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iMessage won't send messages on iPad via bluetooth tether

O

OberTiger

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 21, 2012
4
0
SE USA
I tether my iPad to my iPhone5 for use during the day and around town. Prior to the iPhone 5 I was tethering to my 4 via a jailbroken tether app. Now that I have the mobile share plan, I have gone legit and am using the built in tether capabilities. When I tether over wifi, I have no problems, but when I tether over bluetooth, my iMessage can't send or receive messages. I also think there may be an issue receiving notifications while tethered over bluetooth.

Everything else works fine, safari, facebook, etc.

Any help/suggestions?
 
Same probleme !!!

I have the same problem on my iPod touch !!! With Bluetooth iMessage is KO... on WIFI... no problem !
 
I spoke to Apple

I spoke to Apple last night and it sounds like iMessage just doesn't know to look for a server connection through bluetooth. In other words, while safari or facebook etc will check for internet connectivity through 3G, WiFi or Bluetooth, iMessage isn't programed to look for bluetooth. Therefor iMessage thinks there is no internet connection present.

Hopefully this is something they will correct in the future because there are no techincal hurdles on why iMessage shouldn't be allowed to connect to it's servers via bluetooth tethering.
 
I'm having the same problem with my iPad 2 WiFi, and my wife's "new" iPad (iPad 3) Wifi. The problem will occur when tethering via bluetooth, but not when tethering via WiFi. I prefer to tether via bluetooth because I can start the tethering from the iPad without having to do anything on the iPhone. To start tethering via WiFi you must go into settings and open up Personal Hotspot on the iPhone so you're WiFi access point becomes discoverable.

Here's what I tried:
First I tried resetting only the network settings, that didn't help. Then I tried a full restore, and set up as a new iPad. That also didn't work.

Other observations:
It seems like the problem isn't just limited to iMessage, but Apple and iCloud in general. For instance, after restoring the iPad and setting up as new, I used the iPhone Personal Hotspot (tethering) to connect the iPad so I could enable iMessage (so I could test). First I had to enter my apple ID and password. This part failed, presumably because it couldn't connect to Apple or iCloud at all. I also use iCloud to sync iBooks (bookmarks, notes, last page read, etc), and noticed these weren't syncing either. It seems that most (if not all) iCloud features cease to work when tethering the iPad 2 over bluetooth.
 
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Also Notifications...

Yes I have noticed the same behavior on my iPod Touch gen 4, iPad 2, and with the latest iPod Touch Gen 5. And this only started when upgraded to iOS 6. It is clearly a bug with iOS 6 and bluetooth tether. The most annoying thing I have experienced is the notifications not working. Once I connect to WiFi then bam all the notifications come in.

I hope they fix it soon... or else I might just return this iPod Touch gen 5 and wait til they get the iOS 6 issues hammered out.
 
Fixed in iOS 6.0.1

It seems that this is now fixed in iOS 6.0.1!

Edit: still not working... I iMessaged myself and that worked for some reason, but otherwise, it's still as broken as ever.
 
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Going slightly off the topic i read a some where on the internet but when tethering you are unable to do Face-time calls while tethering either.

At the moment i'am unable to tether because the new update 6.0.1 has done something to the bluetooth connection i'am unable to get hotspot sorted out
When i connect both devices together the bluetooth hotspot blue banner doesn't appear.
 
iOS 6.1.3 - Still broken

The problem is still not fixed in the latest version of iOS (6.1.3). Here's hoping for an iOS 7 fix!
 
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