Q: Cannot turn off personal hotspot

Thanks for the clarification of why you gave that answer which does not add any value to the issue by changing SSID but still broadcasting it.

But you're correct in saying that I disagree with the "design decision" of Apple, I just don't like it when my iPad or Macbook automatically picks up the hotspot without my knowledge or permission in that point in time. You just have to search this topic on google to see how many apple fans and users are disagreeing with this "design decision". It uses up iPhone battery faster too.

I guess we'll just have to live with this design if we still want to use apple products.

I believe that the answers offered re family sharing and not letting others onto your Apple ID and therefore having control of the personal hotspot overlooks the fact that pre family sharing many family members would use the same Apple ID.  Whilst the decision to enable hotspot control is to enable information sharing across a number of devices on the same account, it overlooks that there is no manner in which to  transfer pre family sharing in-app purchases or game progress between the different family sharing devices.  My son has thousands of dollars of these kind of purchases done pre and post introduction of family sharing and the consequent inter connectivity of the latest iOS platform including hotspot control.  Ultimate control of the hotspot could be a simple as having an option put on the phones settings e.g. allow devices to connect to hotspot remotely (an override button so to speak) to enable it to be absolutely turned off unless enabled on the phones settings...

Virtually all of what you said is untrue. You can transfer pre-family sharing apps (I do it with my wife), game progress is not by iCloud ID for most games; it is either on the phone's database or the game provider's server. As my wife and I do. Apple created family sharing specifically so each family member could have private and shared information. There is no such thing as private information on a shared account. Personal hotspot is just one; there's also notes, calendars, reminders, messages, contacts, email, backups, photos and more.

Apple IDs are not meant to be shared. Apple is very clear about that. If you want to share Apple IDs no one will stop you, but you must live with all of the consequences of your choice. Family Sharing - Apple Support

There's also partial sharing; you can have different iCloud IDs, different Facetime IDs, but share iTunes & App Store IDs as a compromise. This also solves the Personal hotspot issue.

I also had the same problem. The kids in the back seat of the car were watching videos and surfing the web after their ipads automatically activated the personal hotspot on my iPhone 6S without me knowing it was activated, even with the switch off they were still able to connect. Solution from Apple support was to reset network settings on all devices, shut off Bluetooth on the ipads and toggle the wifi off and on across all devices, this solved the problem for me but doesn't recover the $100 in data charges that they racked up. Thanks Apple for this ridiculous feature to make a few users happy.

My hotspot shows up and I was confused because I don't pay for a hotspot for my phone. Everyone is saying that only iPad Air is able to see the hotspot. However, my mom's Samsung was able to connect to the hotspot on my phone as well as my iPad Air....

I realize this is an old post and you may already know this by now but, when you create a family share, you control what the kids can purchase and download.  My kids love this idea because we put iTunes gift cards in their accounts and they can decide what they spend it on.  I have three children and when they want to purchase an app, music (we have apple music but, my daughter makes lots of videos and has to have downloaded non-drm music) or in-app purchase, they choose the same way we do to purchase it.  At that point, my wife and I (since we are the "parents") get a notification that the child (notified by name) would like to purchase [name of app/in-app purchase] for $$$.  At that point, we can choose yes or no.  It's actually a great system because it allows us to control what the kids are downloading the same way that we could if they were to bring the phone to us and ask us to download it in-hand.  It prompts the "parents" the same way for free apps as well.  If you already know about this then disregard. 

Same issue here, new iPad Mini 2 & iPhone 6s Plus. Drove me nuts, solution that worked for me after trying everything here. Signed out of iCloud on the iPad, then signed back in, that pesky Hotspot was gone.

Cheers

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

Simon Murray wrote:

 

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

Glad it helped!