how do I disconnect from an iphone hotspot?

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Level 1

90 points

how do I disconnect from an iphone hotspot?

I have a iPhone 5c, version 9.3.2 (13f69) and OSX version10.11.5 (15F34).

When I connect to my iPhone using the wifi menu, it works fine. When I want to DISCONNECT so that the Mac no longer has any active network and the iPhone's 3G/4G data connect is NOT being used, I would expect that I would click the "Disconnect from Tim's iPhone" on the same menu, shown here:

This has utterly NO effect. Tim' iPhone remains connected - the iPhone still shows the active connection, there appears to be NO way to disconnect other than to turn off connection sharing ON the iPhone.

Is this by design?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 2015, 2.8GHZ i7, 16GB

Posted on Jul 23, 2016 3:58 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 23, 2016 4:09 AM in response to Tim St.Clair

No, it is not by design, however, I believe your mac will continue to attempt to connect to that network if it's the only known network available. You could try switching to another known Wifi Network or switch off Wi-Fi if the function is not needed.

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jul 23, 2016 4:18 AM in response to Christopher Lim

I suspect the iPhone will be nearby & therefore treated as the strongest network preventing switching to another network.

If you do not want to turn off the hotspot your only option is to 'forget the network' in System Preferences > Network > Select the wifi interface & forget the network in the preferred list (I can't recall if this is under an advanced button).

I think it is better for your battery & security to disable the hotspot.

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Answer 3

Tim St.Clair Author

Level 1

90 points

Jul 23, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Tim St.Clair

Here's the thing.

1. Use the mac to connect to the iphone and do some stuff.

2. Use the mac to switch wifi OFF

3. The blue bar on the iPhone goes away. You'd think personal connection sharing is off.

4. Time passes ... leave it an hour, or a minute.

5. Switch Wifi back on at the Mac

6. The mac then automatically (no user interaction) re-enables the access point on the phone, the blue bar re-appears on the phone.

7. The same problem as initially reported occurs - "Disconnect from Tim's iPhone" does NOT appear to do anything.

I don't believe Apple put features into their system that do nothing by design, but this one seems that way.

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jul 23, 2016 7:14 PM in response to Tim St.Clair

Tim,

I'm not sure I agree with your logic.

Just because you disconnect in step 2 that doesn't mean the iPhone is deactivating the hotspot. The access point is still active and the Mac eventually reconnects in step 5 as it would do with any other access point. You could reuse the hotspot with another device - iOS cannot read your mind 🙂.

Personally I think if you want something turning off you need to do it manually, otherwise it would make an unreliable system - iOS would shutdown a hotspot whenever any device disconnects. Considering interference can do that & how trivial it is to 'de-auth' wifi devices that would make for a terrible user experience IMO. Dropped connections would lead you you having to open up iOS to re-enable the tether.

It is unfortunate that the disconnect option isn't working from the WiFi menu, however I don't think the system is intended to deactivate the hotspot on the iOS device (maybe I'm wrong).

Seek help at an Apple store if you think they can explain it better, or file a bug to Apple…

http://feedback.apple.com/

Something is a little off, but not necessarily broken.

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