Apple Acknowledges Personal Hotspot Issues Affecting Some iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 Users

[handle manifest]

I don't have wired internet service at home. I use my iPhone 6S as a hotspot. My Chromebook sometimes (the problem comes and goes in waves) fails to reconnect when it wakes from sleep (I then have to go to the 6S and go to Settings > Personal Hotspot, then turn the Wi-Fi on my Chromebook off and on to reconnect) but my other wireless devices don't have this problem.

Slightly off-topic: I don't have a Mac or PC and since I can't back up my iPhones through my Chromebook, I back them up to iCloud. Before I got my second iPhone, I would back up the 6S through my Android (unless I remembered to do a backup when I was at work or somewhere else). Then I replaced the Android with an iPhone SE (new, not used) late last year. It had iOS 11 on it out of the box. I was able to update it to iOS 13 via the 6S but since then I haven't been able to update it or back it up that way. I'm also unable to back up or update the 6S via the SE. Anyone know if something was changed in iOS 12 or 13 to block using another iPhone in Personal Hotspot mode for updates and backups?

 

[now i see it]

I've got an old iPhone on iOS 9 and will never "upgrade" it because it's a flawless personal hotspot device. Works perfectly. So much for progress.

 

[Naraxus]

Ever since Craig Federighi was put in charge of iOS & MacOSX the stability & quality of both have plummeted. There's always a .1 release near immediate after a .0 release that tries to fix bugs in .0 but always adds more. There's persistent crashes, security issues. The list goes on. Scott Forstall needs to be brought back to fix them both.
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Hot spot works fine for me. No issues.

Of course not will you ever stop making excuses for Apple?

 

[jmitchel]

Yep, been having this issue here with iOS 13 with O2 UK when tethering an iPad to my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Apple where blaming O2, O2 blamed Apple........so it seems O2 where right in this case!

 

[jsavvy]

I’ve been having this issue very frequently between my iPhone SE and iPad Pro 12.9. Both are running the most recent versions of iOS. Numerous times simply switching the hotspot on and off was not sufficient. I had to completely reboot my phone to make it work properly.

I’m glad this issue is getting some attention and I hope the fix is in the next release.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I am still on 12.4.1, waiting on 13.4.1 to be released before I upgrade any of my iOS devices. Have I missed out? Yes, sure, but I certainly do appreciate the stability of 12.4.1. With Apple software these days, you just have to give a year before the bugs seemed to be fully ironed out. I think what Apple should probably do over the next 5 years is skip a year to focus fixing bugs.

 

[Nozuka]

It has been so unreliable for me, that my employer got me a SIM card for my laptop, so i don't have to use it anymore....

So i guess i should thank Apple.. this is way more convenient anyway

 

[Bazooka-joe]

It’s been problematic for as long as I can remember

 

[xpxp2002]

I just wish they’d undo ”breaking” the hotspot workaround for iOS updates. Since iOS 13 you can’t use the personal hotspot of another iOS device to download updates. Even with low data mode off.

With 12 and prior, this was a great workaround. Apple forcing me into not being able to use my data and my devices the way I want has been getting better with new releases easing restrictions like the cellular app size limit, but this new update restriction is obnoxious. Just give me a switch and a scary warning prompt to opt out of the restriction in Settings if I want to download iOS updates over cellular.

 

[amgff84]

This is one of the instances where iOS is behind Android which has a superior Personal Hotspot functionality. iOS keeps disconnecting without giving control to the user on when to disconnect plus on iOS there is no mechanism to reconnect. You have to manually reconnect everytime.

As a former Android fanboy, I think Android does a lot of things better than iOS. Where Apple exceeds is consistency and build quality, as well as the ecosystem that exists between macOS and iOS. When Apple does fail something, it is the biggest PITA, I think they are too complacent with their products.

 

[glowplug]

Perhaps this bug was “accidentally on purpose” at the behest of the carriers. I certainly don’t see the carriers losing sleep over hotspot issues.

 

[falainber]

Yes, the above let’s me get two days of usage out of my max, except the hyperbole of “turning off hotspot”.

You contradict Apple. They said "to expect customers who are unable to connect to a Personal Hotspot or experience frequent disconnection from one"

 

[jsmith189]

Mine has been broken pretty much since iOS13 launched. It'll work occasionally, but can take up to 10 times to actually get anything to connect.

 

[PickUrPoison]

You contradict Apple. They said "to expect customers who are unable to connect to a Personal Hotspot or experience frequent disconnection from one"

Not all iPhones are having hotspot issues. Apparently some do and some don’t.

 

[Osxguy]

Last week I sat with 160 odd staff and showed them how to hotspot to their work supplied iPhone to test VPN and remote access for working from home due to the pandemic.

iPhone 8 Plus and 11’s are the models we provide to staff.

The personal hotspot failed to function reliably on about 1/3 of the iPhone.

Not good enough Apple.
Improve your QA team. ?
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Id say get an Q/A team.. if I was part of that staff id hang my head in shame and try harder... maybe I am being to hard on this company but tbh when something works 1/3 of the time.... you'd better believe a few heads would be rolling...

 

[falainber]

Not all iPhones are having hotspot issues. Apparently some do and some don’t.

Well, if all iPhones had this problem that would be a total failure of QA (I assume that they test such important features as the hot spot). As is (some phones exhibit the issue) it's just a regular QA failure.

 

[M-a-r-t-i-n]

I’ve had this issue a lot in the past.
it has been especially a problem recently whilst setting up home users for VPN access.
however, after a little investigation, I found my issue to be with DHCP on the iPhone.
it just wasnt handing out the correct connection details. After manually setting the IP connection details in the laptop etc that I wanted to tether to the phone, it all worked fine.

The settings I use are;

Client IP: 172.20.10.2-15 (pick one for each client device)

Net Mask : 255.255.255.240

Router / Gateway : 172.20.10.1

DNS : 8.8.8.8

 

[SurferPup]

Good to know for certain as I wondered if it was an intermittent bug or Wi-Fi saturation causing the issues. Toggling iPad Wi-Fi off then on seems to help with iPhone Hotspot connection too. My Nokia 6.1 sometimes is unable to find my iPhone Hotspot as per other's posts about non Apple hardware.

 

[wicked271]

I’ve had more problems with hotspot in ios 13 than previous ios.

I can connect with my personal Windows computer in the office sometimes with a few on/off, but can’t connect my hotspot on a different computer just near mine. I have tried to turn it on/off but when it connects, no internet. But it can connect easily to my co-worker’s android hotspot. And it stays connected to hers too! Very frustrating!

 

[I7guy]

Well, if all iPhones had this problem that would be a total failure of QA (I assume that they test such important features as the hot spot). As is (some phones exhibit the issue) it's just a regular QA failure.

Every bug in the world from every operating system vendor is a “regular QA failure.” The unfortunate issues with the 737 were regular Qa failures according to your logic.

 

[chucker23n1]

Personally, I'd say it's mostly fine. It does disconnect now and then.

But… the feature is inherently complex (you need two devices, one of them needs to create a Wi-Fi hotspot, etc.). And you know they could have reduced the need for this? By making cellular an option on the new MacBook Air this week.

Instead, they made an ad for the iPad Pro that pokes fun at Mac and Windows laptops typically not having cellular. Ouch?

Ever since Craig Federighi was put in charge of iOS & MacOSX the stability & quality of both have plummeted. There's always a .1 release near immediate after a .0 release that tries to fix bugs in .0 but always adds more. There's persistent crashes, security issues. The list goes on. Scott Forstall needs to be brought back to fix them both.

I don't understand this deification of Scott Forstall. I see little evidence that his org shipped inherently higher-quality code than Craig's.

Now, if we go further back to Bertrand Serlet, maybe? But at the time, Apple had a lot less code in total, so it was also easier to manage.

 

[MarkB786]

Yep. Ongoing problem for me.

 

[Muzzakus]

Feature is almost dead it’s that unreliable.

the amount of times I need to get up to go my phone to get the hotspot to show on other devices makes it almost unusable.

Then if idle for to long, have to go close to phone again to find it. 1\10

 

[Mike121989]

This has been a big issue on my iPhone 11Pro, since day one.....

 

[Brian Y]

Manual hotspot connections work most of the time for me, but I have never been able to get "Instant Personal Hotspot" to work reliably.