My new iPhone 12 Pro, connected to T-Mobile gets respectable speed test results in the iOS app, but it gets appallingly slow results when I connect a MacOS device to it through personal hotspot. In the menubar Network Preferences, I see the iPhone 12 Pro as a device, but it says "No Service" next to the battery indicator. I believe I have it set up properly and would often do so with the last two or three iPhones I have owned without an issue. Is there something screwy that I brought over in network settings from my iPhone 11 Pro?
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iPhone 12 Pro very slow personal hotspot
- Thread starter dmfresco
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Same here...my 12 Pro is getting 600+ Mbps on 5G but my MacBook and iPad Pro get <1 Mbps with Personal Hotspot. I know the 12 is the first iPhone capable of connecting to other devices over 5 Ghz WiFi, so I'm assuming it has something to do with that.
I am getting the same speed through VZW that I get on my phone and through my iMac connected with hotspot. 70 Mbps on the phone and same on my iMac when doing a speed test. Make sure in the hotspot setting on iPhone that maximize Compatibility is turned off. If that doesnt work set your cellular connection from 5G auto to LTE. BTW I copied everything from my 11 Pro to my 12 pro including settings, so that should not be an issue.
I just had the thought to see if forcing my phone into LTE would make it a better hotspot. In LTE, it performed poorly 0.57 Mbps down and up. 5G On was even worse 0.18/0.47. On my iPhone 11 Pro, tethering with LTE was actually pretty good! I don't recall the speed test scores, but it felt sufficiently fast to do most email and browsing activities. Kinda frustrating and would be more frustrating if I relied on tethering. BTW, the speed test iOS app rates my 5G as 166 down/56 up.
The problems may not be specific to the phone model. I’m on a XS max and I can’t even connect my Mac or iPad to my WiFi hotspot on the phone. I can using Bluetooth but not WiFi. I see the hotspot in the WiFi options on my Mac and iPad but the connection always fails. In Apple’s simplicity, it never says what failed.
This seems common. We have two iPhone 12 Pro Max's both have the same Hotspot problem. 50+Mbps on phones, 1.0 - on hotspots. Tried laptop, and two iPads. Same. Tried restricting Hotspot to LTE, Compatibility On/Off, Tried different locations. All same result.
Called T-Mobile and got transferred to a good technician who discussed the local cell towers capability, one is 5G/LTE and other is just LTE. LTE is being repaired so he suggested that was the problem and to wait till it was fixed. However that does not explain why it was the same at the T-Mobile store in the local city. Different Cell towers there.
I called Apple and their response, "Not our problem, it's a cellular problem". Same response when I argued, politely, that if the phone was seeing 50Mbps but only outputting 0.5Mbps then it could be an Apple problem.
Other fixes I tried. Resetting the phone, (volume down, volume up, hold power button down until Apple logo appears), at instruction of T-Mobile. Restarting both phones and iPads.
So I am unsure who else to try. I will recall T-Mobile when I get an hour free! Meanwhile I hope someone else finds a solution and posts it as I will if I find one.
On the good side the phones 5G performance is better than I expected, My iPhone 10 on LTE was 22Mbps, Wifes iPhone XS MAx was 29, iPhone 12 Pro on LTE is 33 and on 5G is 53Mbps. All the average of eight download test on Speedtest.Net. I have seen a max of 166Mbps on the 5G.
Today I am getting the T-Mobile Home Internet Modem delivered. That will keep me distracted from this problem. Will be interesting to see what speed that gets.
Called T-Mobile and got transferred to a good technician who discussed the local cell towers capability, one is 5G/LTE and other is just LTE. LTE is being repaired so he suggested that was the problem and to wait till it was fixed. However that does not explain why it was the same at the T-Mobile store in the local city. Different Cell towers there.
I called Apple and their response, "Not our problem, it's a cellular problem". Same response when I argued, politely, that if the phone was seeing 50Mbps but only outputting 0.5Mbps then it could be an Apple problem.
Other fixes I tried. Resetting the phone, (volume down, volume up, hold power button down until Apple logo appears), at instruction of T-Mobile. Restarting both phones and iPads.
So I am unsure who else to try. I will recall T-Mobile when I get an hour free! Meanwhile I hope someone else finds a solution and posts it as I will if I find one.
On the good side the phones 5G performance is better than I expected, My iPhone 10 on LTE was 22Mbps, Wifes iPhone XS MAx was 29, iPhone 12 Pro on LTE is 33 and on 5G is 53Mbps. All the average of eight download test on Speedtest.Net. I have seen a max of 166Mbps on the 5G.
Today I am getting the T-Mobile Home Internet Modem delivered. That will keep me distracted from this problem. Will be interesting to see what speed that gets.
I had the same issue and found a fix. You mentioned you had T-Mobile which I also have and also had the same issues. I found out the bottleneck was due to my data plan. While “unlimited high-speed hotspot” was included, a clause stated that for hotspots, it limited me to 3G connections. I had to upgrade my plan temporarily in order to get whatever G my phone was actually connected to (5G UC at the time). After temporarily upgrading my plan, rebooting my phone and reconnecting my MacBook to my phone I was getting Gigabit duplex speeds (previously was megabit speeds!)
TL;DR: if you have T-Mobile and slow hotspot speeds but fast data speeds, you may need to upgrade your data plan temporarily.
TL;DR: if you have T-Mobile and slow hotspot speeds but fast data speeds, you may need to upgrade your data plan temporarily.
I've encountered the same thing with my iPhone XS and all devices that I'm trying to tether it to.
Speedtest on the phone gives around 180 down/25 up/23 msec ping.
Speedtest when using the personal hotspot gives 0.26 down/0.10 up/244 msec ping.
Interestingly, Speedtest on the Mac when the iPhone is connected to the USB-C:
166/5.46/25 (almost at full speed).
My workaround for other devices is to tether via USB-C and share my MBP's internet via Wi-Fi.
Speedtest on the phone gives around 180 down/25 up/23 msec ping.
Speedtest when using the personal hotspot gives 0.26 down/0.10 up/244 msec ping.
Interestingly, Speedtest on the Mac when the iPhone is connected to the USB-C:
166/5.46/25 (almost at full speed).
My workaround for other devices is to tether via USB-C and share my MBP's internet via Wi-Fi.