Instant Hotspot Feature No Show in Wifi Menu

[kage207]

So... that worked for me. Going to Settings -> General -> About -> Name and changing it to match exactly of my MBA makes it work. Though for some reason it still shows my iPhone's old name...

 

[lazarusr]

Finally seem to have got it all working as it is supposed to. Not just instant hotspot but also all the other continuity/hand-off features - with everything named as it should be. The final step seemed to be to logout of iCloud and back in again. But it was far too much hard work and unlikely to be achieved by the millions of users who don't scour forums for hints and tips.

 

[MacDawg]

Finally seem to have got it all working as it is supposed to. Not just instant hotspot but also all the other continuity/hand-off features - with everything named as it should be. The final step seemed to be to logout of iCloud and back in again. But it was far too much hard work and unlikely to be achieved by the millions of users who don't scour forums for hints and tips.

Yep, I was able to get is all set up too finally
My final step was logging out of iCloud on the Mac and signing back in

 

[newellj]

Finally seem to have got it all working as it is supposed to. Not just instant hotspot but also all the other continuity/hand-off features - with everything named as it should be. The final step seemed to be to logout of iCloud and back in again. But it was far too much hard work and unlikely to be achieved by the millions of users who don't scour forums for hints and tips.

Yep, I was able to get is all set up too finally
My final step was logging out of iCloud on the Mac and signing back in

Same here. Logging out then back in fixed this.

 

[nobodyjustwalks]

I have a question regarding instant hotspot between one iphone to another:

It is buggy to say the least, with the phone sometimes showing up in the wifi screen, sometimes not.

Does instant hotspot give the ability to reconnect automatically after disconnecting? Say I don't use the iPhone for half and hour, and then when I turn it on, it does not automatically reconnect to the other iphone hotspot. My understanding is that the usage of bluetooth should enable this function. What I now have to do all the time is go to the wifi screen and select the hotspot again.

Any advice or experience on this matter from anyone is greatly appreciated.

As Tim mentioned above in his post, there is a delay between toggling off Instant Hotspot, to when it actually shuts off. I think it was less than 30 minutes. Myself, I havenʻt tried it yet, but Iʻve noticed that when choosing "disconnect" vs my home wifi network again (letʻs say Iʻm using my Mac to connect to my iPhoneʻs Hotspot) there is a delay in shutting off the connection. I havenʻt timed it, but I also did notice that I could once again connect to the iPhone because the connection hadnʻt shut off yet.


NOT AGAIN! >>> Darn it TMobile! Carrier update from 18.0 to 18.1 bricked my Instant Hotspot feature. Was working perfectly yesterday. Sigh...
Anyone else with carrier update 18.1 notice that your Mac wonʻt connect to your iPhone? It shows up in Personal Hotspot, just wonʻt connect.


EDIT >>> It seems that allowing my iPad to connect with my iPhone through Instant Hotspot did something behind the scenes, and now my Mac is able to connect again. For now...haha..

 

[newellj]

OK, I take it back...stopped working, and signing in/out did NOT fix it this time...

 

[HotIce]

Your phone and Mac don't have to be paired together via bluetooth, do they? Bluetooth just has to be on?

 

[tklein]

Just on (on both devices obviously).

I mentioned this before but it may have been lost in all the discussion but turning Bluetooth off seems to be a bit of an issue. If Bluetooth is off on my phone, turning it on doesn't always result in the phone showing up quickly in the wifi menu. I think this may be the flaw in this whole mess. As long as I keep Bluetooth on on all my devices, I'm not having any issues any more.

---
Tim

 

[newellj]

No trouble with my iPad. I have two iPhone 6 phones (work, personal) and the Mac seems to get confused between the two.

 

[J4B3]

Has anybody been able to figure this out yet? I've tried power cycling, logging in/out, toggling on/off; and while I can connect to the personal hotspot manually. I can't get the 'Instant Hotspot' to work (i.e. doesn't show signal and battery strength in the WiFi menu).

Using iPhone 6+ and rMBP all on latest software updates.

...Maybe it's just a bug that will be fixed with the next software patch.

 

[tklein]

Has anybody been able to figure this out yet? I've tried power cycling, logging in/out, toggling on/off; and while I can connect to the personal hotspot manually. I can't get the 'Instant Hotspot' to work (i.e. doesn't show signal and battery strength in the WiFi menu).

Using iPhone 6+ and rMBP all on latest software updates.

...Maybe it's just a bug that will be fixed with the next software patch.

Yes... after all the trouble I had the other day, I'm completely fine now. The only time I have trouble is if I shut off bluetooth on a device; My phone won't reliably show back up on the Personal Hotspot section of the menu. Luckily for me, I have a desktop headset, car handsfree, etc. so I leave Bluetooth on all the time. Same for my iPad because I regularly use a wireless keyboard.

I'm really convinced (at least in my case, on my systems) the glitch is in the Bluetooth implementation piece of this. To re-recognize devices after I turn off Bluetooth, I have to restart one or more devices. It appears to me that the way Bluetooth is used in this feature, the devices don't necessarily re-poll for devices very frequently (or maybe at all). As long as a device is restarting, coming out of sleep, etc., everything seems fine. It's actually quite handy.

(Just my observations on my systems, the way I use them. i.e. Bluetooth always on on all devices. MacBook never shut off, just sleeping following lid close. iPad and iPhone going into screensaver mode following non-use for a while).

About the only other complaint I have is that instant hotspot doesn't shut off personal hotspot right away like it did on 8.0.2 between my iPad and iPhone. I'm not 100% certain if it's shutting it down at all or if it's on a timed delay. I have other wireless networks in the area I'm working and I can't tell if it's a timed shutoff (maybe a minute or so), or if it's shutting itself down when my iPhone starts searching for other wifi networks to log into. I'd really have it work the way it did before where it directly shut down personal hotspot as soon as you disconnected.

---
Tim

 

[aliensporebomb]

Shrug

I don't even get the option to switch to instant hotspot but then again I'm not paying for it from my carrier.

And since my phone is tied to my workplace and I have a monthly reimbursement limit I can't really turn it on without going over the limit.

Grumble. "Yosemite: the OS with a bunch of features you really want but can't use because your Mac is too old or your carrier is tied to policies that make them lots of money at your expense."

 

[MacRumore]

Hello,

This worked for me:

• Pair computer & iPhone via Bluetooth
• Computer: Turn off Wi-Fi
• Computer: Go to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Wi-Fi > Remove the old iPhone connection from the list
• Computer: Connect to iPhone via Bluetooth menu
• Computer: Turn on Wi-Fi (now my Hotspot menu was active).

Hope that helps.

 

[newellj]

I don't even get the option to switch to instant hotspot but then again I'm not paying for it from my carrier.

And since my phone is tied to my workplace and I have a monthly reimbursement limit I can't really turn it on without going over the limit.

Grumble. "Yosemite: the OS with a bunch of features you really want but can't use because your Mac is too old or your carrier is tied to policies that make them lots of money at your expense."

There's nothing to switch on, just make sure that Personal Hotspot isn't turned on and that BT is turned on with the iPhone and Mac. If Personal Hotspot doesn't work on your carrier, Instant Hotspot might not, either, but that's your carrier's fault, not Apple's. Given what my carrier charges for data, I'd have to have my back against the wall before I tried to do anything using my Mac connected to the internet via my phone's hotspot feature.

 

[Limppe]

Well, I had same problems to get the instant hotspot to work in my MBP retina.
Yesterday S5 did tether to my iPadAir and vice versa but not to the MBP.

Today when I started up the MBP, voila! There they are in the wifi menu; iPad Air and iPhone!

The new Yosemite had to boot properly once more to get this feature to work.

 

[Lucifer666]

I also had trouble. iPhone didn't show in the Wifi dropdown.

I then logged out/backon to iCloud on Mac and now it works (thanks to posters here!).

BTW, very cool stuff this

 

[HotIce]

I've tried rebooting, restarting, and all that jazz. Won't work. I also can't pair my iPhone to my laptop.

 

[anthonyondre]

Just wondering if anyone else is having trouble with the Instant Hotspot feature. I have T-Mobile, do have hotspot as part of my plan, have both wifi and bluetooth on, am signed in to the same iCloud account.

Lastly, I tried using the feature with Personal Hotspot both set to "on" and "off"....and nothing. Still donʻt see my phone in my Wifi drop down menu.

Suggestions?? Thanks!

It worked great under Yosemite and iOS 8 betas. It was a "wow, how cool" pleasant surprise. Now under the release, it is DOA. This is a problem with Apple's sloppy code. Once upon a time Apple produced the tightest code in the industry. Then the UNIX hacks from NeXT came over and well...

 

[Zimmy68]

When I got my new Air 2, of course my phone never showed up in the Instant Hotspot list.

I tried everything so I am not sure what was the thing that made it work.

But if you are having issues, put both devices next to each other and on both...

- Reboot (hold sleep and home)
- Change the name
- Reset Network Settings

and finally, I think this worked for me but is the biggest pain...

Log out of iCloud and re-logon.

What a PITA, you have to turn off Find my Phone, you lose all your Apple Pay cards and have to re-setup. You have to resetup your backup if you made adjustments, my contacts always seem to duplicate...

Anyway, good luck.

 

[Lucifer666]

First it didn't work, so I logged out of iCloud and back in and it then worked.

Now it doesn't work again.

So what am I suppose to do?

I'll tell you what i'm going to do. I'm going to forget about it so I don't pull anymore hair out.

Problem solved

After all, all you need to do is turn on Hotspot. (a pretty decent workaround for this crapolla)

Anyway, i've seen this sort of thing before. It's called: "Worthless Garbage".

 

[stylinexpat]

I have found this to be a problem as well. I have a new MBP 13" Retina, an iPad Mini Retina and a new iPhone 6. Most of the times when I turn on Hotspot from either my iPhone 6 or my iPad I do not see the listing show up on my MBP 13" Retina and when I do it from my iPhone 6 to my iPad I also have the same problem. I believe this is either a hardware problem or software problem. When I use my Samsung Note 3 or HTC ONE it shows up in my Wifi list. I believe there are some wifi issues here. I use unlocked sim cards in Asia and all devices are unlocked.

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.

 

[peroddmund]

Cell service might affect instant personal hotspot

I was having the same problem, and was trying a lot to make it work. Turning on and off the phone/ipad and mac, wifi and bluetooth.

I noticed something tho, it was briefly working on my mac while my phone was in the living room, but when I brought my phone to the home office, it didn't work again. So I brought my phone back to the living room and instantly it showed up on my iPad and on my mac while I was in the home office.

I noticed the service on my phone went from 1 bar (dot I guess) to 3 bars (dots) when I brought it to the living room, maybe the system discards low service for reliable service? although it would be better if the device showed up, but with a message stating that the service was low...

 

[teddyc]

Okay so Iʻve got this thing working:

1. You need to have the Personal Hotspot feature as part of your cellphone plan. I do with T-Mobile.

2. Donʻt know why, but I had to toggle my iPhone and rMBP Wifi "ON" and "OFF" a few times to get things going. Instant Hotspot finally started working after power-cycling my iPhone and reactivating Wifi and Bluetooth.

3. Yes, Wifi and Bluetooth both need to be enabled for Instant Hotspot to work.

4. Make sure Wifi and Bluetooth are both "ON," but Personal Hotspot is "OFF." Donʻt try to use the Instant Hotspot feature with Personal Hotspot set to "ON" on your iPhone. It seems, Instant Hotspot is made to work, only if Personal Hotspot is set to "OFF." Explanation at the bottom of my post.

5. This is the lucky part I guess, but if you have the right hardware and nothing else is "bugging" out. If you look in your Wifi drop-down menu you will see a section directly below "Turn Wifi On/Off" labeled: Personal Hotspot.

6. As weʻve all seen, this section will display "____name___iPhone" then off to the right, signal strength indicator dots, LTE, battery display, circular links (representing hotspot).

7. Choose your iPhone from the Personal Hotspot section in your Wifi drop-down menu.

8. Hopefully if all goes well, your Mac should connect to your iPhone.

9. Key step for me was, I think, power-cycling my iPhone "OFF" and "ON" after the update. Go figure...

Interesting Observations >>>

I noticed that, now, if I go into Settings > Personal Hotspot, and attempt to toggle Personal Hotspot "ON," it immediately turns Wifi "OFF" on the iPhone. Iʻm assuming that since both the iPhone and MBP are communicating with each other via Bluetooth, that the iPhone defaults to shutting down Wifi on the iPhone as this is how the Instant Hotspot feature is supposed to work.

If you turn "OFF" Bluetooth on both your iPhone and Mac, then youʻll once again be able to toggle Personal Hotspot "ON" and "OFF" on your iPhone. And then of course youʻll see it show up normally in your Wifi drop-down, along with any other Wifi networks your Mac detects.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much for posting this. Worked for me, and solved a long-standing vexation.

Maybe the reason this is so confusing is that Apple is mid-stream with making Personal Hotspot truly seamless. In other words, if a user has the newish equipment required to take advantage of it, Personal Hotspot doesn't even need to be turned on. But if a user has older equipment, the there needs to be a toggle. Like many other users, it seems, I was turning on Personal Hotspot as in the old days, trying to connect via WiFi, failing, toggling the @#$%@%^ thing on and off several times, etc. I like to think the option to fall into in this hole will eventually disappear, and it will happen automatically for everyone as promised.

 

[fanta]

I was able to solve my problem too: my hotspot was only showing on the mac when i unlocked my phone and entered the Hotspot settings window. Connecting to the hotspot was no problem then. But it would not show the hotspot if i was not in the settings window

What solved it for me was a missing bluetooth pairing. I just paired my mac with my phone again and now i always see the hotspot in the WIFI menu, even if my phone was locked.