iPhone seasoned apple user, dumb hotspot / wifi question...

[B737]

the short version:
can a device (with proper credentials) connect automatically to an iphone's hotspot, if the hotspot is ON, and the phone is asleep, or just at the home screen. ie; without opening the hotspot control settings window on the iphone..


the tldr version:
i want to stash my ipod touch into my glove box to feed data to my headunit in my car and serve music. i want the ipod touch to automatically connect to my phone's hotspot without having to fuss with anything like open the settings app on my phone, or open the wifi settings on the ipod touch. the iphone is a 6 with ios 8+, and the touch is a 4th gen with ios 6

 

[chabig]

In my experience, you don't have to mess with the phone, but you do have to go to the wifi settings in the iPod to connect to the phone.

 

[B737]

i thought it would have been from the other direction... that the ipod touch would always be looking for a wifi signal it knows the credentials for. i figured the hang up would be me having to open the hotspot settings on the phone to allow the ipod touch to connect... hummmm

 

[BrettDS]

Yeah, your problem is actually the other way around. I played around with this a bit as I've been wanting to replace my cellular ipad with a wifi only one and rely on tethering with my phone. However it was not as seamless as I would have hoped. You can connect from the ipad (or ipod in your case) without waking or touching the phone, but you have to initiate the connection from the connecting device every time.

 

[B737]

Yeah, your problem is actually the other way around. I played around with this a bit as I've been wanting to replace my cellular ipad with a wifi only one and rely on tethering with my phone. However it was not as seamless as I would have hoped. You can connect from the ipad (or ipod in your case) without waking or touching the phone, but you have to initiate the connection from the connecting device every time.

grrrr i was suspecting that. thank you Brett

 

[chabig]

Yeah, your problem is actually the other way around. I played around with this a bit as I've been wanting to replace my cellular ipad with a wifi only one and rely on tethering with my phone. However it was not as seamless as I would have hoped. You can connect from the ipad (or ipod in your case) without waking or touching the phone, but you have to initiate the connection from the connecting device every time.

Yes. I did exactly that...replaced my cellular iPad with a wifi only iPad Air 2 and replaced my iPad data plan with a shared data plan. I didn't know exactly how it would work either, but it's exactly as you described. I always have to go to the iPad's wifi settings to connect.

 

[B737]

if the hang up is on the ipod side... does anyone here know if there is a jailbreak tweak i can do the ipod to resolve this?

 

[bransoj]

Can the iPod be updated to iOS8? Only because i thought there was the new instant hotspot thing in iOS8 that may do this? I sometimes use my hotspot with my iPad and last time i did i must have left it on because the other week after my wife finally updated her 5S, which is on the same iTunes account as my iPhone and iPad, to iOS8 we were sat in the pub and her phone connected to the hotspot my phone was giving out and started using it without her manually connecting to it.

**Edit**
Scrap that...just checked and the iPod cant use iOS8!

 

[B737]

Can the iPod be updated to iOS8? Only because i thought there was the new instant hotspot thing in iOS8 that may do this? I sometimes use my hotspot with my iPad and last time i did i must have left it on because the other week after my wife finally updated her 5S, which is on the same iTunes account as my iPhone and iPad, to iOS8 we were sat in the pub and her phone connected to the hotspot my phone was giving out and started using it without her manually connecting to it.

**Edit**
Scrap that...just checked and the iPod cant use iOS8!

its a 4th gen touch, i think the max i can update it to is 6.1.6...
you bring up a good point though... maybe i can swap it out with an old iphone.

can anyone tell me if i swapped the iPod touch out with an old iphone if that would work without 'touching anything'...

 

[BrettDS]

can anyone tell me if i swapped the iPod touch out with an old iphone if that would work without 'touching anything'...

If you had data service on the phone it would work, but I'm guessing that wasn't your plan.

I'm not sure about a jailbreak option, but the stock personal hotspot feature will need some interaction no matter what type of device you use.

 

[bransoj]

I'm not sure about a jailbreak option, but the stock personal hotspot feature will need some interaction no matter what type of device you use.

See my previous post....if both devices are on the same iTunes account and running iOS8 i think it will be possible.

As mentioned my wifes 5S instantly connected to my iPhone without us doing anything which is the point of the Instant Hotspot option.

http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT6337

 

[chabig]

From your link, "To get Internet access from your iPhone:
On your iPad or iPod touch, go to Settings > Wi-Fi on your other iOS device and select your iPhone or iPad that has a cellular connection."

I don't know why your wife's phone would have connected by itself but even the link you posted says it must be done manually from wifi settings. That makes sense because the phone doesn't broadcast a hotspot all the time. It only acts as a hotspot when another device wants to connect to it. You can tell by the blue banner at the top of the screen when it's a hotspot and when it's not.

 

[BrettDS]

See my previous post....if both devices are on the same iTunes account and running iOS8 i think it will be possible.



As mentioned my wifes 5S instantly connected to my iPhone without us doing anything which is the point of the Instant Hotspot option.



http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT6337

I can't explain why your wife's phone connected by itself, but as the pp said, all the links from apple says that it requires interaction, as did my extensive testing with my ipad and iPhone which are using the same apple id.

 

[bransoj]

No idea but it definitely did as i had the blue bar at the top of my phone and hers was showing the wifi icon and on checking it was connected to "Jon's iPhone" without either of us doing anything.

I've since turned hotspot off to prevent it happening again by accident but will turn it back on and see if it does it again.

----------

From here :-
http://9to5mac.com/2014/10/26/yosemite-ios-8-how-to-set-up-and-use-instant-hotspot/

Unless i'm reading this wrong it appears that once you've joined it once it remembers it and connects automatically the next time you dont have wifi. Now this is using a macbook and a phone as an example so not sure if thats different from iphone to iphone.

When you join the Wi-Fi network on your Mac, iPad or iPod Touch, the name of your phone will be listed automatically. All you have to do is join it. When you aren’t using your phone’s hotspot, your device will disconnect automatically to save battery life. Your device will remember the fact that you used your phone’s hotspot and the next time you want to go online when you do not have Wi-Fi, it automatically rejoins the hotspot.

 

[B737]

update. thanks for helping me along guys.

i lucked out....

if i leave the ipod wifi to ON. and leave my personal hotspot to ON. when i get in my truck the ipod will connect to my phone all by itself after just a few minutes.

unfortunately toyota Entune sucks and the truck cant figure out where to pull data from if i have my phone over BT and the ipod in the USB (even tethered) lol

 

[thekb]

the short version:
can a device (with proper credentials) connect automatically to an iphone's hotspot, if the hotspot is ON, and the phone is asleep, or just at the home screen. ie; without opening the hotspot control settings window on the iphone..


the tldr version:
i want to stash my ipod touch into my glove box to feed data to my headunit in my car and serve music. i want the ipod touch to automatically connect to my phone's hotspot without having to fuss with anything like open the settings app on my phone, or open the wifi settings on the ipod touch. the iphone is a 6 with ios 8+, and the touch is a 4th gen with ios 6

I do not think tldr means what you think it means.

 

[Vundu]

Nothing can connect to my iphone if the screen is off when the hotspot is on. I always have to wake my iphone up then it connects instantly.

 

[chabig]

Bottom line - the hotspot is never on unless something is connected to it.