Instant Hotspot issue

[garethjs]

I get Instant Hotspot sporadically disappear and I rely on it quite a bit for my iPad so its becoming quite painful.

Im using an esim and the hotspot works if I manually turn it on.

However normal behaviour would allow my iPhone to appear on my MacBook and iPad in the wifi drop down list as a personal hotspot and allow me to connect automatically without having to enable hotspot on my iPhone first

I have my iPad setup in this manner too where it automatically connects to it.

However nowadays the phone doesn't broadcast the hotspot availability on its own. At random times it magically works. But then if I reboot my iPhone the feature disappears again.

Through some testing Ive found that if I leave my phone off for a couple of hours and then turn it back on the feature works.

But for instance a software update comes out and I install it and the phone reboots, the feature stops working.

I have no idea if this is an esim specific issue or what not but its definitely not my provider as I can enable manual hotspot.

I have tried resetting my providers tethering APN but no go...

Also I understand this relies on hands-off to work reliably and in my case it works perfectly for anything that needs to be handed off so its possibly not that too.

 

[0128672]

I wonder whether it might be your eSim, although I don’t know much about them. I don’t have an eSim, and I’ve been using my iPhone xR’s personal hotspot for my mac (and iPad before switching to a cellular iPad), and it worked the way it’s supposed to without touching anything on my phone. I do find that having the phone in the same room helps with its availability being displayed.

 

[iammike1]

Back from the dead thread! Having the same exact issue as you OP and also on eSim. Did you ever find any resolution? This is driving me mad!

 

[garethjs]

Hi! The only way to get it working is to go settings, mobile, turn off "turn on this line" and then turn it back on. Instantly hotspot works. I don't know of any other fix however I believe this only happens if you wipe your iPhone and do not remove "cellular plan" and then re-set up your iPhone. Thats what I did in my case

So you have one more option that I can't be bothered trying until the next iPhone comes out but you may want too.

Remove your esim, see your provider and re-add the esim by scanning the QR code again.

 

[iammike1]

I actually found a solution late last night...and it's a strange one to be sure. It's a solution I found from way back in 13.1 and it does have similarities to yours.

My main line has been on eSim for awhile but people were saying you either had to move your line back to regular Sim or put a dummy sim in.

So I found an old Sim card that's been deactivated forever, put it in and not 5 seconds later, Instant Hotspot showed up on my Mac. Checked iPad, there too. Turned the physical dummy sim off and it's still been working since.

Weird, but so far it's worked. Didn't even require me to reboot the phone.

 

[cynics]

You may have done all this stuff so forgive me, not trying to make you sound like an idiot just covering all the basics. However what works for me because I had some issues a year or so ago similar to yours is I need to have Hotspot on the iPhone set to OFF. If its set to on it gets flakey on me for someone reason....maybe a fluke but instant hotspot doesn't require you turning on mobile hotspot. Anyway...

Instant Hotspot is a continuity service function. So you will need both devices to be eligible for and set up properly for continuity. Both devices will need bluetooth and wifi turned on, both devices will need to be signed into the same iCloud account.

With dual sim you will need the plan with the hotspot set as the the 'primary' data plan.

Finally both devices will need to be in somewhat close proximity. And I recommend unlocking the iPhone to wake it up although I know you shouldn't need too.

On a more technical level the way Instant Hotspot works is every time an iCloud devices scans wifi or the wifi menu is opened and a scan is forced the receiving device (the one that just scanned) immediately broadcast a 'Tethering Target Presence' message via Bluetooth. In response, your iCloud devices capable of supplying an internet connection responds with a 'Tethering Target Source' message message via bluetooth along with some other data (battery life, cell reception). That information should populate in the Wifi menu and when you click on it the security is negotiated via iCloud and Bluetooth and a wifi hotspot is established.

If none of that works to continue the diagnostic, open the wifi menu in the iPad and let it sit there for a minute or two. If nothing, then open the wifi menu on the iPhone and let it sit there for a minute. Just to see if there is a syncing delay.

Good luck!

 

[garethjs]

I think i might have found a fix

So apart from instant hotspot not working, my intercom use to fail at random times

Strangely enough it would over wifi just not on cellular

So i went into settings, mobile, mobile data options, switched 5G from auto to ON and then back to 5G auto

Now instant hotspot and intercom works too

 

[iammike1]

Honestly, mine has never failed again since my fix above. Dummy sim in the sim tray and turned off under Cellular.

 

[SeattleMatt]

I believe this is a feature that Apple has created. In my case unless you have iCloud connected with your devices the Wi-Fi SS ID will stop broadcasting after you disconnect. Why Apple can’t just let the hotspot run normally like a standard Wi-Fi hotspot is a mystery to me. Likely because they want you to join the iCloud with all your devices.