iOS 12 and Instant Hotspot Not Working

I have the same issue, however mine didn't present until after updating my mac to 10.14.1.

Now, the only way to connect to the hotspot on my phone is to:

1. Go to hotspot in my phone, and enable it.

2. On the mac click on the wifi button in the system menu, and quickly, before the mac decides it's a personal hotspot, locate the phone in the list of hotspots in the menu and select it.

I find this works every time; though it's a complete nuisance. The personal hotspot is a great feature when it works, though I note that (similarly to what was reported above), even when it does work, the actual connection can take upwards of 10-15 seconds to establish. If I bypass the personal hotspot using the steps I've listed above, the connection is instantaneous. Why the personal hotspot is so slow to establish, even when it's working, is beyond me.

I have had exactly the same problem, but here's what I think may have fixed it: rather than sign out of iCloud, which is a pain, try resetting your Apple ID password, which I think signs you out of iCloud anyway - since you have to sign back in with the new password. But there's no hassle in terms of losing data, making copies, etc. Since I did that, my iPhone XS Max instant hotspot has been showing up every time, without exception.

Does this work for anyone else, or am I imagining things?

Hi,

I have the same issue with
iPhone SE (12.1)

iPad 2018 (12.1)

I get it on work with a hard reset of the iPhone only.

Since iOS 12 I have issues with icloud clipboard (handoff and airdrop is working well).

This happened to me when I updated to iOS 12. Best thing to do is turn off Handoff, logout/login of iCloud.

Addition to my last post:

Personal Hotspot with Bluetooth only without WiFi is of course very slow (about 0,3 MBits) so not a serious option. (except for power saving only)

If my Iphone Hotspot is set to Auto-Join, the IPad connects even with Bluetooth turned on.

(Wich is not possible when selecting Hotspot manually as described in post above)

But still: Instant Hotspot still not possible like in IOS 10 or 11.

Personal Hotspot has to turned ON all the time, and even then there are some quirks. Sad.

i facing same issue on my iPad but i got an ideal solution in a video that is here -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9FneZqyqPU

in my case solution #5 worked.

so sad, i faced same issue after my iPhone xs max to iOS 12.1.3 but i found very useful video tutorial on youtube to fix hotspot on my XS Max. https://youtu.be/i9FneZqyqPU

Same here.

iPhone SE - IOS12

iPad Pro 9.5 - IOS12

iMac - High Sierra

for testing purposes additionally:

2nd iPhone SE - IOS12

iPad mini 2 Cellular - IOS12

iPad Air - IOS12

Handoff and Universal clipboard are working in every combination on every device. So the basic bluetooth/wifi/icloud magic works.

All devices except the iPad Pro 9.5 can activate the hotspots on the iphones and the ipad mini.

The iPad Pro 9.5 constantly says "Unable to start personal hotspot..."

If I activate the hotspot manually and disable bluetooth on the iPad, so that the hotspot is seen as wifi device it can connect (but thats not what we want....)

I tried the same as you, multiple times. icloud logoff/network reset/factory reset with and without backup. With iphone and ipad. No success.

Matt

I think we are talking about different things here.

The problem of this thread is:

Here as video:

IOS 12 - iPad Pro 9.7 - Personal Hotspot Timeout failure - YouTube

It could be a problem of the iPad Pro 9.7. In this thread all people which reported a device, had this iPad.

Hi all,

Like BrianInBS, I also tried to sort this issue out with a technician at Apple. What was done: Reset all settings, restore as new device on both the iPad and iPhone and it did not work either...

There is nothing more to do now but wait in the hope that Apple finds a solution to this annoying problem ...

So my iPad has not been able to recognize my personal hotspot since iOS 12 was installed. I’ve tried resetting Moble settings on my iPhone Macx ...no banana. I’ve tried resetting ipad air 2 also and bingo but only temporarily. Next day same crap. Buggy software as always. Apple has really screwed up with iOS as with many other updates. Sometimes you’re better off waiting to see what bugs come with the latest software. It’s despicable that apple cant get their software right. As much as apple charges for their phones, you would think they could handle proper updates. I have to turn off my personal hotspot and turn it back on I order for it to show up on my iPad. I can reset my iPhone and get the personal hotspot to show temporarily but it’s not worth it because resetting my iPhone max will put my alarm clock sound back to default that’s pretty crappy and you can’t put it back to your desired alarm tone. It’s a discrace what apple has done with their updates. Unacceptable.

In my case the Instant Hotspot wasn't showing in either my MacBook Pro and iPad. So the culprit was most likely my iPhone, as it was indeed. In your case, @torpidlittle, you may need to sign off and back in iCloud in the iPad as well.

Still iCloud is a bit too delicate for my tastes. For other reasons I tried the same process on my MBP and now the Books app connects to the Book Store but it shows nothing. At least my books and PDF already in iCloud get synched (well, some books - like "iPhone guide for iOS 12.3" - couldn't update from 12.2. then it's got fixed), so I can deal with it. Also some of my contacts lost their portraits.

Just signing out of iCloud and back in on my iPhone fixed it.