iPhone which was recently reinstalled from scratch by Apple with no iCloud backup restore because of iOS upgrade issues from 10 to 11 which corrupted settings and these were backed up. So essentially it was factory fresh and I did not believe that this could have any effect.

Well, I was wrong... it worked.

Settings - Reset - Reset Network Settings

after restart, set up all of your WiFi and hot spot again and the off/on button for the hot spot works properly with Bluetooth on or off, and there is no way for other iOS devices to override it, with or without Bluetooth.

It can be difficult to know what is good advice here, as virtually all of the explanations on this thread are incorrect and trying to rationalize or explain away clear security issues and obvious bugs. While working with Apple recently on other strange battery issues with a perfect battery, I learned that iOS updates can corrupt configuration, and the corruption will go into an iPhone backup. This network reset simply clears the related settings to a clean state and upon reconfiguration all of the features work absolutely perfectly in line with the setting choices. When it is off, it is off. All works as expected.

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88 replies

Mar 7, 2015 7:24 AM in response to Levellingser

I'm having the exact same problem too. There was even a password there on the phone that I did not enter. I killed the logo thru keychain access. Will see what that did.

deggie

Level 10

167,537 points

Mar 7, 2015 2:35 PM in response to Chipbees

How is is a "security flaw" if you have one device with your iCloud account on it and it connects with another device you have that you have entered the same iCloud account into that one?

deggie

Level 10

167,537 points

Apr 8, 2015 4:09 PM in response to Itenthusiast40

Your password you put in is your iCloud password. Which is on your iPad Air.

Jun 23, 2015 4:32 PM in response to russellfromhighfields

Of course Apple is aware of it. It's the way they designed it too work.

LeeStav

Level 1

14 points

Nov 12, 2015 3:44 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Well, I'm not always looking at my phone. If I'm out, it's in my handbag. At home, I'm usually busy with other things. When I see it, I turn the hotspot off but by then the damage has been done.

Jan 31, 2016 10:58 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Me too! Class action?

Feb 1, 2016 10:54 AM in response to Jez Blaze

The only way anyone can use your hotspot is if you give them the very long random WiFi passcode. If you did give it to someone you took responsibility.

Sep 8, 2016 4:35 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Meg thank you - I've been trying for a couple of weeks now to figure out why one of our iPhones appears as a hotspot on my iPad Air and the other doesn't. Finally I find out why! One iPhone shares an AppleID with the iPad - the other iPhone has a different one. Simple when you know how !!

Many thanks and regards

Simon

Oct 11, 2016 5:35 AM in response to Mindmate

Mindmate wrote:

Thanks to all who complained for driving Apple to remove this feature 😐

The feature has not been removed.

Mindmate

Level 1

8 points

Oct 12, 2016 2:50 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Thanks Meg for the hint, and sorry for my unjustified criticis.

SEems that I need to figure out why it stopped working. Both my iPhone and iPad share the same apple ID and are subscr to iCloud.

Nov 27, 2016 5:36 PM in response to transmogrification

Apple recommends using one Apple ID for all your devices, since that is how "Continuity" works.

Feb 2, 2017 7:02 AM in response to Peter Almere

See my post directly above yours. If you restrict your iCloud ID to YOU as Apple recommends then the problem does not exist.

Feb 2, 2017 8:52 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hi Lawrence!

Thank you for your reply. But.... my apple ID is restricted to me.... and the problem persists.

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Cannot turn off personal hotspot