It seems that in some countries, consumers have just conceded to the idea of monthly allowances, and mobile operators are of course happy to cash in on that.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Check Who's Using Your iPhone Hotspot Data
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It seems that in some countries, consumers have just conceded to the idea of monthly allowances, and mobile operators are of course happy to cash in on that.
noshooz
macrumors member
I don't see this option at all on either my iPhone 16 nor my 15 Pro Max and I use hotspot every day.
UPDATE: 4/14/26 - all of a sudden I'm seeing hotspot usage. I've no idea why it just suddenly appeared. It could be because yesterday (13th) was the first day of a new billing period with my provider.
UPDATE: 4/14/26 - all of a sudden I'm seeing hotspot usage. I've no idea why it just suddenly appeared. It could be because yesterday (13th) was the first day of a new billing period with my provider.
Last edited:
Sir_Macs_A_Lot
macrumors 6502a
I have a so called 'Unlimited' Data Plan. It throttles after 30GB and only allows for 5GB hotspotting each month.
I use it as a hotspot for other devices when on long walks.
I don't want it to turn off. If I wanted it to turn off, I would turn it off or disconnect the devices. The attached devices are sending data the entire time.
Apple does not know better than me how I want to use my battery and data. I know how I want to use my battery and data.
juniormaj
macrumors regular
I have multiple PCs that are listed by name on mine, and a Mac that is running 15.7.5.
Matsamoto
macrumors 65816
I’m not so sure if this “new intel” give you any real intel.
When I go into the “Datause" toggle, it says 98MB for my IPad and 16,3GB for “other devices”, and then there is no unit or info for the other devices!
It’s so clarifying Apple!🤣
When I go into the “Datause" toggle, it says 98MB for my IPad and 16,3GB for “other devices”, and then there is no unit or info for the other devices!
It’s so clarifying Apple!🤣
Robert.Walter
macrumors 68040
Not ready for prime time tho.
Of the 3 individual devices shown it only shows the correct name for my Apple TV. Shows “Mac”, and an alphanumeric string for 3rd device.
Then there is Other devices with a schmidtload of data consumption all aggregated in one pot.
All devices are Apple and modern w exception of a backup 6S, all s/w is up to date.
It galls me like I can see several devices are connected but there is no realtime list of what they are.
Of the 3 individual devices shown it only shows the correct name for my Apple TV. Shows “Mac”, and an alphanumeric string for 3rd device.
Then there is Other devices with a schmidtload of data consumption all aggregated in one pot.
All devices are Apple and modern w exception of a backup 6S, all s/w is up to date.
It galls me like I can see several devices are connected but there is no realtime list of what they are.
It’s always something
macrumors 6502a
I’d like to see Apple stop restricting the download of iPadOS updates over an iPhone hotspot. This is a truly stupid restriction of how I use my data.
That concerns me from a privacy and security perspective. Since my last reset, I have 10% of the Personal hotspot data (Phd) coming from my iPad mini, 25% from my iPad Pro, and 65% from my ”Other devices”. The problem is that I have no other devices that generate Phd. My Ph use is exclusively on both iPads and comes to 90% from visits to local cafes when their WiFi drops out. Yes, I have “Allow Other to Join” enabled but someone not signed into iCloud would still have to know my WiFi password to be able to join.
I just find it odd for a company that almost obsessively prides itself on privacy & security to not have a way of identifying all Phd sucking devices. How do websites pull off digital finger printing? I am willing to but I do not fully trust Apple’s privacy promises. For example, hidden under Setting > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Privacy is “Block All Cookies”. Having activated it, I suggest renaming this setting “Block Some Cookies and revising the header to Liquid Privacy.
Happy_John
macrumors 68000
If it concerns you, don’t use your phone as a hotspot. Get a proper mobile router that gives you far more granular data and far more control. The mobile router can sit between your phone and all other devices. Grousing / being salty about Apple is not going to make your data and traffic issues / worries any less. Your data is your responsibility.
Don’t just “be concerned from a privacy and security perspective”. You are the one who chooses how your devices interact with the internet.
What your post seems to be saying is that the hotspot is giving inaccurate data. That’s not surprising.
Expecting your phone to have the same featureset as a security/privacy focused mobile router is a bit unrealistic.
You want something like this. That’s the only way you’ll meet your expectations:
UniFi Travel Router - Ubiquiti Store
An ultra-slim travel router that instantly extends your UniFi Network wherever you are, bringing secure, familiar connectivity to remote locations.
As for the time being, I wouldn’t trust the data coming from the hotspot app to be overly accurate. Monitor what’s happening from the devices themselves to get a more accurate picture of what’s going on. Get some dedicated system monitor / network monitor tools.
Last edited:
CarlJ
Contributor
Good for you? I'm on a 15GB/mo plan because it's cheaper than the unlimited plan, and I rarely use more than 8 GB/mo. Why pay a lot extra for something I don't need?
CarlJ
Contributor
My carrier sends me a text message each month when my plan rolls over, and I go reset the Cellular Usage Statistics then (after taking a screenshot of the current usage numbers for my own curiosity).
And if you drill down into the "System Services" they split it up into the various categories. It's a lot of little stuff that adds up over the course of a month, and it's largely all the little things that keep modern smartphones running.
zarmanto
macrumors 65816
As others have noted, there are circumstances where such limits do still exist, even apart from lower tier plans. This article is specifically discussing tethered data usage, because (at least in the US) the carriers generally add differentiated limits to tethered data; they don't want a customer turning their "unlimited" cellular data into their entire internet connection for their household... without paying more for it, that is.
Personally, I'm paying a stupid amount of money for AT&T's most expensive plan -- for multiple cell phones -- and I still have to cope with limits to my tethered data. 🤷♂️
My understanding so far is that it works ok if the devices are all under the same appleID (and all Apple devices of course).
I continuously have issues with my hotspot turning off when providing it for devices not under by apple ID. Family sharing helps a bit, but it’s still nowhere as reliable as the hotspot of my Samsung A50 (using the same SIM).
My screen is not like the screenshot in the article.
It shows “Mac” but not model number. Not sure where MacRumors is getting these from.
Since I have multiple SIM, the devices and usage change when i change the cellular data SIM.
It shows “Mac” but not model number. Not sure where MacRumors is getting these from.
Since I have multiple SIM, the devices and usage change when i change the cellular data SIM.
This comment is useless.
“I never travel to India so let me post about India and make some snide comment”
“My car hotspot shows who is connected.”
ScooterComputer
macrumors 6502
I came here to say just this! Waaaay past time, makes no sense why Apple doesn’t do this. You can’t even perform a reset using Shortcuts, to automate it yourself. Seems suspiciously missing (while making the celkular partners $$!).
Ideally I’d like to see a history there, like Battery, where I could compare overall data usage from the past several months, and granularly for the past 3 billing periods. I mean, really, how difficult could it be to implement that?? And the fact that Apple has done NOTHING to make it so that the user can do it—that data is not available to 3rd party apps OR downloadable by the user—just furthers my conspiracy theory tingly-sense that Apple leaves this antiquated purposefully.
Missing the point of what @icerabbit was suggesting…
CarlJ
Contributor
"suspiciously missing" 🙄 Not everything is a conspiracy to make you pay more. They have thousands of things they could add to iOS. Lots of other things seem more important to them, unless/until you (and thousands of others) make it clear to them that the feature you want is important.
And it's not something they could easily automate without widespread support from the carriers - they don't know when your plan is rolling over to the next month - it's not necessarily on the same day every month, or every 30 days either. It varies from carrier to carrier, and I'm not aware of any existing API for the carriers to communicate this to Apple / iOS. It's a neat idea, but would take a lot of work to implement.
East India Company
macrumors 6502
Apple call some of their phones « Pro » but the softwares has almost nothing pro in it. This is very clear with the hotspot function and in general data control where we have absolutely zero control over it: it disconnects when it wants to, there is no IP management, no control over who can enter, no locking functions, no data control. It’s all a useless black box.
My work phone is a cheap android and I use the hotspot at home. It function 100% of the time and does not disconnect and lets me control quite a few things. In fact I am running my complete wifi network with it and it just works.
rembert
macrumors regular
Weird. My kids and their friends are pretty heavy users of my hotspot on an iPhone 13 mini while on the go (before that, with SE-2016 and SE-2020). Android and iOS devices connect as well as an occasional laptop (windows/mac). With this update it will be easier to figure out who is on my hotspot. No issues at all with the hotspot, although it sometimes needs a bit of fiddling to connect.
Thanks for the mobile router suggestion and link. But my main point was:If it concerns you, don’t use your phone as a hotspot. Get a proper mobile router that gives you far more granular data and far more control. The mobile router can sit between your phone and all other devices. Grousing / being salty about Apple is not going to make your data and traffic issues / worries any less. Your data is your responsibility.
Don’t just “be concerned from a privacy and security perspective”. You are the one who chooses how your devices interact with the internet.
What your post seems to be saying is that the hotspot is giving inaccurate data. That’s not surprising.
Expecting your phone to have the same featureset as a security/privacy focused mobile router is a bit unrealistic.
You want something like this. That’s the only way you’ll meet your expectations:
UniFi Travel Router - Ubiquiti Store
An ultra-slim travel router that instantly extends your UniFi Network wherever you are, bringing secure, familiar connectivity to remote locations.eu.store.ui.com
As for the time being, I wouldn’t trust the data coming from the hotspot app to be overly accurate. Monitor what’s happening from the devices themselves to get a more accurate picture of what’s going on. Get some dedicated system monitor / network monitor tools.
“I just find it odd for a company that almost obsessively prides itself on privacy & security to not have a way of identifying all Phd [Personal Hotspot data] sucking devices.’
Happy_John
macrumors 68000
And my point was, finding it "odd", I.e. griping about it, isn't going to help in any way to find out about the actual traffic on your device.
Rather than complaining that the wrong tool for the job isn't doing the job properly, use the right tool instead. It would be great if the Personal Hotspot app turned an iPhone into a fully featured mobile router, but it isn't, and it's not going to be. It's just a "handy extra feature". It's not that it isn't correct correctly, it is working correctly for what it claims to do.
You bought a phone, not a mobile router.
zarmanto
macrumors 65816
I personally think that Hanlon's razor handily applies; which is to say, I expect nobody at Apple considers this to be a high priority, amidst all of the other things that they already know they need to get done.
Automation is nice and all, but it doesn't always have to be the answer; in this case, a user accessible manual option to reset specifically hotspot usage would suffice. There's already the global reset usage option, as noted at the end of the article, but that's obviously not always the right answer, either.
To use the oft maligned automotive analogy: very nearly every car since about 1925 or so has both an "entire life of the vehicle" odometer and a user resettable tripometer. Newer vehicles with digital systems usually have at least two tripometers, often among other trackers. Right now, iPhones only have the one user accessible tripometer, and arguably no "entire life" odometer at all, since the reset option is global -- though, there are of course dozens of other peripherally related statistics that Apple chooses to track.
I think that a minimalist manual solution would resolve this for the vast majority of users, and it's not at all a hard lift to add a couple more variables and a reset button. The only real question is whether or not this is a priority to enough users, that it warrants action.
timeislove
macrumors 6502
Running 26.4.1 on my ip13, not seeing the "data usage" after the toggle.
Is this new feature region dependent?