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Just me or iPhone hotspot not reliable?

BENJMNS

BENJMNS

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 28, 2005
449
0
iPhone 5
Macbook Air
Verizon 4GB w/ hotspot

My 4s/5 actually shows up on the wifi list maybe 5% of the time after making numerous refresh attempts. And even when it shows up on the list, the "connection timeout" error pops up. I cannot for the life of me reliably, consistently connect via hotspot.

Atypical or are you guys experiencing the same thing?

TIA!

BA4884F4-34BF-409B-A163-8313FF231750-3302-00000256DE03FE3D.jpg
 
Dwalls90

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,427
4,399
BENJMNS said:
iPhone 5
Macbook Air
Verizon 4GB w/ hotspot

My 4s/5 actually shows up on the wifi list maybe 5% of the time after making numerous refresh attempts. And even when it shows up on the list, the "connection timeout" error pops up. I cannot for the life of me reliably, consistently connect via hotspot.

Atypical or are you guys experiencing the same thing?

TIA!
Click to expand...

Is this wifi or bluetooth?
 
B

bostonte

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2007
115
0
I use the Verizon hotspot on my iPad daily for hours and have no issues like that at all. A variety of odd devices always seem to find the network and connect without issue.

Unfortunately I don't have feedback on using it from an iPhone 5... but at least I can confirm its not some widespread issue with how iOS implements the feature. It should work better for you.
 
T

thehumorpolice

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2012
28
0
My iP5 tethering is very flaky. I often have to turn it off and on again for my mac air to find the network.
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
I've had problems with the Personal Hotspot feature since it was introduced on the iPhone 4.

I sometimes turn it on (Wi-Fi only) and nothing can see it - Windows, Mac OS, Kindle, Android device etc.

Toggling it off and then on again fixes it.

I've had this happen on my iPhone 5 too.
 
R

robopath

macrumors regular
Aug 11, 2010
100
2
BENJMNS said:
when i turn on personal hotspot it turns on wifi and bt automatically. i try to connect via wifi as i have bt shut off on my macbook to conserve batt.
Click to expand...

Wifi is a much larger battery draw for both devices (especially the phone). I've always used BT and it works fine on my 5. The speed difference between them is negligible.
 
B

Blinny83

macrumors member
Feb 10, 2011
86
1
I had this problem as well. Here's the deal. Your iPhone will only be discoverable when it's displaying the personal hotspot screen in settings. It will disconnect if there isn't any activity on the connected device for a certain period of time.

To have it show up again in the list of available wifi hotspots, just go back to the personal hotspot screen on your iPhone.

----------
robopath said:
Wifi is a much larger battery draw for both devices (especially the phone). I've always used BT and it works fine on my 5. The speed difference between them is negligible.
Click to expand...

The difference is negligible on 3G. With LTE however, there's a world of difference. Wifi is 10-20x faster on my phone with WiFi as opposed to BT.
 
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BENJMNS

BENJMNS

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 28, 2005
449
0
Blinny83 said:
I had this problem as well. Here's the deal. Your iPhone will only be discoverable when it's displaying the personal hotspot screen in settings. It will disconnect if there isn't any activity on the connected device for a certain period of time.

To have it show up again in the list of available wifi hotspots, just go back to the personal hotspot screen on your iPhone.

----------



The difference is negligible on 3G. With LTE however, there's a world of difference. Wifi is 10-20x faster on my phone with WiFi as opposed to BT.
Click to expand...

neat idea thx!!!
 
jbromer

jbromer

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2008
612
7
MD, USA
I've had this problem too. Sometimes the only fix is a phone reboot. Annoying, but no deal breaker.
 
P

PhoenixMac

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2010
1,009
1
USB tethering works no problem, and I've used wifi for long periods of time with no problems the only hiccups i face is the initial getting my laptop to see the the iPhone over wifi.
 
P

pure3d2

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2012
418
1
Sometimes even if the laptop is connected, you still wouldn't be able to get internet.

Here's what I do to fix that without rebooting:

Turn Airplane mode on, wait 5 seconds
Turn Airplane mode off, notice cell reception icon
It may say searching for service, no service, or give 1 bar
After a few seconds, it will go to 3 bars, then quickly to 5 bars, then back down to 2 or 3 bars
At this point, enable the personal hotspot and then 5 seconds later, your laptop will pick it up.
 
M

Martog

macrumors newbie
Sep 11, 2008
16
0
It's been flaky as all get out on my VZW iPhone 4 ever since I started using it. It always works via USB tethering, but WiFi is hit and miss, even connecting my iPad to it gives me fits. I generally always have a cable on me but does not help when I try to use my iPad.
 
P

PhoenixMac

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2010
1,009
1
Blinny83 said:
I had this problem as well. Here's the deal. Your iPhone will only be discoverable when it's displaying the personal hotspot screen in settings. It will disconnect if there isn't any activity on the connected device for a certain period of time.

To have it show up again in the list of available wifi hotspots, just go back to the personal hotspot screen on your iPhone.
Click to expand...

This is a solution thanks 100x! I tested it thoroughly and this works.
 
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