How do I find out who is connected to my personal hotspot on iPhone

Dyrelog you are spot on. I've been searching the Internet but with no avail. I keep finding this old threads. I cannot believe more iPhone Users are not voicing their dissatisfaction and disappointment that you cannot control which devices are connected to your hotspot. I thought iPhone Users are more cerebral than what I have encountered on this thread.

Obviously you're not a Hotspot Power User and is clueless like the rest who doesn't know the answer but just wanted to add your two cents.

iPhone Hotspot will only alow maximum of 5 connections. If you're a super user and wanted to add another device than you have to turn off the hotspot and turn it back on. Hoping the 6th device would be connected to the hotspot before other devices crowd it out. I use both IOS and Android for business.

On my Android I can select which devices can have access without having to fight for access with my own devices in the home. If you don't know an answer than don't answer. Otherwise your wasting people's time filtering through incoherent ramblings!

The iCloud account and the connection to the hotspot are separate and distinct. The iCloud account does indeed pass information to other connected iCloud devices (if enabled), however, the thread is about connections to the hotspot, not connections to your iCloud account.

BeatsMe2017 wrote:

The iCloud account and the connection to the hotspot are separate and distinct. The iCloud account does indeed pass information to other connected iCloud devices (if enabled), however, the thread is about connections to the hotspot, not connections to your iCloud account.

You're still not understanding. There are only two ways to connect to the Hotspot: the device is on the same Apple ID as the device with the personal hotspot or you have been given the password by the person who owns the device. Therefore, if you are the owner of the personal hotspot it seems unlikely that anyone connected to the hotspot would be unknown to you. That is why the Apple ID is getting mentioned.

Tthe only solution is to, sadly, buy an Android phone. Before I bought my iPhone 7 Plus, I had the Note 4. It tells you who is on your hotspot by their IP address which you can edit. You can also set your hotspot to allow only those devices you have entered via their MAC address. Try as they might, if they are not added as an allowed device they cannot connect to your hotspot. Apple, sadly, is WAY behind on this feature and only gives you a bare bones version of a hotspot, which is rather lazy since they boast being an innovative company. Nothing nnovative about a bare bones hotspot with no settings except changing the default password and SSID, which you have to go to another area in Settings to do, which is rather tedious. I hope Apple takes a lesson from other cell phone companies and begins give the people what they ask for and need. Apple says that our security is essential. If that were true they would offer this very basic feature of allowing only allowed devices on our hotspot.

Hi Hank

Hope you found your answer, but if not, when you turn the hotspot off you will see that "other devices signed in to your iCloud account will be able to use Personal Hotspot without having to turn it on manually". The only way to stop other devices connecting automatically is to sign them out of your iCloud account.

Apple believes that since these other devices are authorized on your account, you want them to be able to use your hotspot (which may not be true). It's a 'feature' :-)

Richard

This reply isn't directed to anyone in particular but here might be a scenario where your connections are trusted (i.e. other devices you yourself own) but do not want them connected automatically to your iPhone's personal hotspot: you may not wish to download iOS updates on say, your iPad. Or, let's say -- you do want to use your iPad but your Mac laptop decides to do OS updates... let's say you are on the road and no wi-fi is available but you do have cellular coverage. And because these are all your own devices, you share an Apple ID amongst them.

So of course you can shut the laptop off or forget the hotspot password but you might forget to do so, and not remember until the damage is done.

Note: I don't have an iPad or Mac and i realize many of you do; so it's probably a common situation I've described above. And there is probably a simple solution that I don't see because I don't have other Apple devices.

You believe you have absolute control over your Wifi key, the key you publish every time you turn on your wifi, albeit with a barely relevant level of encryption?

Interesting you feel that way with your condescending responses. If you truly do have such a blase view of your security, then I wish you good luck, but zero sympathy, on the day you find you have been hacked and personal life messed up.

It's not exactly difficult to discover wifi keys, script kiddy tools are readily available to enable even tech amateurs to decrypt your key.

A simple and very valid question was asked, one which would easily be resolved with an extremely basic feature from Apple.

CriticalCritic wrote:

I cannot believe more iPhone Users are not voicing their dissatisfaction and disappointment that you cannot control which devices are connected to your hotspot.

As I have absolute control over who gets to connect to my hotspot, I have nothing to be disappointed or dissatisfied about. The only people who would be able to connect to my hotspot would be people I've given the passcode to. And, then, they can only do it when I turn on that feature.

However, as you seem to have a problem with this (are you giving your password out willy-nilly?), you should let Apple know how you feel.

http://www.apple.com/feedback

DyreLogan wrote:

Tthe only solution is to, sadly, buy an Android phone. Before I bought my iPhone 7 Plus, I had the Note 4. It tells you who is on your hotspot by their IP address which you can edit.

The only people who can connect to your Personal Hotspot on your iPhone are people to whom you've given the passcode and devices sharing the same Apple ID. I find it difficult to believe it's that hard to manage. If you've given your passcode out to a lot of people, change it.

Can I just point out something that may help?

Your personal hotspot can operate in two different ways as far as I know:

1 it turns your phone into a wifi hotspot that other devices can connect to and then uses the cellular connection to the mobile network to provide internet connectivity to those devices

2 it allows direct connections (via cable) from a computer and uses the cellular connection to the mobile network to provide internet connectivity to the connected device

the "password" you enter into your hotspot settings is actually a wifi key. This should be entered into other devices that connect to your phone via wifi. If you change the password setting on your phone, you will have to change it on all the devices that connect via wifi.

When you connect a computer via a cable it is not connecting to your phone via wifi so the password setting is irrelevant. you don't need a password for a direct cable connection because you can see that there's a cable connected between your computer and your phone!

I would guess that, if your computer is connected to your phone by cable, it might also be connected to it by wifi - therefore you might see 2 connections through your personal hotspot.

BeatsMe2017 wrote:

You believe you have absolute control over your Wifi key, the key you publish every time you turn on your wifi, albeit with a barely relevant level of encryption?

Last I checked, the personal hotspot feature was using WPA2-PSK encryption.

Bazzzzzinga wrote:

Imagine a world where Apple build basic functionality into their OS and you don't have to download an app to do even the simplest of things.....

I can imagine it would be an incredibly dull world, where you could only do things the way Apple decided you should. The whole point of an app store is to allow dozens to hundreds of different ways to do the same thing.

But what does your post have to do with who is using your personal hotspot?

Bazzzzzinga wrote:

It seems like a basic feature that should be included without having to download an app to do so.

I disagree; I don't see it as a basic feature. iCloud accounts are personal. So I know that any device that connects to my hotspot automatically is a device of MINE. No one else can connect to it unless I give them the password. Since I gave them the password I know who they are. If you truly need this capability then it's reasonable to get a 3rd party app to meet your need. I certainly don't want Apple to use some of my valuable storage for a function I will never use.

BeatsMe2017 wrote:

What does your 'iCloud' account have to do with connecting to a wifi hotspot, are they now suddenly combined in some way by Apple?

You might have more context if you read the thread from the beginning. The only devices that can connect to your personal hotspot without the password are devices logged into the same Apple ID. So, yes, there is a connection. Anyone else would need to have been given the passcode in order to connect to your personal hotspot.