How Long Should It Take for iPhone to Detect iPad's Personal WiFi HotSpot?

[Scottyee]

I've got a Verizon 4G LTE iPad 3 and an iPhone 5, and
tether my iPhone to the iPad's 'Personal Hotspot' to utilize
its celluar data. Problem is that it often takes 2-4 minutes
for the the Ipad's device name to finally appear on the iPhone's Wifi available network list, and then finally connect.

Here's my order of operation:

1. Turn on WiFi on iPad (Settings > Wi-Fi > On)
2. Turn on Celluar Data on iPad (Settings > Cellular Data > On)
3. Turn on Personal Hotspot on iPad (Settings > Personal Hotspot > On)
4. Turn on Wifi on iPhone (Settings > Wi-Fi > On)
5. Wait for iPad's Device Name to appear on iPhone's WiFi available network list

On some occasions, the iPad3's device name appears almost immediately in the iPhone's available wiFi network list, yet other times it takes up to 3-4 minutes before it appears and finally connects.
This happens even when both devices are placed right next to each other and in the same location.

What accounts for such a wide variance of time for the iPhone to detect the iPad's hotspot device name?
Is this normal? How long should it be taking?
Curious if anybody else here that does iPad/iPhone wifi tethering is experiencing similar or different.

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

I've got a Verizon 4G LTE iPad 3 and an iPhone 5, and
tether my iPhone to the iPad's 'Personal Hotspot' to utilize
its celluar data. Problem is that it often takes 2-4 minutes
for the the Ipad's device name to finally appear on the iPhone's Wifi available network list, and then finally connect.

Here's my order of operation:

1. Turn on WiFi on iPad (Settings > Wi-Fi > On)
2. Turn on Celluar Data on iPad (Settings > Cellular Data > On)
3. Turn on Personal Hotspot on iPad (Settings > Personal Hotspot > On)
4. Turn on Wifi on iPhone (Settings > Wi-Fi > On)
5. Wait for iPad's Device Name to appear on iPhone's WiFi available network list

On some occasions, the iPad3's device name appears almost immediately in the iPhone's available wiFi network list, yet other times it takes up to 3-4 minutes before it appears and finally connects.
This happens even when both devices are placed right next to each other and in the same location.

What accounts for such a wide variance of time for the iPhone to detect the iPad's hotspot device name?
Is this normal? How long should it be taking?
Curious if anybody else here that does iPad/iPhone wifi tethering is experiencing similar or different.

I've done quite a lot of tethering, iPad tethered to iPhone and iPhone tethered to iPad. In both cases the hotspot device name has appeared as an available wifi network within 10 - 15 seconds. The only thing I can suggest is to reset all network settings on your iPhone and see if that helps.

 

[Zcott]

Use Bluetooth.

 

[Scottyee]

KeepCalmPeople: Per your suggestion, I went ahead and reset Network Settings but it unfortunately didn't fix the problem. I merely lost all my previously connected public wifi network passwords.

btw: anybody know if it's possible to store on the iPad/iPhone, and then later retrieve all previously connected wifi networks with their associated passwords?

ZScott: Yes, I suppose Bluetooth is an alternative when internet browsing, but I heard that the speed is slower than Wifi, esp. noticeable when streaming large files like movies.

In the meantime after visiting my local Verizon Store, they figured out what I was doing wrong. I mistakenly had the order of operations switched around thinking WiFi was to be turned on first. The cust. service tech told me that Wifi must be first 'turned OFF' BEFORE turning on Personal Hotspot. After Personal Hotspot is turned on, you are then prompted to turn ON Wifi & Bluetooth. Turning on WiFi before turning on the Hotspot feature will often confuse the iPhone5 slowing down hotspot device name detection on the tethered device. Now my iPhone consistently quickly detects & connects to my iPad Personal Hotspot in < 7 seconds.