Personal Hotspot and Bluetooth

I’ve been trying to get my iPhone’s Personal Hotspot to show up on my late 2008 MacBook Pro for several weeks now and haven’t had any luck. I think I finally know why it hasn’t been working, but would like someone to confirm it. The Bluetooth in this MacBook doesn’t support it. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are currently on and according to the System Profiler information on the built-in Bluetooth card, it’s not compatible with Personal Hotspot. Am I right? If so, would I be able to use some USB Bluetooth dongle that IS compatible and somehow get the Hotspot to work?

Posted on Aug 6, 2018 6:36 PM

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1 reply

Aug 11, 2018 3:18 PM in response to Darin Fontana

You do not need BT to use the personal HotSpot. You only need the it for Instant Hotspot:

Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch - Apple Support

You should still be able to connect to the phone's personal hotspot in the way you'd connect to any standard WiFi network eve with an older computer.

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Personal Hotspot and Bluetooth

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